Eastman Chemical Co.received the Sustainable Consumer Product Award for the KOR ONE refillablebottle at the InternationalPlastics Design Competition, co-sponsored by Design News. Results wereannounced last night at the National Plastics Exposition in Chicago.

The KOR ONE has a one-handedlid hatch system that permits easy opening and closing, a hinged cap that staysopen during drinking and is leak-proof. One of the goals of the new design isto reduce plastic bottle waste going into landfills.

The bottle is made fromEastman's Tritan copolyester, which was launched in 2007. Tritan is alsowinning environmental kudos because it is free of bisphenol-A, one of thechemicals contained in polycarbonate. Another feature of Tritan is its abilityto withstand stress cracking in multiple dishwasher cycles.

Referring to theenvironmental issues confronting the bottle water market, Eric Barnes, founderof KOR and creator of KOR ONE, says, "We call it 'The Perfect Storm.' We don'thave specific data but we know the reusable bottle market is growing rapidlybecause of consumer awareness of what's going on in the media."

The KOR ONE design resultsin part from an unusual outreach Eastman has made to the industrial designcommunity launched by Eastman marketer Gaylon White, who established Web-basedand face-to-face educational meetings with industrial designers. "We startedwith the idea that industrial designers do not have a lot of familiarity withspecific plastics, and may not have engineering backgrounds," he says.

When Barnes learned ofEastman Tritan copolyester, he delayed the timing for the KOR ONE introduction sohe could use the BPA-free material. The KOR ONE bottles are molded by Nypro ata plant in Monterrey, Mexico.

In a more recentdevelopment, Key Baby, LLC, a producer of infant care products, introduced anew line of baby bottles and sippy cups using Tritan EX401 copolyester in aninjection stretch blow molding process to make baby bottles. As a result of thenew processing approach, no secondary annealing step is required, savingenergy.

Following is the full listof winners:

Commercial ProductCategory Awards

Furniture: BASF for the Embody Chair

Automotive/Transportation: Inergy Automotive for the Twin Sheet Blow MoldedAutomotive Fuel System

Lawn &Garden/Agriculture: Steinwall Inc.for the Seed Tube

Industrial/Military: FPM Tooling and Automation for the WaterBrickContainer

Medical: Hospira Inc.for the  iSecure Syringe

Recreation & Leisure: Durham Boat Co. for the  Competition Oar

Retail: Bemis Manufacturing Co. for the Target All-PlasticShopping Cart

Packaging & MaterialsHandling: Sosa Tech Advisors forthe High-Impact Plastic Pallet

Overall Awards

Single Part Award: Indesca, C.A. for the Rotomolded SchoolDesk

Judges' Award: Bulk Molding Compounds, Inc. (BMCI) for theThermoset Food Service Platter

SustainablePart/Component Award: FPM Toolingand Automation for the WaterBrick Container

Sustainable ConsumerProduct Award: Eastman Chemical Co.for the  KOR ONE Bottle

Marquis Awards

People's Choice Award: Excelec & CIA LTDA for the   Prepaid EnergyMeter

11th Annual IDSA/PlasticsNews Design Award: Hospira Inc. forthe: iSecure Syringe

Innovations in PlasticsAward: Inergy Automotive forthe Twin Sheet Blow Molded Automotive Fuel System

KOR ONE bottle A