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Plastic Water Bottles, Which Enabled a Drinks Boom, Now Threaten Industry
- neonate 8y agohttps://outline.com/tDJqYE https://outline.com/tDJqYE
- TulliusCicero 8y agoHuh, I thought you had posted this for people to get around the paywall, but it looks like it didn't really do anything?
- neonate 8y agoSorry, I didn't notice that. This article is readable for me in an incognito window though. Seems WSJ has changed something?
- AdmiralAsshat 8y agoI managed to completely stop buying regular water bottles in favor of using a refillable vacuum-insulated bottle at all times (except for a handful that I keep in the car for emergencies), but I've noticed the plastic bottles are starting to creep back in ever since I stopped drinking sodas and moved to sparkling water. I guess I could switch to canned Perrier or even the glass bottles, but they're harder to find. I suppose next year I'll just bite the bullet and buy a Soda Stream (or some kind of BDS-approved equivalent).
- wlesieutre 8y agoSoda Stream Jet is pretty heavily discounted on amazon right now
- convolvatron 8y agothis is just a regulator, a nozzle and some plastic?
- wlesieutre 8y agoAs far as I know, yeah. This one's probably marked up because it looks fancier, I have a cheaper version (Soda Stream Source) but happened to see this one on SlickDeals recently. The main value they add is a convenient CO2 tank exchange program at places like Staples and Best Buy. I'm sure rigging your own system with a bigger tank would be cheaper in the long run, but I don't have space for it.
- jdhawk 8y agoYeah - I got a 10lb CO2 cylinder, a regulator, a few hoses and Ball Lock connectors, and this: https://www.homebrewing.org/Carbonation-Cap-Stainless-Steel_p_3061.html https://www.homebrewing.org/Carbonation-Cap-Stainless-Steel_... add water to 2L bottle, pressurize to 20-60PSI, shake bottle for 20 seconds.
- ganzuul 8y agoMost people would at least once go for 20-60 Bar instead of PSI... It's about convenience and structure. There are many very similar alternatives to SodaStream, such as MySoda local to me.
- ravenstine 8y agoI don't really understand why most if not all bottles don't use aluminum instead of plastic. I get that it's a marketing thing, but I see no practical reason why aluminum couldn't be used more often. That doesn't fix the littering of the ocean issue, but I guess if I had to pick one over the other I'd rather the ocean get trashed with aluminum than with plastic. Also, do you need Perrier brand specifically? I haven't seen that come in cans, but now there are more brands than ever of sparkling water that come in cans, which is what I most often buy.
- Cthulhu_ 8y ago> I don't really understand why most if not all bottles don't use aluminum instead of plastic. Because aluminium is a lot more expensive and difficult to manufacture at scale than plastic. It's also a lot more reusable, but reusing aluminium costs energy, and reusing glass bottles requires either energy to melt it, or an extensive recycling / reusing infrastructure (like with beer bottles over here). Re: sparkling water, there's water fountains that can produce sparkling water on the fly now. Ask your employer to get those installed.
- Al-Khwarizmi 8y agoIsn't aluminium supposed to be toxic? Probably the amount absorbed from drinking from aluminium bottles wouldn't be enough to cause concern, but I'm not sure I would risk drinking from them all the time.
- amanaplanacanal 8y agoAluminum is one of the most abundant minerals on earth. It's probably in just about everything. You almost certainly get more from your anti-perspirant that you do from an aluminum can.
- SmellyGeekBoy 8y agoIs PTFE or PET any safer?
- 8y ago
- martin-adams 8y agoWe use a Soda Stream and now quite easily just use tap water and carbonate it. I highly recommend it. The downside is that not many local places do the canister exchange where I live so we try to stock up.
- durkie 8y agoThere are homemade soda carbonators for sale on ebay that can be a pretty good deal. Something like this is what I have: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Kegman-Seltzer-Making-Bottling-Kit-with-CO2-tank/254010998330 https://www.ebay.com/itm/Kegman-Seltzer-Making-Bottling-Kit-... The price is basically the same as sourcing the parts (regulator, tubing, tank, etc) yourself, it comes pre-assembled, that size CO2 tank will last a while (around a year for us with multiple people in the hot south), costs $15 to refill, and you can dial up/down the pressure to change the bubbliness of your soda. It's also useful for seating tubeless tires if you ride mountain bikes. :)
- jimmaswell 8y agoI never bought bottled water before in the first place, but I do find it practical to keep a pack of them in the car in case I need them. They'd also be useful in emergencies. If I kept home-filled bottles around in there that long they would get gunky.
- oftenwrong 8y ago>If I kept home-filled bottles around in there that long they would get gunky. If the bottles are clean, and the water is clean, the water will not get "gunky". I have a few 20L water containers at home for emergencies. I sanitized the containers and filled them with chlorinated tap water. A few years after I filled them, while I was moving, the water was still fresh tasting and clear.
- siruva07 8y agoi highly recommend you read Let There Be Water. Israel's solutions for a water starved world are going to save this planet. Your anti-semetic color commentary won't go far in the water world. https://www.adl.org/resources/backgrounders/bds-the-global-campaign-to-delegitimize-israel https://www.adl.org/resources/backgrounders/bds-the-global-c...
- AdmiralAsshat 8y agoAh, so there's the source of all the downvotes: someone is unhappy with my choice to support BDS. The irony that the people who combat criticism by saying "Vote with your wallet" are then upset that I am, in fact, voting with my wallet...
- ganzuul 8y agoAntisemitism used to mean something more specific... Can't quite remember what that was.
- petermcneeley 8y agoIf only there were pipes to peoples homes to provide them with safe water for bathing and drinking.
- cujo 8y agoYes. Then I could stop showering with Perrier.
- suvelx 8y agoYou joke. But there are people that buy tankers of Evian and other 'high end' water to use through their plumbing. It wouldn't surprise me if they run it all through a water softener too.
- berberous 8y agoI find this hard to believe. Got a link?
- suvelx 8y agoUnfortunately not. The only evidence I can provide is I once knew the groundskeeper for a group of properties owned by the super rich. One of his responsibilities was accepting the deliveries. These properties were in a built up residential area.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- Cthulhu_ 8y agoThat sounds impossibly expensive; I'm sure there's some of the super-rich that do it, but it sounds more like a glossy story than something ubiquitous. I would believe it if they "just" got tankers of clean water from elsewhere though. Plenty of people that have to survive off of water from tankers.
- johnvanommen 8y ago
- ajay-d 8y ago60 minutes had a segment last night on plastic reaching the most remotes parts of the ocean. Incredibly disheartening. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-great-pacific-garbage-patch-cleaning-up-the-plastic-in-the-ocean-60-minutes/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-great-pacific-garbage-patch...
- Cthulhu_ 8y agoOne important thing that often gets overlooked though, before people start feeling super guilty about using plastic bottles and those can holders: most plastic in the ocean flows down the rivers in Asia, not so much Europe / the US. Probably because we have a good trash management infrastructure. Landfills and incinerators are pretty bad, but I think especially landfills are preferable about just tossing it wherever and having it flow into rivers / the sea. TL;DR: Pay your taxes so the government can employ people to manage trash. Also, don't litter.
- amanaplanacanal 8y agoUntil recently most of the plastic recycling from the US was shipped to China. So it's possible that the plastic flowing down the rivers in Asia was actually American plastic.
- protonfish 8y agoBut recycling good!
- njarboe 8y agoBut we repented and served our penance by banning plastic straws.
- vkou 8y ago> Probably because we have a good trash management infrastructure. Part of our trash management infrastructure consists of gathering it all up, and shipping it to Asia, where it gets dumped in the rivers. It is, in a way, pollution laundering.
- jeklj 8y agoI don’t understand the focus specifically on water bottles when this comes up, seems like any drink bottle would be just as problematic. I understand we don’t all have pipes that bring Coca-Cola to our homes, but when you’re out and need something to drink that ship has sailed.
- sowbug 8y agoYou are using the word "need" in an unconventional sense.
- jeklj 8y agoAre you sure about that?
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- PhasmaFelis 8y agoNo, they're not. When someone says "I need a drink," reasonable people do not interpret that as "I literally cannot continue without immediate hydration."
- SmellyGeekBoy 8y agoGenerally people do need to drink. Otherwise they die.
- azinman2 8y agoProbably because it’s a relatively new problem. People drink more water than other drinks like Coke, so the impact factor is high. We also have infrastructure to deliver water without bottles (the tap), but we don’t for other drinks.
- freehunter 8y agoRight, I see water as particularly egregious as it's a natural product (literally pumped straight from the ground) and should be accessible in clean form anywhere in the developed world (aka most places where water bottles are commonly bought and thrown away). The solution to dirty water shouldn't be putting clean water in plastic bottles and shipping it around the world, it should be making sure water is clean enough that anywhere you go you can drink the local water without needing to buy a one-time-use plastic bottle. It doesn't help that our solution to dirty water (plastic bottles) is making even clean water unusable (microplastic).
- Const-me 8y ago300 million years ago Earth had a problem with cellulose. Plants produced a lot, no one consumed it, it accumulated for millennia and later became what we call fossil fuel. Then modern fungi evolved, and the problem went away. Just like plastic, cellulose can provide energy when oxidized, it’s just tricky to break but that’s what modern fungi do. I wonder can we genetically engineer a bacteria or fungi that will consume that plastic? Ideally, before we have drunk the water from these plastic bottles.
- theseadroid 8y agoIt's already done. Now we just need to improve the efficiency of such processes. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/apr/16/scientists-accidentally-create-mutant-enzyme-that-eats-plastic-bottles https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/apr/16/scientis...
- based2 8y agohttps://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/fungus-eats-polyurethane-Aspergillus-tubingensis-plastic https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/fungus-eats-polyurethane-A...
- jimmaswell 8y agoI'd be concerned about household plastic products degrading over time. Would an original Atari still be in any fit shape today if such bacteria or fungi had been around?
- ryanmercer 8y agoThis is a semi-valid concern. It would take a relatively small amount of an organism to contaminate something, and unless you're regularly cleaning everything made of those types of plastics you could have some real issues. We fight mold and termites now in our living spaces, imagine if you had a plastic-eating organism and a little bit took up residence in a hotel, an office, your car, a bus or train, your house. Even if it was relatively slow at breaking down it could cause considerable cosmetic damage. A little gets on your laptop display. You leave it at home and go on vacation for a week, you come back and some light etching has occurred over streaks of your monitor and the screen is now fogged and needs replaced, you wipe the exterior down as best as you can before replacing the screen and are pretty sure you got it all. Your screen gets replaced, your laptop works great again until a month later you pick it up and your spacebar falls off, the plastic switch entirely degraded, you open up the laptop only to find most of the internal plastic is structurally compromised, you unknowingly transferred some of the organism inside when you replaced your screen. Here in Indiana, sometimes in the spring and summer, there's this fungus called 'lawn rust' that has orange spores that resemble rust and get on your lawn and will even get on vehicles (which will just wash off) but imagine something getting in the wild and landing on your car with a largely plastic body... go a week or a month without washing your car and you might get home from the car wash one day and notice your bumpers are pitted, oh darn the future plastic eating bacteria/fungi strikes again. Even if only kept this stuff in industrial facilities, unless you go NASA level clean-room when leaving the facility it'd be damn easy for some to hitch a ride on someone headed home from work and, well, "life will find a way".
- floatingatoll 8y agoThe headline is misleading: the ‘crisis’ in the headline is in the drinks industry. If you’re here for the environmental crisis rather than the drink industry crisis, cigarette filters remain the highest volume plastic waste.
- presidentender 8y agoCigarette filters are cellulose acetate, which is biodegradable.
- TimesOldRoman 8y ago18 months to 10 years, according to the first Google response. I see no reason regulation to enforce like a 6-month breakdown time on a product. Seems very sensible. They shouldn't be able to release products that are unhealthy for the environment.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- floatingatoll 8y agoTheoretically biodegradable, but not yet shown to be. As of 2015 the longest measured time was 2 years to break down about 30% of the acetate, with a diminishing breakdown rate and a dependence on soil nitrogen availability (ocean beaches lack it).
- dang 8y agoOk, we've replaced "a crisis" with "industry" above.
- sdafsafas 8y agoOk, I'll say it. Tap water tastes gross in every major N. American city I've lived in. I'll filter it, air it out and chill it. But out of the tap, N. American water tastes bad. A little town in Albania I've visited once has (much) tastier water than any city I've been here. I can't blame ppl for drinking bottled water (Evian is gross though)
- around_here 8y agoVancouver has some of the tastiest water out there. It's also quite soft compared to other natural sources. Same with Seattle, Portland, and those areas in the NW.
- logfromblammo 8y agoTap water tastes different in every city. While I can't fault Indianapolis for drinking bottled water, Wisconsin Dells should never buy a single bottle. The supply of the city I live in currently has a bit of a metallic tang to it, but it's fine out of the tap.
- clarry 8y agoMight even taste different in different parts of the city. I hate the water at my place. I'm thirsty right now, and I kinda want wanter, but I kinda don't want my tap water. I spent the weekend at my sister's place around seven kilometers from here and the water was just fine.
- davidwitt415 8y agoYou must not have visited NYC or SF, both of which have excellent water. NYC's comes from upstate aquifers while SF gets from Hetch Hetchy in the Sierra.
- jonahhorowitz 8y agoExactly. SF and NYC have great water. I do wonder if the parent is strictly drinking from hotel taps though. Hotels do something weird to their water.
- bunderbunder 8y agoWhat does the full analysis of what goes into bottled water look like? Because it seems to me like, at this point, the "bottle" part of bottled water could be the least worrisome bit. Even if you get rid of the bottle, what does it take just to physically ship all this water around? It's pretty heavy stuff. I'd assume its probably much more economical to transport in pipes than in trucks. Sort of like we do with things like oil and gas, when it's feasible to do so.
- 3chelon 8y agoThe "bottle" part is pretty bad. I heard somewhere a water bottle will last 400 years. I don't know for certain that that's true, but if it is, I can only wonder just who thought it would make an ideal container for someone to use for a few minutes and then throw away?
- bunderbunder 8y agoThere are so many ways to frame pollution. Taking 400 years to biodegrade is a big problem if you're worried about litter, or microplastics. On other hand, if you're more worried about things like climate change or smog, then turning it into something you bury and forget about might actually be the least harmful thing we could be doing with all this oil we've been pumping out of the ground lately. If it biodegrades, then it becomes a source of atmospheric CO2 just about as efficiently as if you were instead to burn it to make cars go.
- baroffoos 8y agoI can't believe I have never read this point before. This seems absolutely critical to the discussion.
- 3chelon 8y agoYes, I agree, and I'd go so far as to saying burning it is in one way better than it ending up in the sea, but clearly very bad in another sense. Just another example of how different facets of the "environmental" argument can be in conflict with one another. Nuclear power vs coal/oil power is similar dilemma.
- the_watcher 8y agoQuestion: Are cans much better for the environment? I've long preferred cans to bottles for things like soda (although I almost never drink it anymore), sparkling water, etc. They've always seemed to get and stay colder, although that may not be the case. I feel a little bit better about my preference when picking a canned La Croix over a bottled Arrowhead at work, but I realize now that I don't really have any idea about the environmental impact of cans v. bottles.
- michelledepeil 8y agoI believe cans are more easily recyclable, in part because they're so easy to seperate from other trash (using a big magnet).
- calebegg 8y agoMost beverage cans are made from aluminum, which is not magnetic.
- ohithereyou 8y agoAluminum is not ferromagnetic, but if you get it near a 3 Tesla magnet, trust me, you'll know.
- verytrivial 8y agoThe material really just need to be conductive to feel the effect of A/C fields due to eddy currents as a Random Purveyor of such a device explains: http://www.walkermagnet.com/separation-eddy-current-separators.htm http://www.walkermagnet.com/separation-eddy-current-separato...
- rexaliquid 8y agoRelevant SMBC: https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/proof https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/proof
- cypherpunks01 8y ago
- WalterBright 8y agoSeems like the most practical solution is to use it to fill up old open pit mines.
- mahgnous 8y agoWe used to have a thing called glass that worked really F'king well.
- siruva07 8y agoHi, I'm the founder of Tap previously the CEO and Founder of MakeSpace. Earlier this year I began working on a new company with the goal of eliminating the single use plastic water bottle. Earlier this year I made an observation, the first step of any scientific experiment, that launched Tap. I noticed water fountains were not on Google Maps. This puzzled me and led me to dive deeper into understanding the beverage market. TL;DR -- The answer is going to be carrying your own bottle (Like we all did in high school / college / burning man). But the lack of knowing where to find clean, unpackaged water is the reason for the growth of single-use plastic bottles. We've set out to change that. Here's my thoughts: The beverage industry is ripe for disruption. There are two glaring problems plaguing the industry: The first is that the amount of waste created is terrible for our environment. With ~9% of plastic waste actually getting recycled, we're seeing massive amounts of plastic go straight to landfills and our oceans. Now that China has recently rejected our plastic and cardboard, that problem is going to get worse...fast. As local, city, state, and even international governments ban single use plastic (ex. European Union), the opportunity has finally emerged. In these progressive cities, I think the beverage industry will respond to the local ban by moving to paper, aluminum, or glass. But any of these moves would actually INCREASE the cost of goods sold from materials and transportation as plastic has always been the cheapest option. Coca-Cola has even referenced this in its 2017 10-K. (direct quote below) “Changes in, or failure to comply with, the laws and regulations applicable to our products or our business operations could increase our costs or reduce our net operating revenues. Changes in applicable laws or regulations or evolving interpretations thereof... to discourage the use of plastic, including regulations relating to recovery and/or disposal of plastic packaging materials due to environmental concerns... may result in increased compliance costs, capital expenditures and other financial obligations for us and our bottling partners, which could affect our profitability, or may impede the production, distribution, marketing and sale of our products, which could affect our net operating revenues.” The second is the decline of consumer preference to sugary drinks. The bottling industry, at one time, was significantly more decentralized because people cared about the taste of local water. Inventions like high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) created most of the beverages we grew up drinking and this taste became more manufactured. However, the health problems associated with HFCS have been enough to slow revenue from these products. In 2017, for the first time bottled water sales exceed those of sugary drinks. Now we see Coke/Pepsi/Nestle pushing hard into bottled water sales. We’re also seeing JUSTWater (Jaden Smith) and Boxed Water come about, in addition to Watermelon water which addresses the eco and consumer preference change. These, in my opinion, are just a half step forward. So what's the answer? Well, think outside the bottle. Tap is going to disrupt the beverage industry by decentralizing the bottling industry. We've created a consumer alternative to packaged beverages -- a marketplace for unpackaged beverages with a group of users, with 17,000 users in <60 days since launch, who carry their own bottles. As 65% of the cost of a beverage today goes into transportation and packaging, by the mere change that the user carries their own bottle, we can massively win on beverage options and lower prices. Water is our first product. Furthermore, sales of reusable bottles (Contigo -- 45 million units per year, SOMA ,Swell, Klean, Yeti, Hydroflask) are skyrocketing with over 51% of new reusable bottle sales being attributed to the consumers wanting to reduce their plastic usage. An article was published this past week in the WSJ taking aim at water bottles. Specifically, the WSJ spoke to bottled water’s massive growth over the years, and how its future is suddenly uncertain because of the movement to halt the plastic crisis. Highlights on the market: “Bottled-water sales have boomed in recent decades amid safety fears about tap water and a shift away from sugary drinks. Between 1994 and 2017, U.S. consumption soared 284% to nearly 42 gallons a year per person, according to Beverage Marketing Corp., a consulting firm.” That is unparalleled growth… And of this boom in the U.S., 67% of all packaged water sold has come in single-serve, disposable bottles. While the news has decreased public trust in tap water, and consumers continue to shift away from sugary drinks, something interesting is happening...Due to a massive uptick in public awareness about the plastic issue, single-use bottled-water sales are actually BEGINNING TO SLOW. “Bottled-water volume growth is forecast to slow this year in both the U.S. and globally, according to research firm Euromonitor. Nestlé SA, the world’s biggest bottled-water maker, in October said its bottled-water volumes for the first nine months of the year declined 0.2%, compared with 2.1% growth a year earlier.” Something interesting is happening here. Consumers are still BUYING water at record pace because they can’t trust the tap, however, they aren’t purchasing single-use plastic. Drinking water sales aren’t DECLINING, they are SHIFTING… They are shifting towards bulk packaging. Consumers are shifting to bulk because bulk is the only easily available alternative. Another staggering statistic was released showing that one in five consumers in the last twelve months have purchased a reusable water bottle. Of these consumers, 52% of them said the leading driver was to reduce their personal plastic usage. 20% of consumers in the last 12 months alone purchasing a new reusable bottle proves there is a large market of people who incorporate reusable bottles into their daily routine. Beverage companies are working to catch up with the trend. According to the WSJ, “Pepsi also now sells reusable water bottles that come with capsules to add flavors, and is testing stations in the U.S. that dispense Aquafina-branded water in different flavors.” There are in fact other solutions, but major beverage brands find they are not favorable. “A former Nestlé executive said the company’s internal research showed consumers were unlikely to take to boxed water. Glass bottles, meanwhile, break easily and are expensive to transport because they are heavy.” “Poland Spring-owner Nestlé is rolling out glass and aluminum packaging for some brands and researching ways to make all its packaging recyclable or reusable by 2025.” These alternatives will all INCREASE THE COST OF GOODS SOLD, and these “solutions” are still wasteful. So here is where we think we fit in… and it’s what we're working to prove. “It’s tempting to romanticize a world without packaging,” Coca-Cola Co. CEO James Quincey wrote in a blog post this year. It’s tempting because it is happening and within our reach. Brands like Pepsi (SodaStream) and FloWater are growing rapidly due to their unique position in being able to provide UNPACKAGED and TRUSTED water. This is the only solution that caters to the needs of those who don’t want the plastic bottle, but still desired premium, filtered options. Before these brands, the choices were limited for the reusable-bottle-carrying consumer: filter your own water (ex. Brita), rely on water coolers (like in offices) or simply trust the tap. And as tap water continues to be vilified, and the other solutions aren’t convenient, there is a market of UNPACKAGED, TRUSTED water that is prime for explosive growth. www.findtap.com / apps in Android and App store (Search "Tap Water"). Lastly, check out the #DrinkDifferent movement on Instagram at @FindTap. Join us with a 30 day pledge to skip plastic bottles. Ps. We're hiring. Hit me up siruva07 at gmail dot com if wanna learn more.
- andrewstuart 8y agoThe solution is to stop making single use plastic and require reuse of standard bottle sizes, with tax paid on non standard bottle sizes.
- siruva07 8y agothe solution is to change consumer behavior by unlocking convenience using technology. and carrying one's own bottle...see my note on thread.
- kodablah 8y agoTaxing bad behavior often comes off as regressive, as are laws that would "require reuse". But the measures do work. If there are ways to encourage the good behavior without imposing financially-punitive burdens (which adversely affect the ones who value each cent more), they should be pursued instead.
- munk-a 8y agoThe city I grew up in offered all residents a free recycling bin when those were just coming into vogue. I don't see why there can't be financial assistance for supplying these free or at a discount. I don't believe this has to be a regressive burden if approached correctly.
- ohithereyou 8y agoEspecially if it is implemented as a bottle deposit program. In brief, there is an extra amount paid per bottle in the package with a portion of that returned when the bottles are returned.
- bobthepanda 8y agoBottle deposits can have negative effects, though; anecdotally, where I used to live, some people would rip up existing trash bags or recycling dumpsters and pore through the contents to get bottles to recycle. Which technically increases recycling but can result in the ruin of public and private property.
- woodandsteel 8y agoFor water, get it from your tap, and carry it with you in a glass or metal container. If you have good, scientifically reasons to believe your tap water is not so hot, use a high-tech filter. In the extreme, buy water in mass from a company that purifies it, and store it at home. All these solutions will be better for the environment, and as an added benefit much cheaper. As for soft drinks, they are bad for your health, so just stop drinking them.
- protonfish 8y agoExcept sometimes you aren't home and are thirsty. I remember as a child I would get so thirsty on family trips and gas stations only sold soda-pop. It sucked.
- JohnFen 8y ago"Except sometimes you aren't home and are thirsty." My experience has been that you can always find water when you aren't home and are thirsty.
- Johnny555 8y agoIf I had water that was proven to be unsafe, I wouldn't trust many "consumer grade" filters, and I'd want to do regular water testing to prove that any treatment that I do hasn't silently failed to work.
- hadlock 8y agoFive whys seems to indicate that the main problem is bottled water companies compete on clarity, bottled water companies could/would use recycled plastic if they had to use an opaque plastic container, like what soylent uses, rather than competing on "clear". Banning sales of bottled water in clear containers would allow all bottled water companies to still compete on packaging, while removing the limitation that they all use new, super clear plastic.
- exelius 8y agoYeah, I’ve seen restaurants serve water in cardboard boxes (think a bigger juice box). There are options, but yeah; we like to be able to see through our water.
- lozenge 8y agoYou mean tetrapaks? That unrecyclable mix of plastic, metal and paper?
- bluesaunders 8y agoI'd suspect more like this: https://jet.com/product/Boxed-Water-Is-Better-Purified-Water-169-Fl-Oz-Pack-of-24/9358091daa884bdfa191f27e94f0a118?jcmp=pla:ggl:everything_else_catch_all:new_p1_all_products:na:PLA_791021474_42804924682_pla-296303633664_c:na:na:na:2PLA15&pid=kenshoo_int&c=791021474&is_retargeting=true&clickid=e2299876-d07d-4edc-b16c-56057985029a&kclid=e2299876-d07d-4edc-b16c-56057985029a&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIxc_dy4So3wIV0KZpCh0foQKWEAQYAiABEgLJmvD_BwE https://jet.com/product/Boxed-Water-Is-Better-Purified-Water...
- kalleboo 8y agoYes, that's a tetrapak https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/61/Tetra_Pak_packaging_portfolio_I_medium_size.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/61/Tetra_Pa...
- superwayne 8y ago
- wyclif 8y agoWhat is the current science on the safety of drinking tap water?
- tolate 8y agoSo In my country, If you want to buy a bottle of cocacola fanta etc. You can only buy it if you come with an empty bottle of the same product. This is a way of life. The same thing can be done with bottle water. To buy bottle water, return an empty bottle of water. If you don't then you pay premium
- Kluny 8y agoWhat country?