We hate plastic water bottles. In the US alone, we buy over 50 million plastic bottles of the stuff each year, which is great for massive companies like Nestle (who may or may not be using common groundwater), but bad for basically everyone on the planet. We only recycle a mere 23 percent of those bottles. Put in dollars, that’s over a billion dollars a year in wasted plastic that goes on to pollute– not to mention the pollution from making the bottles.

JUST Water does things differently: they use a carton for their packaging, instead of a plastic bottle. The JUST Water carton is 54% paper, all of which is sourced from trees under the care of the Forest Stewardship Council that ensures forests are sustainably and responsibly managed. The shoulder and cap of the bottle are made from plant-based plastics instead of fossil fuels like petroleum. The sugarcane used for JUST plastic is an efficient user of water and grows back– unlike those dirty, finite dead dinos we’ve been using. For those of you doing the mental math, that leaves 15% traditional plastic used and 3% aluminum, resulting in a fully recyclable package. All those percentages also add up to a 74% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in the carton’s manufacturing compared to your average PET plastic bottle.

Fine, so they’ve got the packaging down, where are they getting the water to fill them, huh? The company took its time to find just the right water source and they landed on Glens Falls, New York, the quintessential small town nestled at the base of the Adirondacks. The once-thriving town was home to a variety of industries, all of which demanded large amounts of water; fortunately, the area is home to 10,000 lakes, 30,000 miles of rivers, and high levels of rain and snow, so that’s never been a problem. -- themanual.com