"The power of a rainforest in the palm of your hand"

But there are some bottled water companies that are doing things differently. One of them is an American company called Treeson. After Treeson water company founder Carlton Solle took a trip to Costa Rica with his family five years ago and saw the dreadful plastic pollution littering the beach, he learned that less than 20 percent of the 50 billion plastic water bottles sold in the United States are actually recycled. The remaining 40 billion end up in landfills, waterways and oceans, or in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Moved by this to solve water bottle waste, Treeson designed a self-sustaining water bottle that uses water sourced at a natural spring in Costa Rica. Made from eco-friendly packaging that is easily flattened and returned for free via the United States Postal Service, this bottle will be recycled as clean energy with a machine that converts the material into biogas. Brilliant! That’s cradle to cradle design at its best.

The Treeson bottle is shaped like a leaf that is made of plant-based material, which is completely biodegradable, compostable and GMO and toxin-free. The bottle can be reused or flattened and sent back with a USPS return mailing label that is part of the packaging of the bottle.

A Kickstarter campaign to raise funds to launch the first production run is underway and has less than a month to go. So far 237 backers have pledged $11,605 for the project with 24 days left. The goal is to raise $95,000. The Kickstarter campaign pitch states that “it’s a totally new system that eliminates trash & uses the bottle returned to make clean energy to do it all over again. It’s convenient, it’s free and it supports the oldest government institution in the United States of America, the USPS, the organization with the greenest fleet on the streets.”

Treeson water bottles have the added benefit of planting a tree for every bottle sold. “Not only do you help get rid of trash and create clean energy but you also help restore vital habitats and ensure that there will be plenty of fresh water and clean air for all of us for years to come! We’re literally putting the power of a rainforest into the palm of your hand.”

I’d like to think that this is the way business should be done in a new economy. Business that is responsible, transparent and environmentally committed. The last part of the chain in this case, would be a responsible way to return the water we drink back to where it came from.