Kids click earth to learn more!

The Bottled Water Industry

Plastic beverage bottles are among the most recycled packaging in this country and beverage companies continue to reduce the amount of plastic used in their packaging.  Rather than focusing on one beverage choice, it would make more sense for our government officials to focus on improving recycling rates for all consumer packaging.

Bottled water is one of thousands of packaged foods and beverages used by consumers every day and bottled water containers are fully recyclable and should be properly recycled through whatever system a local municipality has in place.  Overall, the bottled water industry, like many others in the food and beverage industry, works to reduce its environmental footprint. 

The bottled water industry is also a leader in environmental conservation and stewardship.  A study conducted by the Drinking Water Research Foundation shows that annual bottled water production accounts for less than 2/100 of a percent (0.02%) of the total ground water withdrawn in the United States each year.  The bottled water industry uses minimal amounts of ground water to produce this important consumer product—and does so with great efficiency.  Even though it is a small ground water user, the bottled water industry has been instrumental in encouraging states to develop comprehensive, science-based ground water management and sustainability policies and laws.

Important!  It is widely believed that the growth of bottled water has increased the amount of plastic bottles produced and released into the environment.  Please consider these important facts about bottled water.

Our industry is growing in favor of consumers choosing to drink a more healthy beverage.  The vast majority of new bottled water sales are purchased by consumers in place of sugar based drinks like carbonated soft drinks and juices.  Furthermore, bottled water containers are on average 30% - 40% lighter in weight than carbonated soft drink containers of similar size.  Therefore by drinking bottled water there is actually less plastic being discharged into the environment.

What we do!

We here at Monadnock do many things to protect our environment.  Our core business is home and office delivery of water coolers and five gallon bottles of fresh spring water.  The plastic used to manufacture our five gallon bottles is one of the most recyclable plastics made today.  It is called polycarbonate .  Polycarbonate is used in many different products which you use every day for instance Plexiglas windows, many auto parts and more familiarly, CD's and DVD's.  It can be recycled more than once so it is very efficient.  It is also very durable, so the bottles are refilled up to sixty-five times before they are retired and recycled.  That's  325 gallons of fresh spring water with one bottle!  Also because they all come back to our plant, we can insure that 100% of these bottles are recycled.

Related to these bottles is, of course, the cap.  If you're a Monadnock customer, you know that all our customers' bottles and coolers are equipped with the No-Spill System.  That means that the cap is never removed from the bottle.  Again all of the caps are returned to our plant and recycled rather than being removed at thousands of home and offices and thrown in the trash.  The caps are made of LDPE or low density polyethylene and is readily recycled.  That's a major benefit of being a Monadnock customer! 

We also offer coin operated vending at our facility in Quincy, MA.  You can bring your own containers and for only twenty-five cents you can fill your one gallon container!  You can fill it over and over again making it easy and environmentally friendly!

We also sell single serve bottles to mom and pop stores and convenient store chains and directly to home and private label customers.  All our packaging is made of recyclable plastic.  The bottles, PETE  or Polyethylene Terephthalate, which is virtually the only type of plastic used in all plastic beverages today.  It too is readily recyclable and we encourage all our customers to recycle all recyclable packaging.  Lastly the cap for this package is made of HDPE or High Density Poly Ethylene and is too virtually the only plastic used in beverage caps today.

In our operating bottling plant, we recycle all packaging and raw materials used in the production of bottled water.  100% of corrugated paper, plastic waste, shrink and stretch wraps and waste oil are recycled.  This policy of recycling has also reduced the amount of refuse produced in our plant and offices by 68% leaving that much less of materials finding their way to landfills. 

9 years ago, we partnered with Massachusetts Electric by getting involved in their low energy lighting program.  Every light fixture and every ballast were replaced in our entire plant to be able to utilize high efficiency bulbs which use a lot less energy to operate and is much friendlier to the environment!

In 2005 we instituted a No-Idling Policy for all of our vehicles.  Our trucks and vans are never left idling while servicing our accounts, making deliveries or bringing the water down from our springs in New Hampshire.  We do this to conserve fuel and to release less emissions.

As of mid 2007 we have also taken steps to get the ball rolling on planning for our future in delivery vehicles.  For our home and office division, unlike most beverage companies, we use parcel vans to deliver to our customers.  While hybrid vehicles are not yet available for larger beverage trucks, they are soon to be available for the style trucks we are currently using and are hoping to have prototype vehicles in use by 2008.

We as a company, and a member of the bottled water industry are proud of our stewardship of ground water and of protecting the environment.