Can a Bottled Water be Green?

Indoor plumbing is a fantastic thing -- turn on the tap in most any home in America and water gushes forth. I'm among those who believe we should use this essentially free resource as our main source of drinking water.

But suppose you've got a bottled water habit. Or perhaps you're going on a picnic or a long car trip and want a non-carbonated, unsweetened, zero calorie, zero fat, zero carbohydrate, zero sodium beverage along for the ride.

In that case, Primo water might just fit the bill. The Primo Water Corporation claims that it's beverage is 99.99% pure and that 3 out of 4 consumers preferred the taste of Primo bottled water over both municipal water and other bottled waters in blind taste tests involving thousands of participants.

(Primo attributes its taste advantage to the blend of minerals - calcium chloride, magnesium sulfate, sodium bicarbonate - it adds to the water. I'm no water connoisseur, but I do have to admit that Primo sells some pretty smooth and refreshing aqua.)

But what really got our attention was Primo's packaging. As the package says, Primo is an "American Grown Bottle - made from corn, not crude oil." According to the manufacturers, Primo water is the "first nationally available bottled water whose bottle is made from plants."

While nearly all plastic bottles are made from petroleum-based chemicals, Primo's bottle is made from a plastic called Ingeo(tm). Wikipedia has a nice brief summary of how Ingeo is basically made from plant sugars. (You can find out more about Ingeo at the website of its manufacturer, NatureWorks, LLC.) So you can still drink bottled water while supporting American industry (i.e. buying local) and kicking the petroleum habit - what a sweet solution!

And as an additional bonus, Primo says its bottles are free of Bisphenol A, an organic compound in some plastics that has raised health concerns.

Note that green does not mean more expensive in this case. In fact, Primo is actually far less expensive than many other bottled waters. For around $5, you can pick up a case of 18 16.9-ounce bottles at Kroger-owned stores and other locations around the country.