Packaging reduction at Tesco/Boxed water

I have always applauded Tesco for being at the leading edge of environmental initiatives among mainstream grocery stores.

Two days ago, I got wind of their new initiative for customers to leave their packaging waste at the till. It is currently only in trial phase at several stores, but it was a consumer-driven initiative. It may cause them some waste disposal headaches, but overall I see it as a way not only to do the right thing, but also to see, from the waste collected, where they could improve their packaging design. I am also not sure how it will work in terms of non-private label supplier waste, if they will have to subsidize the plan or not. I hope that they publish the results of this trial soon!

Globally, there has been a bit of a kerfuffle raised around bottled water. Of course, water bottles are theoretically recyclable and are made of valuable materials, but I read that something like 75% of bottled water ends up as litter, in landfills, or awfully enough, in the great Pacific garbage patch. This company has come out with Boxed Water. An interesting way to package water, certainly, but it is packaged in a Tetra Pak, which is often difficult to recycle and has limited recycling options globally. It shall be interesting to look at this as time goes on - will customers like water packaged in a non-transparent container? Is it really a better alternative, given that the process of making paper is very harmful? Will TetraPak and carton manufacturers expand recycling facilities so that they are widely available?

Kudos to Poland Spring!

On the weekend, I was in New York and had to pick up some bottled water because unfortunately, I forgot my trusty water bottle at home reserved for tap water. Upon opening the fridge and choosing a sport top Poland Spring 700mL bottle, I noticed that they had completely updated their cap! The new one, called the "Grip N' Flip" bottle, not only used much less material, but it also worked better than the old one. The old one always had a cap that you lost, and the retractable top always seemed to use a lot of material. I am certain that PS has seen a reduction in costs too from the less resource intensive bottle.

I hope they can adopt this bottle elsewhere now - since Nestle owns the company, I am certain that they will roll this out elsewhere. You can see the bottle here.