These water bottles can be mailed to a recycling plant for free

Currently seeking funding on Kickstarter, Treeson Spring Water bottles include a free mail-back system to ensure they get recycled.

Bottles water has become an environmental concern over the past couple of decades, even leading to organizations such as Ban The Bottle. While an outright ban is unlikely to materialize any time soon, a new startup called Treeson Spring Water is aiming to make its bottles as eco as possible, including a free mail-back system to ensure they get recycled.

Currently seeking funding on Kickstarter, the company’s bottles are made of plant-based, non-gmo materials and are manufactured in the US. On the back of each bottle is a label with the address of Treeson’s headquarters in Texas. Rather than putting the bottle into a recycling container when it’s finished, users can simply place it into a postbox. The postage is already paid for so no stamps are necessary. The reason for this method is that — according to Treeson — out of the 50 billion plastic water bottles sold in the U.S. every year less than twenty percent actually make it to a recycling plant, despite consumers’ efforts to separate them at home. Treeson ensures the bottles get recycled, an even turns some into biogas that powers its bottle-making machines, completing the cradle-to-cradle cycle. Additionally, Treeson plants a tree for every bottle it sells.

The video below explains more about the project:

Treeson joins ideas such Brazil’s Clever Caps — which adds extra functionality to bottle tops after they’ve been used — in making the packaging less harmful to the environment. Its Kickstarter campaign runs until 15 March. Are there other ways to reduce the impact that packaging has on the world?

Kickstarter: www.kck.st/1iVkfqQ