It's about the packaging of water, impact of packaging material on the water quality and alternative of it.

1. Packaging material used for water
By: Arun Kumar Gupta

2. Water is most important human need next only to air. Being the most important need, it should be made available
in uncontaminated form for human consumption. It must be free of water or food borne or harmful bacteria and
also free from harmful heavy metals (FSSAI and BIS).
Treatment before packaging of water
Aeration
Demineralization
Ozonization
Packaging material used for water must be sterile, hygienic, colorless, transparent, taint proof and pilfer proof.
Packaging and storage of drinking water

3. Packaging material used presently for packaging and storage
• PET, Polypropylene (PP), Poly vinyl chloride (PVC), Polyethylene, and Polycarbonate (PC) in different
forms such as pouches, cans, pots, drums, bottles are being used for storage and distribution of drinking
water.
• LDPE/ LLDPE is widely used for packing of potable drinking water in 200 ml pouches for serving during
travelling.
• Tetra packs
• HDPE
PET bottles and Jars LDPE PP PVC PC Tetra pack

4. Packaging material properties
1. PET bottles of 200 mL, 500 mL, 750 mL being used for packaging drinking water. They have good impact strength and
they neither impart taint nor allow packed water to pickup foreign odour. PETE provides a good barrier to gases
(oxygen and carbon dioxide) and moisture. It also has good resistance to heat, mineral oils, solvents, and acids, but not
to bases. The main reasons for its popularity are its glass-like transparency, adequate gas barrier for retention of
carbonation, light weight, and shatter resistance.
2. Polycarbonate offers clear, heat resistant, and durable, and is mainly used as a replacement for glass items such as large
returnable/refillable water bottles and sterilizable baby bottles.
3. Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), an addition polymer of vinyl chloride, is heavy, stiff, ductile, and a medium strong,
amorphous, transparent material. It has excellent resistance to chemicals (acids and bases), grease, and oil; good flow
characteristics; and stable electrical properties. Although PVC is primarily used in medical and other non-food
applications, its food uses include bottles and packaging films.
4. HDPE provides excellent resistance to most solvents, very good resistance to alcohols, dilute acids and alkalis moderate
resistance to oils and greases and poor resistance to hydrocarbons (aliphatic, aromatic, halogenated).
5. LDPE offers good resistance to alcohols, dilute alkalis and acids, limited resistance to aliphatic and aromatic
hydrocarbons, mineral oils, oxidizing agents and halogenated hydrocarbons.

5. Growth of packaged drinking water and PET in India
Increasing health concerns, and unavailability of clean
drinking water have led to the growth of the bottled water
market in India. The market is expected to reach INR
~242.6 Bn by the end of 2020, from its 2015 value of INR
88.7 Bn, expanding at a compound annual growth rate
(CAGR) of ~22.3% from 2016. The major bottled water
brands operating in India are Bislery, Kinley, and
Aquafina.

6. Bottled water: A dangerous habit
 Less than 30 percent of plastic water bottles are recycled.
 Bottled water is full of hormone-disrupting chemicals. Anti-estrogens and anti-androgens
are present in the majority of bottled water.
 Estrogenicity in water from plastic bottles is three times higher compared to glass.
 Contamination of bottled water results in human exposure to endocrine disrupters.
 Bottled water risks include an increased cancer risk. A recent study found 11 out of 18
bottled water sampled induced estrogenic effects in a human cancer cell line.
 Laboratory testing conducted by Environmental Working Group found popular bottled
water brands to contain mixtures of 38 different pollutants, including bacteria, fertilizer,
Tylenol and industrial chemicals, some at levels no better than tap water. Some even
contain high levels of cancer-causing chlorination byproducts.
 In the U.S., 24 percent of bottled water sold is either Pepsi’s Aquafina or Coke’s Dasani.
Both brands are bottled, purified municipal tap water.

7. Plastic pollutants
Bisphenol A: A serious matter of concern
 Much of the research into BPA and its effects have
focused on rodents using very high doses, much
higher than any human is likely to be exposed to
and higher than the safe level recommended by the
European Food Safety Authority (EFSA).
 The EFSA recently lowered the safe level of BPA
from 50µg per kilo of bodyweight per day (µg/kg of
body wt/day) to 4 µg/kg of body wt/day because of
reservations around its possible health effects on
mammary glands and reproductive, metabolic,
neurobehavioral and immune systems.
Microplastics in Drinking Water
 Microplastics is small pieces of plastic – which are
less than 5mm long – could also be found in our
bottled water.
 Early in 2018, the World Health Organisation (WHO)
launched a health review after microplastics in the
form of plastic fibres were found in 93% of popular
bottled water brands.
 Analysis of the bottled water revealed an average of
10.4 microplastic particles larger than 100um per liter
of water which was confirmed by FTIR spectroscopic
analysis, and an average of 325 smaller particles sized
6.5-100um per liter. The latter were discovered using
Nile Red dye, which adheres to plastic particles,
causing them to fluoresce. Polypropylene, a plastic
used to make bottle tops, was the most common
fragment found (in 54% of cases) while 4% of
samples showed the presence of industrial lubricants.

9. Table 1. Global migration valued from plastic packaging materials into distilled water at 40℃ / 10days
Source: Vijayalakshmi, N. S. Packaging aspects of drinking water

10. Innovative techniques
• Biodegradable water carton
entirely recyclable
 biodegradable
Compostable
• Low plastic bottles
Light weight plastic bottles
50% reduction in plastic use
• Edible water balls

11. Biodegradable water carton
• Single serve paper water bottle with an innovative cap feature unlike anything currently
on the market.
• Marketing appeal for this product is the sustainable nature of the materials, the
recyclability of the container after use, and the sleek modem design.
• The product is manufactured by sealing two halves of sheet
stock to attain the final shape.
• Form, fill and seal concept is also used for manufacture of the packages and filling of
the product within.

12. Biodegradable water carton
• The product features a 100% recyclable paper carton instead of the traditional
bottle.
• The recyclability of the container and the fact that each carton is made using
sustainable materials provide the main marketability for this product.

13. Low plastic bottles
• The bottle is made from PET and is injection blow molded into
a proprietary custom mold.
• This bottle was designed as an eco-friendy bottle.
• It reduces the amount of plastic used by 50 percent.
• It makes the bottle convenient and portable to use
• Aquafina marketed by Pepsi Co. uses this technology

14. Edible water balls
• The edible water bottle is a blob-like water container made from sodium alginate gel.
• The biodegradable blob was created by Skipping Rocks Lab in an attempt to make a more environmentally
friendly alternative to single-serving plastic bottles.
• The container, named "Ooho" by its creators, encloses a small volume of water in a membrane made from
brown algae and calcium chloride. The “Ooho” is a gelatinous, double-membrane sphere made by dropping
ice into separate solutions of calcium salt and sodium alginate.
• This process is called spherification where an edible, biodegradable capsule is created.
• It consists of a controlled jellification of a liquid which forms spheres when submerged in a bath.
• To drink the water, you need to pop the bubble using your teeth to access the water inside. The bubble that is
left after drinking can be thrown away to biodegrade or can be eaten

15. Next generation packaging material