PATHWATER makes it easy for everyone to adopt reusability
Have you lost count yet of the sustainable brands that are oh so exclusive and require a special downpayment to the “environmental” party? Yeah, of course, some technology or process might cost a little more, but $487 for a crystal reusable water bottle? Or even the water bottles that range from $20 - $100 that are now more like status symbols than hydration vessels. There’s nothing wrong with wanting beautiful things or being part of a group that feels special. But there’s for sure one thing these exclusive eco items can never be, that is genuinely sustainable. You see, for a product to reach a point where it’s making a positive impact on the actual environmental issues it’s attempting to solve, it must be accessible so that MORE PEOPLE can adopt it. Make sense? Let’s break down this sustainability and accessibility concept a bit more...
If ever you get caught up with words, here’s where Google takes you on a dictionary ride on SUSTAINABILITY, ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY, and ACCESSIBILITY.
- Able to be maintained at a certain rate or level
- Able to be upheld or maintained
- Responsible interaction with the environment to avoid depletion or degradation of natural resources and allow for long-term environmental quality.
- The quality of being able to be reached or entered
- The quality of being easy to obtain or use
- The quality of being easily understood or appreciated
What is accessibility for reusable bottles?
Accessibility means everyone having their chosen form of hydration (often water) close at hand, in a reusable bottle. Walk into your local convenience store or market to pick up some water, and what will you see? A sea, yes, a sea of single-use plastic. What’s a person concerned with saving the environment to do? Thirsty, you probably go ahead and buy that plastic bottled water. This shouldn’t be the norm. The norm should be only to use bottled water in emergency cases, and even, then it should come in a reusable bottle made from highly recyclable aluminum.
As an experiment, I did a google search on where to buy a sustainable water canteen. The first item was a pretty $30 bottle. They showed as available at some big stores, but maybe not so accessible for students or people struggling to make ends meet. Not everyone has quick access to credit cards, smartphones, and spare cash to hunt down that trendy $50 reusable water bottle. The second item was PATHWATER, a purified eco-friendly aluminum reusable bottle. They showed a case price that worked out to be $2.44 per 20 oz bottle. The PATHWATER website also has a store locator that will let you see where you can pick up an affordable, sturdy, and reusable aluminum bottle. PATHWATER is available at many 7-11s, Safeways, and a growing number of convenience stores at a reasonable price, which makes the sustainability factor grow with each level of ease and accessibility that increase.
This brings to light accessibility to REFILL a water bottle
PATHWATER’s time has come. The co-founders of the company have officially filled a needed gap in our throwaway society. “We are pushing for REUSE with a bottle that can quickly and economically be turned right back into another PATHWATER bottle if and when it’s time to be recycled. With a little math, even the most economically stressed will notice that PATHWATER’s sturdy, reusable bottle can be more affordable than even the cheapest of those less than healthy plastic water bottles,” said Ali Orabi Co-founder of PATHWATER.
With a mission to provide the best localized, sustainable, and affordable water, the 7-Step Reverse Osmosis filtration process could and should be close to your community. A chance for a genuinely democratic affordable option; keeping oil and harmful gas in the ground and plastic off the shelves, streets, streams, and oceans.
Want an affordable, convenient way to hydrate? Let your voice be heard. Concern for the environment is not confined to an elite set of people. Ask those of Reserve, Louisiana. Ask the people of Flint, Michigan, and, now, Newark, New Jersey. The massive water crisis’ they face will, no doubt, make them very conscious of their environment.
The search for an alternative to that sea of plastic is here. PATHWATER aims to be available in every community across the country and, preferably, the world, bottled locally for every major area.
Sustainability needs to be accessible for stores to transition from plastic bottled water
Want to get stores to stop selling plastic bottled water? Then we have to make the transition smooth, convenient, and priced comparatively to the plastic profit margins they’re used to. We have to offer a reusable, aluminum bottle that talks like single-use but walks like reusable, recyclable. We also want to make the transition appealing for larger corporate sustainability efforts by highlighting the carbon reduction factor.
A 2016 study by ICF International found that the combined greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with the transportation and refrigeration of beverages in aluminum cans are lower than those associated with beverages in glass or plastic bottles under the same conditions. You can download an infographic on the full report here.
On a per liter beverage basis, emissions associated with transporting and cooling aluminum cans are 7% - 21% percent lower than plastic bottles and 35 to 49 percent lower than glass bottles, depending on the size of the comparative bottles as well as the types of refrigerators in which beverage is cooled before consumption. On a per-container basis, the associated emissions of beverages packaged in a 12-oz aluminum can are 45% lower than in a 12-oz glass bottle and 49 percent lower than in a 20-oz plastic bottle when delivered and chilled in small markets and convenience stores.
Are convenience stores and markets going to save from the reduced GHG from stocking aluminum bottles versus plastic bottles? Are they going to suffer hardships from stocking aluminum bottles versus plastic bottles? Highly doubtful, either instance, will make a difference. With plastic’s financial bank, we might see a price war, if the plastic water bottles feel their market share is threatened. Kind of a standard response these days. Through education, do you think enough owners’ consciences can be stirred to the point of saying NO to single-use plastic water bottles? What happens when their state says no more single-use plastic is allowed?
Results of making reusable bottle water accessible
There are some striking advantages to joining the PATHWATER Revolution beyond ousting those polluting plastic bottles from our store shelves. Yes, reusing a PATHWATER bottle three times makes it carbon neutral. Carbon Neutral is a bit distant concept for most, but did you know the average customer ends up reusing a PATHWATER bottle 10+ times. What does that mean? Well, that $2.44 bottle just made the cost of that aluminum bottle 24 cents. Not a bad deal, and once it passes three reuses, it’s officially a benefit to the planet and helps keep carbon in the ground by helping people to avoid single-use bottles and cans of water.
As mentioned previously, using aluminium keeps oil and natural gas in the ground so that people won’t suffer from the effects of these noxious pollutants. Tightening recycling of aluminum takes far less energy, 90% less than new aluminum; not to mention in just three months every canteen can be turned into another beautiful PATHWATER bottle ready for a nice refreshing drink. Really the only bottled water that should be on our shelves.
Conclusion
PATHWATER makes it easy for everyone to adopt reusability - which is the point of the bottle. An incredible yet simple solution to our plastic crisis. It’s a clever redirection for people to find their way back to drinking the water from home, school, and work - for which bottled water companies are reselling in plastic anyhow. Municipalities inspect their waterway more than those plastic water bottles you see on shelves advertising just how pure they are; some are nothing more than SPRING-ING from our local Municipality’s water anyhow.
Resources:
https://theintercept.com/2017/03/24/a-louisiana-town-plagued-by-pollution-shows-why-cuts-to-the-epa-will-be-measured-in-illnesses-and-deaths/
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/aug/12/west-virginia-appalachia-miners-green-new-deal
https://www.ofrf.org/news/organic-farming-improves-soil-health-1
https://www.noaa.gov/media-release/noaa-forecasts-very-large-dead-zone-for-gulf-of-mexico
https://news.un.org/en/tags/plastic
https://drinkpathwater.com/products/path-water-9-pack
https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/sustainability
https://www.npr.org/2019/08/27/754811325/in-new-jersey-newarks-water-crisis-continues