Cannondale is introducing an all-new 100% compostable bottle as an alternative to the plastic bottles typically used in the World Tour peloton.
Beginning with this year’s Giro de Italia, Cannondale’s World Tour Pro Road Men’s team, EF Education-EasyPost, will use 100% compostable bottles. That’s right — these babies will not load up landfills or float around forever in waterways. Cannondale’s new bottles will decompose.
The Women’s EF Education-TIBCO-SVB team will also begin using the 100% compostable bottles this year at the Itzulia Women Stage Race.
“Minimizing our environmental footprint involves understanding what our impacts are and where they occur,” said a representative for Cannondale.
GearJunkie is happy to report that Cannondale is forging a path for a more conscientious and eco-friendly cycling world. By implementing sustainable solutions and biodegradable materials, Cannondale aims to replace what are often single-use, toss-away bottles.
According to Cannondale, the professional peloton uses 630,000 bottles per year. Seventy-thousand of those come from the Grand Tour alone. The EF Education-EasyPost men’s team and the EF Education-TIBCO-SVB women’s team use 34,000 bottles each year. That is a lot of plastic waste pollution.
Cannondale 100% Compostable Bottles
Cannondale makes the new 100% compostable bottles from plant-derived materials. The bite valve, cap, and bottle body are all completely compostable and free of plasticizers, heavy metals, and BPAs. So this bottle is better for the environment and healthier for people drinking from it.
But Do They Really Decompose?
According to Cannondale, these new bottles will decompose within 3 months in an industrial compost system once exposed to micro-organisms, heat, and humidity.
This claim is certified by European Compost Standards EN13242. Without an industrial compost system, as in a homemade compost bin, the bottles should decompose within 10-12 months.
Unfortunately, the compostable bottles will not yet be available for public consumer purchase. But this is a massive step toward sustainable professional road cycling.
Cannondale said it will launch this bottle innovation during the entire 2023 World Tour season and beyond. The company points out that most water bottles in professional cycling get one use and are then discarded. The water bottles are commonly flung roadside in designated feed zones during a race and are not reused for hygiene reasons.
Global Director of Sports Marketing for Cannondale, Jonathan Geran, explained:
The Cannondale Compostable Bottle was born out of our brand mission to disrupt the status quo through innovation. In launching this bottle with our World Tour team partners, we’re able to take one unified step towards a more sustainable future in the global ecosystem while inspiring ideas for more eco-friendly practices in the pro peloton.
Former Pro Tour rider and current gravel rider Ted King added:
It’s amazing the trail of trash left behind from the World Tour. In the ever-needy demand for new, new, there’s a heck of a lot of single-use plastics in cycling’s wake. So something like Cannondale’s new bottle is a massive step toward creating the change we need for a sustainable future. There have been “biodegradable” bottles for nearly a decade — well back to my time in the World Tour — now we recognize they were largely bunk. This is an entirely new take on making a truly compostable bottle, and it’s my understanding that there are zero plastics as part of it.
Let’s hope Cannondale is setting a new sustainability standard that spreads through the pro peloton.
