A Lighter Bottle for Bottled Water

One of the nation’s biggest sellers of bottled water, Nestle Waters North America, has introduced a bottle that weighs 15 percent less than those sold today, an effort that will reduce waste, emissions and the cost of raw materials.

Nestle Waters North America has started selling certain brands in a 12.5-gram bottle, which the company took two years to create and will help it save 65 million pounds of plastic resin a year, Chief Executive Kim Jeffery said today.

The company sells brands such as Poland Spring, Arrowhead, Deer Park, Ozarka, Perrier and S. Pellegrino. The new bottle is being sold under the Ozarka and Arrowhead brands and will roll out under other brands throughout this year.

Other bottles on the market can weigh 25 grams or more, he said. The company has one more, lighter version planned before it reaches its limit in making bottles lighter.

“As the leader in the bottled water category, we also want to be the leader in reducing our environmental footprint,” Jeffery said. He said the water business is particularly sensitive to environmental concerns since its success depends on sustainability of its springs.

Bottled water sales are expected to surpass soft drink sales by 2013, Jeffery said. The fastest growing part of the business is sales of bottles of less than 1.5 liters. Most people buy bottled water by the case, with 24 half-liter bottles.