The water bottles used on water coolers are cumbersome, expensive to manufacturer and difficult to maintain. They are as expensive to transport empty as they are full and they have to be refillable to recoup the initial costs from the manufacturer. When they get back to the bottler they need to be sanitized before being refilled.
Thousands of gallons of water are needed for cleaning and it goes right down the drain along with the pollutants used to clean the bottles. Storage at the bottlers and at the customers takes up thousands of square feet regardless if they are full or empty. People use the bottles for all kinds of things from ashtrays to piggy banks before returning them to the bottler, creating a chance of contaminants surviving the cleaning process. The removal of the water jug would reduce the industry eco-footprint in a very large way at the same time protecting the consumer from potentially contaminated water. How we take it to market will also have an impact on how available fresh clean drinking water becomes and who it becomes available to. Here are some of the things I like about the bag in box packaging system.
