I spoke yesterday with the representative of a company that is developing a customizable water product that will be available in a carton to the entire lodging industry soon. Water is sold in a paper carton like cartons you purchase milk or orange juice in. Compared to plastic and glass, the carbon footprint of a carton is significantly less. It biodegrades much faster than plastic while still being recyclable. The carton I learned about has no BPAs or VOCs. I was sent some images of cartons that had been customized with photos of hotel properties on the outside and they looked great—certainly something you could not do on a plastic bottle. I was told the cost of the boxed cartons is comparable to plastic bottles. So, there will be no cost barrier.
The company is experiencing growing pains because of high demand but is almost ready for our industry. I believe it will be a game changer.
The water in the cartons comes from a very clean and natural source and will make the product even more appealing. The water in a carton is made in the U.S.A. in a zero-carbon emission facility.
Americans used approximately 50 billion plastic water bottles last year. However, the recycling rate remains at only 23 to 25 percent, leaving 38 billion plastic bottles to be found in our landfills, streams, rivers, lakes and oceans.
Water in cartons will be a threat to the big bottlers of water. Let’s hope the competition grows to the point where all make the transition away from plastic. Stay tuned to Green Lodging News for more coverage of this important topic.
Hi Glenn
This is Rob from Boxed Water Is Better. I love that more companies are on board with providing an alternative to plastic bottles. We’ve been here for 10 years and are the original sustainably packaged water company. We also have planted 780,000 trees as part of our efforts to help the planet.
I am hoping you can edit your article and not use the term Boxed Water for the category. Since we are the original, people are always using it as the category term. Feel free to use cartons, or sustainably packaged category…but Boxed Water is our brand name, and not the category….we have a proprietary water filtration process, and don’t want consumers to get confused. Feel free to reach out to me ..a ton of hotels have switched to us..I can tell you all about it.
Rob, thank you for your input. I made the adjustments in the article and will reach out to you soon for a feature I am writing.