Boxed Water is Better, a new company describing itself as “Part sustainable water company, part art project, part philanthropic project, and completely curious” has begun distributing their water in the Michigan area. The philanthropic part of the business is in their plan to donate 20% of their profits to charities, split evenly between reforestation projects and water relief projects. Generally their goal is to replace water bottles, by using a material (paper) that is not derived from oil (as plastic bottles are), and which can be recycled everywhere; They claim the additional benefits of being able to ship the boxes flat (using much less truck space, thus saving fuel in shipping for at least half of their life, until filled).
It’s a nice idea, but I’m not sure how successful it will be, as it doesn’t exactly take the place of a water bottle, not to the user. For that average water bottle buyer the goal is to get clean ‘trustworthy’ water, which is to say not tap water. They tend to want a single serving, not something as large as these Boxed Waters. A much smaller market of people who [inadvisably*] reuse plastic water bottles, this is a market for whom again boxed water will prove unpractical, as a paper container will break down much more quickly.
In either case, the bottles will eventually be pitched, often not into a recycling bin. One of the beauties here is that even if not recycled, the planet’s systems would be much better off for having paper disintegrating in it’s oceans than it is presently, with plastic doing so.
So, definitely a case of taking the good with the bad, i’ll be interested to see how it pans out for them.
* Most plastic water bottles are made from a material commonly referred to as PET (polyethylene terephthalate), which contains at least 3 different carcinogenic compounds, and a couple hormone disrupting compounds. Drinking from these bottles is safe in a one-time use scenario. If used for more than a couple days these compounds begin leaching into your water, especially if the bottle has been exposed to much heat (in washing, perhaps).
