Behind the Bottle

What does BiPunt mean?

BiPunt combines the Basque word for “two” (bi) with the punt — the small dent in the bottom of every bottle. “Taking a punt” is also an old British expression for having a go at something with no guarantee it will work. Put together, it's a nod to second chances, and to the idea that an object's story doesn't have to end when its original purpose does.

A second punt, not just a second melt

Recycling glass sounds simple, but it has a cost. Every recycled bottle goes back into a furnace burning at 1,500–1,700 °C — hotter than lava — to be melted down and poured into… another bottle, much like the one before. Melting a single kilogram of glass this way takes around 1 kWh of energy and releases about 0.75 kg of CO₂.

Upcycling skips the furnace entirely. Instead of melting a bottle down to make an identical one, it's cut, sanded, and shaped into something it was never meant to be — no re-melting, no new raw material, no repeat of the same object.

The result holds up, too: bottle glass is thick and dense, built to survive being dropped, refilled, and passed around — so every piece is as durable as it is unique.