Hey, Kids! Here's The New, Cool Drink: Bottled Water
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto 
on 08.21.07
Having TreeHugger, church groups and politicians going medieval on them doesn't stop the bottled water industry from fighting back with new ways to keep pumping and bottling. Nestle is learning from the cereal makers that you should get'em while they are young. It has introduced Aquapod, aimed at children 6 to 12 years old, part of a campaign to increase consumption of smaller, more profitable bottles. According to Brand Week, "It's a big land rush now that carbonated soft drinks are getting the boot from schools," said Gerry Khermouch, editor at Beverage Business Insights, West Nyack, N.Y. "What's tricky is there's a dual target: you want to offer something kids want to be seen with while also getting past moms." ::Brand Week and ::Aquapod
Not only that, but they have the chutzpah to greenwash themselves with the new Eco-shape bottle. Rider at Sustainable is Good tells us:
The new bottle uses less plastic and is ergonomically designed to be more easy to carry. Nestle debuted the bottle with its Ozarka and Arrowhead brands already and is working to transition its other brands to the bottle this year.The half liter Eco-shape uses 30% less plastic than bottles currently available on the market. The new bottle weighs 12.5 grams which is 15% less than other similar bottles. Nestle estimates it may save 65 million pounds of plastic resin each year by using Eco-shape.
The new bottle also uses less paper because the label size was reduced. The company has removed color from the cap making it more recyclable as well.
But that doesn't reduce the number of empties littering our road, or the fact that they are still selling snake oil. ::Sustainable is Good
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Uhh..I think it's important the fact that not everyone is going to stop drinking bottled water and by innovating their package design, they can help the environment while continuing their business. It's unrealistic to suggest that all people should stop drinking bottled water. There are times when bottled water is necessary..
When bottles were all glass, bottles were made in glass factories that were separate from bottlers of course. Bottlers typically only had market ranges of a few hundred miles, the better to bring returned empty bottles back, wash and refill them. Each month the bottler had only to replace a portion of all bottles sent out by buying new ones from the glass blower.
Enter the age if mega-marketing and whole-country brand wars. Plastic bottles are not delivered from off-site as empties any more. They are blown, labeled, and filled on the fly in one operation. The more they are light-weighted in the age of increased natural gas prices, the better the bottler's operating margins. So, while it does make it more resource efficient, the motive is profit.
The reason recycled plastic is not used for bottling is that the polymer must be certified for food contact, and that can not be done on blended reclaim streams of plastic without added expense.
This "get 'em while they're young" marketing is really, really sick.
Like, Brave New World sick.