Overview
Our global plastic binge is creating some terrifying statistics. We're still going through 500 billion single-use plastic bags per year and using 17 million barrels of oil to manufacture enough plastic water bottles to meet annual demand.
A team of Melbourne-based entrepreneurs have decided to combat our not-so-fantastic plastic obsession. They've come up with Australia's first ever 'Positive and Pure' paper water bottle, Do Water. It's made from paper that comes from Forestry Stewardship Council certified forests, which are managed sustainably and responsibly.
The Do Water team discovered that, unfortunately, bottling water in 500ml paper packs is impossible in Australia. So they travelled far and wide, looking for an ideal location, which turned out to be an artesian well known as Acqua Smeraldina, located high in the mountainous region of Sardinia, Italy.
There, purified by granite, the water has been gathering minerals and nutrients for hundreds of years. To maintain their stringent standards, the Do Water team lab-tests the site every two hours. The water, rather than being transferred to a factory for treatment, is bottled at the source, reaching the consumer's mouth just as it leaves its home.
Of course, delivering the bottles from Italy to Australia poses a potentially not-so-green dilemma. So the Do Water crew transports them via container ships, the carbon impact of which is much lower than that caused by air miles. The hope is that, one day soon, they'll be able to conduct the whole enterprise on Australian shores.
"We want to help reduce the overall lifecycle and footprint of plastic bottles in Australia by providing an alternative made from a natural and renewable resource," the Do Water site explains. "We couldn't find anyone offering such an alternative, so we decided to do something about it."