Bottled Water is Out, Skinned Water is In

We've made no secret of our disaffection towards bottled water at TreeHugger. The costs in terms of fuel usage and recycling are enormous. So it was with a great deal of enthusiasm that we first read about Sidel's innovative NoBottle, which the company is pitching as a "water skin."

Unlike traditional PET (polyethylene terephthalate) half-liter water bottles which weigh in around 13 to 16 grams, Sidel's NoBottle comes in at just under 10 grams. Though perhaps not very impressive in itself, when added up (160 billion liters of bottled water were consumed last year) the savings in terms of waste reduction become quite significant. So, no, we're not talking about losing the plastic entirely here (we wish), but this is still a big step forward for the beverage industry.

Sidel used its proprietary plastic technology, dubbed Flex, to make this new "water skin." Because it is highly flexible and has shape-memory, Flex allows the bottle to spring back to its original shape upon being compressed or gripped in any way. The French company plans on officially unveiling the NoBottle at K 2007, an international trade fair, in October.

Via ::Springwise: Water skin reduces waste (blog), ::Sidel launches NoBottle, a new concept in PET bottle packaging for water (press release)