For all you guys that thought bottled water was stupid

I give you boxed water.

My beverage sales guy showed up with a bottle, er, box of this in hand today as a sample. It’s stupid, it looks like it’s hard to drink out of, heavy and expensive…I bought some, we’ll find out soon if it’ll sell.

FTR, it’s a half liter (a little over a pint, the same size as a regular bottle of water) and it’ll sell for $1.49. It’s just regular city water. As far as I can tell the only ‘advantage’ is that they ship the boxes flat around the country and then fill them rather then shipping the water all over the place. But you’ll get the same thing any time you buy water that isn’t bottled nationally. They also mention how super recyclable it is, but I bet a lot of it’ll wind up in the garbage since I don’t know about you, but I didn’t know tetra containers could go into a recycling bin. But I did know that you can recycle plastic water bottles.

Oh, funny thing, when the guy handed me the sample after talking about for a few seconds and made a sound like it was full of beads. I looked at him and said ‘is this a joke?’. I thought it was one of those “just add water” type gags. Turns out he left it in his car overnight and it was half frozen and slushy.
So, yeah, boxed water.

I can think of two reasons for buying water in a container:

  1. You don’t trust your local supply/plumbing.

  2. You didn’t plan/feel like bringing water with you and you’re thirsty

Are there other reasons?

Seems incredibly fadish and stupid. I wish I’d thought of it.

I’m holding out for canned water myself.

Um they have this, I had a can one time, just water not carbonated.

I should disclose that I like bottled water, but that’s not what this is about. I just thought the boxed water thing was funny.

Carry on.

Tetra container - is that like a regular milk carton, or is it the kind of container used for shelf-stable foods?

Because I’ve known for a long time that you can recycle milk containers. And I’m pretty sure you still can’t recycle the ones for shelf-stable foods.

Or maybe it means something else?
Roddy

It’s like the lined ones for shelf stable foods. I assume it’s a tetra box. That’s what it felt like. But it didn’t have a foil type lining. The box he handed me was punctured (his fault) and I could see a plastic lining (and the water hadn’t spilled out).

The website has this to say, I’m not quite sure what it means.
“Our boxes are recyclable. The Carton Council is continuously adding new carton recycling facilities throughout the US. Please visit their site to learn more.”

If I were forming such an organization, it would totally be the Carton Cartel.

You’re thirsty and decide against soft drink.

Your plans or circumstances changed, and you now need water.

You have guests who prefer it.

Your kids drank/spilled all their water and they’re still thirsty.

You’ve hurt yourself and need to clean a wound.

You’re on a long walk or ride and need more water than you could carry.

Cans in question.

I totally get this for shipping purposes, but I seriously doubt that it would fit in the cupholder of my vehicle. Travelling is one of the few times that I actually buy bottled water.

Well, there’s still dehydrated water pills…

Just add hydrogen and you have water (get it, hydrated = hydrogen)!

Really, get a hydrogen tank and you can actually make water out of thin air!

I once asked bottled water how to spell “cat”. It couldn’t even do that.

Huh. That’s stupid.

Now, in Belize, they had bagged water, which I guess people who camp in the US use, but I had never seen it before.

Tetrapak boxed water is fairly common in Europe.

I buy bottled water because our tap water tastes like crap. It has this weird, plastic-y taste to it. Ugh.

And where my aunt lives, HER water tastes like sulfur, and they have to use a water softener. So she definitely buys bottled water.

No joke.

Anheuser Busch does can water for distribution during hurricane relief efforts.

http://www.icic.org/ee_uploads/images/Water_Cans-8.jpg

http://brewreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/AnheuserBuschDrinkingWater.jpg

When I was in Trinidad & Tobago, I was introduced to bagged water.

Photo isn’t mine.

Ok so we have bottled water (both plastic and glass), boxed water, bagged water, and canned water, jugs of water, filtered water systems like Brita and Pur, water straight from a tap… is there anything else we could distribute water in/through? How about long straws like those jumbo pixie sticks? Maybe water gel-caps?