Horner’s 100% plant based water bottle to launch nationally

On March 8 in the meeting room at the University of Maryland coffee shop, Single Use Solutions of Red Oak will nationally launch its SOLU water bottles and caps. The guest speaker at the Launching  will be Boyd Rutherford, Maryland’s lieutenant governor from 2015-2023.
This will be Red Oak resident Bill Horner’s platform for introducing the use of plant-based bottles in “closed- loop” venues and growing the company not only in the United States, but also beyond.
 “Almost every event in my life has been a once-in-a-lifetime deal,” said Horner. “On the other side of the coin, I’ve probably had more dark alleys than those with lights shining on them. When you are trying to create something brand new that has never been done before, there is no set formula.”
 Horner explained the launch date of March 8 is because that is also USDA’s  National Biobased Products Day.  It recognizes the 20 year trek of the development of the Bio Preferred Label that was actually introduced in a Farm Bill many years ago by Senator Tom Harkin.
“We were going to hold the Symposiam at a fancy schmancy $500 per night hotel, but that is not us. We decided on a free meeting room at a coffee shop at The University of Maryland-Baltimore” said Horner. “The general public knows very little about this type of bottle and what potential it has to reduce single-use plastic.”
 An environmentally friendly bottle isn’t new to Horner. In 2003, Horner started Naturally Iowa in Clarinda. Naturally Iowa was an organic dairy processing plant where the first Polylactic Acid (PLA) milk bottles were pioneered.
Horner joined Tulsa-based businessmen in 2010, and the company name was changed to Totally Green, Inc. Two years later, as a way to better target the growing market for plant-based bottles, Totally Green Bottles and Caps, LLC, was created.
“The bottle was the easier part. There are probably over a dozen companies in the world that can make a bottle; but only one of those can make the cap. That’s the part we just figured out.”
Instead of taking the concept to the retail public, Horner said he is expanding only in “closed loop” venues like universities, sports stadiums, and hospitals first.
“Placing the bottles into closed-loops is the key,” said Horner.
 Offering the bottles in closed loop environments additionally assists the company in its “consume/collect initiative. The blue and white (clear) bottles of water sold only on specific premises will be collected and recycled. Institutions who sign up for the program will be assisted by Single Use Solutions as they collect at least 84% of the bottles, and the collected bottles will be ground up and recycled into more bottles or even something cooler.
“Our bottle can be made into 3D filament right straight away and that is what we are recommending. End of use is everything,” Horner said.
 Horner said they plan on having around 12 closed loop sites this year to demonstrate the concept and will continue to expand in the following years.
“The other guys who put the bottles on retail shelves in the mid 2000s, went bankrupt because of how they marketed it,” Horner said. “I’ve been sitting on this project for years, and every year I think, this is surely our year!”
Years down the road, Horner has even more plans for their bio-based bottle, but he’s not ready to share his idea just yet.
“All we are as a company are people who don’t give up. I can’t tell you how many times we should have given up, but we are in a good spot right now.”  There is even a new documentary movie released  this month called “Plastic Planet”, and Single Use Solutions got a chance to be one of the examples of success in the movie in reducing plastic on the Earth.
There is more information about this Red Oak company at: single-use-solutions.com.