What are the better options for packaging water?

I've always wondered why plastic bottles were favoured for packaging individual water consumables. What other options could be swiftly optimised to obviate the issues of plastic water bottles being an ecological hazard?

Taxonomy

• Food & Beverage
• Potable
• Environment
• Water Safety Plan
• Drinking Water
• Bioplastics
• Chemicals
• Polymers & Plastics
• Environment
• Plastics
• Food & Beverage
• Bottled Water
• Health & Safety
• Bottling

4 Answers

1. Dear Tia Carr Williams ,

   Plastic bottles are used since the material is relatively strong yet light, it doesn't chemically interact with water and bottled water is easy to distribute. Additionally, plastic provides a sealed container which prevents fizzy drinks from getting flat.
   
   Nowadays ecological ​materials for ​bottles from ​plant sources (​sugar canes) are being developed.
   
   Moreover, I have written an article about switching to completely renewable materials, such as wood instead of plastic. Please take a look - http://bit.ly/2mTHDwA

2. Go back to public fountains
   
   

   It used to be that we could use a public fountain or water source in many places. Why do we have to buy water in the first instance. 

3. Bio-degradable plastics
   
   

   Perhaps companies who already package thousands of bottles of water a day, would simply switch over to a bio-degradable form of plastic that would reduces the risk to the environment.

4. Alternative to Plastic Bottles for Water
   
   

   I think that reusable bottles would alleviate the problem: Bring your own and just pay for the refill with clean drinking water. Growing up, this is how it worked with milk for our family! Besides, this might also be cheaper for the manufacturers, since their drinking water product could be transported in larger quantities and distributed over a small, inexpensive local vending station.