Water bottles have long been a menace to society, and sadly the environment has paid a heavy price for convenience, but if the Primo Water Company has their way, then nasty petroleum based water bottles will be a thing of the past.

Primo is the first nationally available bottled water whose bottle is made from plants, not crude oil. Using the revolutionary Ingeo Plastic from NatureWorks (the same material SunChips is using to make their compostable chip bags), Primo Water has formed a partnership to make their bottles from this 100% annually renewable, plant-based plastic.

Primo sites some very impressive facts about their bottles. My favorite is that if all plastic bottles on the market in the US were made from Ingeo natural plastic instead of the usual petroleum-based plastic, then the annual petroleum savings would equal one billion gallons of gasoline. That’s billion with a “b”!

Another great thing about the Primo bottles is the cool ways they can be “recycled.” Sure they can be recycled the traditional way with regular plastic, but they can also be commercially composted and incinerated for energy recovery. Talk about a truly renewable resource!

Primo Bottles also take 65% less fossil fuels to produce and contribute 80-90% less greenhouse gasses to the air during production than traditional water bottles.

So how does the water actually taste? I mean, this is all for nothing if you can’t make yourself drink the stuff. Well there’s good news there too! In a blind taste test, three out of four people preferred Primo over the leading spring water, and four out of five preferred Primo Water over tap water.

Companies like Primo Water make me smile. They found a way to think outside the box, and still be competitive in the marketplace (18, 16.9 oz bottles for $4.99). Small steps really can change the world!

Look for Primo Water in Kroger Supermarkets including: Kroger, Ralph's, Kings Soopers, City Market, Dillon's, Smith's, Fry's, QFC, Baker's, Pay Less, Owen's, JayC, Hilander, Gerbes, Food 4 Less, Food Co, and Fred Meyer.

Here’s a video about the making of Primo Water Bottles: