Caring for Creation
Recently some folks on Terra’s team found boxed water available at local grocery stores like Yokes.
“Boxed water,” you say? Brands like Boxed Water is Better and Just Water come in paper cartons, like the TetraPak cartons you buy soup or coconut water in. But are they better than plastic bottles? All packaged water (in plastic, aluminum or paper) is, in most cased, 100% unnecessary and a drain on Earth’s valuable resources.
If you absolutely must grab a packaged water, here are the advantages of boxed water. The Boxed Water is Better brand is made of renewable paper that comes from FSC certified sustainable forests, with the box being 92% plant-based, including caps. This company also works with the National Forest Foundation to plant more trees than they use. The carbon footprint is less, as shipping empty flattened cartons takes much less room than empty plastic bottles. One truck can carry an equivalent number of boxes compared to 26 trucks carrying plastic bottles. The paper cartons also are free of the chemicals found in plastic bottles. Boxed Water says they try to fill the cartons as close to where it is sold as possible to reduce transportation (but that might be Utah for the west coast).
While reusable, the drawback to paper carton use is the recycling aspect: The cartons are lined with polyethylene and aluminum, which must be separated to recycle the boxes, and many areas like Spokane don’t have facilities to do that. The Carton Council runs a mail-in program for all TetraPak cartons but we know many of them will simply be tossed.
In the long run, any form of packaged water is unsustainable, but the paper cartons appear to be the better of bad options. So plan ahead and use a refillable water bottle or even just a glass (gasp!) as we are blessed with clean, safe tap water that is always Terra’s first choice!