A new brand of Canadian spring water sold in paper-based cartons promises consumers that a tree will be planted for every carton purchased. The company plans for nationwide distribution in the United States.
Plant It Water uses cartons made by TetraPak. The recyclable cartons are made with 60 percent renewable resources. TetraPak's drink box was given the Presidential Award for Sustainable Development in 1996 by then-Vice-president Al Gore.
Trees For the Future will be responsible for planting one tree for every carton of Plant It Water sold. Plant It Water also donates a portion of every carton sold to A Single Drop.
Plant It Water is not the only water company trying to reduce its environmental impact.
Aquafina on March 25 introduced a half-liter plastic water bottle that it says is the lightest in its class, using 50 percent less plastic.
Danone, the French producer of bottled waters Evian and Volvic, is responding to environmental critics and falling sales with a plan to increase the quantity of bottles it recycles.
Still, most beverage companies continued to fail basic criteria for dealing with environmental implications of their packaging, according to the second annual Beverage Container Recycling Scorecard and Report (pdf).