Water bottles are just a vessel for holding water, right? No matter if they are made out of PET, Glass, Stainless Steel, etc., they are not supposed to talk with us.

Heard of Smartwater? Now you will here about smart bottles. A company named Hydrocoach has introduced a high tech bottle that tells you how much water you should drink, then digitally monitors your progress all day long.
The bottle prompts you to keep sipping until your personal goal is reached!

I think that is pretty cool because drinking enough water is essential for digestion, circulation, and regulating body temperature, as well as assist with weight loss.  Believe it or not, there are many people who suffer from symtems of dehydration and dont know it until it is too late. So drink up!

I came across this NY Times article and thought it would make a good companion article to my blog about street vendors selling bottled water in Washington DC during the July 4th holiday week-end.

Water Vendors Profit From the Heat

By SAM DOLNICK

With the sun pounding down on Church Avenue in central Brooklyn, Johanna Washington dipped her fingers into an ice-cold cooler and shook her head as a man in a blue T-shirt approached, water bottles in hand.

He and his dripping shopping cart marked the fourth competitor to set up shop at her intersection on Thursday afternoon, and she was not pleased to find herself part of a chorus chanting the same song: “Cold water, cold water.”

A 59-year-old woman with dark blue eyes and bright pink toenails, Ms. Washington has spent most days of this likely-to-be-New-York’s-hottest month behind a cooler strapped to a shopping cart at Flatbush and Church Avenues, hoping to hydrate the masses, one bottle, and one dollar, at a time.

Her pitch, often delivered beneath a wide-brimmed straw hat that rests atop a cascade of gray dreadlocks, is simple. Her water can be bought without having to break stride. (It also comes with a “Thank you, dear” in a lilting Caribbean accent.)

As July’s historic heat wave has done its best to suffocate New York, the dollar-water brigade has popped up in sun-drenched parks and, amid honking intersections, is the latest small-scale entrepreneur to dot the city. They are the hot-weather counterparts to the umbrella vendors who materialize outside subway stations at every drizzle. And though the city considers it against the law to sell water without a license, many sidewalk peddlers are doing record business.

Ms. Washington, who has been selling water for five summers, said she usually picked up three cases of Poland Spring for a total of $16.62 from the local Pioneer supermarket. She arrives on her corner about 2 p.m. and generally stays until 8. If she sells all 72 bottles, as she has several times this month, that is about $55 in her pocket, or about $9 an hour. She does this two to four days a week, depending partly on the weather, between her other odd jobs, like baby-sitting and flower arranging.

Ms. Washington said she found the hot weather as draining as anyone else, but each morning she wakes up hoping for a scorcher. “If somebody has a snowplow, wouldn’t they like to see snow?” she asked. “I don’t like hot weather, but it is my business.”

She has had to make some sacrifices for the work. She has no air-conditioner at home because the overburdened freezers that chill her bottles keep her electricity bill high enough. After an afternoon on the corner, evenings are spent soaking her aching feet in a warm bath.

“I can’t sit when I’m selling,” she said. “I always have to be moving and talking.”

Ms. Washington, who lives a few blocks away, chats up neighbors and makes friends with customers. The other day, she wore a flower pin on her pink tank top that the daughter of one thirsty patron had stuck to her shirt. On less humid days, she has found, people turn to sweets — soda, juice, ices. But on the stickiest days, bountiful this summer, she is very popular.

“I’m good at selling,” she said with a shrug and a sly smile. Case in point: “Poland Spring reminds me of water I used to drink from the river in Trinidad as a child. It’s very natural.”

Before water, Ms. Washington sold hair accessories, grilled corn and Caribbean snacks from the sidewalk. Those each involved more work and higher overhead. But this summer of swelter has brought increased competition on the dollar-water circuit.

“I have to beat the iron while it’s hot,” Ms. Washington said. “I have to sell water right now.”

The American National Association for PET Container Resources recently concluded a study that has found that recycled PET saves energy and generates less greenhouse gas. The report also concludes that incorporating recycled PET resin from plastic bottles into new containers reduces the environmental footprint of that package significantly.

Bottled Water companies are beginning to offer water bottles made from recycled bottled water bottles. At Bottled Water Store.com, private label bottled water can be found packed in new RPET recycled plastic bottles. These products have proven to be highly popular already in the short time since they have been introduced.

I am a big fan of recycling and reusing plastic bottles. Especially bottled water bottles. Recycling plastic has been going on for a long time but recently I learned of two novel ways used plastic bottles are being turned into new products. Well, the first one isn't exactly about turning water bottles into something different. It's about turning a water bottle, or bottles, into water bottles. A California company that specializes in private label bottled water now produces water bottles made from recycled water bottles. The product is called RPET and is 100% recycled plastic water bottles. You can see and learn more about these at Bottled Water Store.com.

And for for something completely different. I read about this in a recent issue of  Time magazine. Nine World Cup soccer teams wore uniforms made from recycled plastic bottles. Nike, Coke and Reebok are leading this new fashion trend. And, according to the article author Joel Stein, the uniforms are especially soft and very comfortable. And Nike says that the uniforms are lighter, sturdier, and breathier than and other Nike uniform shirt that has come before. And they are made solely out of plastic! Coca-Cola's shirts are made of half plastic and half cotton are are may be even softer than Nike.

In the future, look for of these shirts and uniforms on sale at boutique stores and at Wal-mart. Also, Reebok will soon be collecting bottles from NFL and NHL games and turning them into shirts to sell to fans.

July 4th is a great American holiday and the milestone event of summer months. America's birthday is jubilant and exciting with barbecue, picnics, party's and fireworks. And lets not forget Bottled Water.

July 4th really kicks off the summer vacation season which is, especially this year, extremely hot. I just returned from a few days vacation in Washington DC where my family and I toured all of the great capital government buildings and monuments. We also watched the National July 4th parade. The temparature was 100+ degrees! Was it ever hot. There must have been a million people in DC last week end. The streets were packed and everyone was dealing as best they could with the heat. Thankfully, there were bottled water vendors everywhere. Really, everywhere. Apparently the July 4th holiday is a great opportunity for street vendors and people who might not normally sell things on the street, to sell bottled water. You could see them everywhere hauling coolers and cases of bottled water to "hot" spots on the capital streets. Very often they had their children in tow. For some vendors this was a family affair and an opportunity not to miss.

From time to time I couldn't help but think that the July 4th parade and the entire week-end might not have possible without bottled water. The only way to survive last week end was to stay hydrated. I have blogged many times on the insanity of considering a ban on bottled water. This was proof right before my eyes of how right I am. Bottled Water is a product and service that everyone wants. The city also impressed me with the way that they collected the empties. They had people walking through the crowds with large plastic bags collecting the empties and staging them in designated areas so that the could be picked up later by trucks.

My hat is off to DC. They endorsed a way for citizens to produce some income. They made sure that their visitors were properly hydrated and they efficiently cleaned the streets and recycled the bottles.

The past year has seen bottled water companies announcing various ways to reduce the carbon footprint of bottled water bottles. We now have "Environmentally Friendly" bio-degradable bottles, bottles with reduced volumes of plastic material, and recycled plastic bottles.

Now the latest development comes from a South African company, Stora Enso. The new product, called NeoSet, is a full wet strength paper label that contains "post-consumer-waste" (recycled) (PCW) fiber.

NeoSet is a one-side coated wet strength label containing a high percentage of PCW-fibers. It meets all the requirements of label papers specifically used for the production of labels for water and soft drink bottles. NeoSet is produced at Stora Enso's Uetersen Mill in Germany.

"With NeoSet we respond to the growing interest from brand owners in packaging solutions with further improved ecological efficiency characteristics," says Eckhard Kallies, VP for Packaging Papers. "We improve the environmental profile by replacing a high percentage of virgin fiber with post-consumer-waste content.

The study found:

• Measurement based on British Thermal Units (BTUs) indicates that the energy consumed to produce small-pack bottled water containers (from 8oz to 2.5 gallons) amounted to only 0.067% of the total energy use in the US in 2007. Home and Office Delivery (HOD) bottled water (reusable bottles from 2.5 to 5 gallons) energy consumption only amounted to 0.003% of the total energy used in the US in 2007.
• The small-pack and HOD bottled water industries’ combined greenhouse gas/CO2 emissions amounted to only 0.08% of total US greenhouse gas emissions.
• Bottled water packaging discards accounted for only 0.64% of the 169m tonnes of total US Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) discards in 2007.
• The process and transportation BTU energy use for the bottled water industry was only 0.07% of total US BTU primary energy consumption.
• Greenhouse gas emissions per half-gallon of single-serve bottled water came to 426.4g CO2 equivalent, which is 75% less CO2 eq per half-gallon than orange juice.
• Small-pack bottled water generates 46% less CO2 eq when compared to soft drinks also packaged in PET plastic.

Franklin Associates, a division of ERG, produced the LCI and prepared a report that quantified the energy requirements, solid waste generation and greenhouse gas emissions for the production, packaging, transport and end-of-life management for bottled water consumed in the US in 2007.

According to a 2008 Beverage Marketing Corporation report, total consumption of bottled water in the US in 2007 was 8.8bn gallons.

The environmentally aware actions of many bottled water companies – such as the use of more recycled PET (rPET) in their bottle production, increasing recycling rates, and enhanced lightweighting – have positively impacted the environmental footprint of the industry.

Another recent study confirms the bottled water industry’s very small environmental footprint. On 2 March 2010, Nestlé Waters North America, an IBWA member, released peer-reviewed findings on its environmental footprint in a study conducted by Quantis International.

Key findings from the study include:

• Water is the least environmentally ‘impactful’ beverage option.
• Tap water has lightest footprint, followed by tap water consumed in reusable bottles (if used more than 10 times), and then by bottled water.
• Bottled water is the most environmentally responsible packaged drink choice.
• Sports drinks, enhanced waters and soda produce nearly 50% more carbon dioxide emissions per serving than bottled water.
• Juice, beer and milk produce nearly three times as many carbon dioxide emissions per serving than bottled water.
• Milk, coffee, beer, wine and juice together comprise 28% of a consumer’s total beverage consumption, but represent 58% of climate change impact.

Source: International Bottled Water Association

More Info: Bottled Water Store.com

The newest entry into the world of "Green" bottled water products is "Planet Green". What makes it green is it's bottle. It is made entirely of plant material, including corn. The bottle is 100% biodegradable, as long as it is returned to the manufacturer for special composting.

The water itself is highly purified using a process very similar to Smartwater. Filtration, deionization, reverse osmosis, vapor distillation and ozonation. Then minerals are added for taste. I wonder if Planet Green makes you as smart as Smartwater does?

The bottlers want you to be real smart and stop buying water packaged in petroleum based plastic bottles. They say that by drinking their water you will help reduce global warming, carbon emissions and our dependency on oil.

Green Planet is now available on-line at bottledwaterstore.com.

Custom label bottled water is a very popular form of advertising. Many companies, large and small find that custom label bottled water is an inexpensive way to advertise their company and their products. The average cost of a custom labels bottle of water is approximately $0.40. Compare this to other advertising specialty products and you will see that the cost is actually quite low. A distinct advantage is that in additional to incorporating a company logo, which is all that is allowed on many ad specialty items like pens, letter openers, tape measures, bottle labels can have all kinds of text messages. Astute marketer can include on their labels telephone numbers, addresses, web sites, promotional messages and much more.

But customizing bottled water is not just for business. Churches and other faith based groups utilize their own private labeled bottled water to announce services and spread the word of the lord. Other non-profit groups such as baseball leagues, soccer leagues, cheer leading organizations, schools,  use this ad medium for fund raising.  And civic groups such as towns and cities customize bottled water labels with messages to promote causes of interest.

Custom label bottled water is a cost efficient means for marketing and promotion.