Scholle IPN and Primo tackle water contamination and scarcity with bag-in-box solution

07 May 2021 --- Scholle IPN and Primo are partnering on a project to bring safe water to US communities in bag-in-box packaging. 

Tap water can contain trace amounts of elements like mercury, lead, cyanide, and arsenic. Primo uses an exchange and filtration process to ensure drinking water is free from bacteria, parasites and heavy metals.

Meanwhile, one million bottles of water are purchased every minute, Scholle IPN highlights. Over 90 percent of these plastic water bottles never get recycled, instead ending up in landfills and oceans.

Primo wanted to replace the plastic bottle model with a solution that protects its water quality while reducing plastic waste.

In 2018, Scholle IPN debuted 2Pure, a polyethylene-based film offering a taint- and odor-free water package that also cuts down on material costs and environmental waste.

Last month, Scholle IPN announced its bag-in-box packaging for water had passed the Association of Plastic Recyclers’ “PE Film and Flexible Packaging Critical Guidance” testing, which evaluates the compatibility of flexible packaging with film-to-film recycling processes.

Water vulnerability
Primo decided to partner with Scholle IPN for its latest project: the Good to Go bag-in-box water package.

“The Primo Good to Go water in a box product provides consumers with active lifestyles the convenience of pure, healthy water on-the-go while also reducing the amount of plastic they use,” says Charles Fogg, senior VP and general manager at Primo Water North America.

“Customers are concerned about the environmental impact of single-serve water bottles, and Primo Good to Go gives them a convenient alternative that uses 84.3 percent less plastic than an average case pack of bottled water.”

Primo highlights repeated instances where access to safe drinking water has been threatened or cut off, like the Texas snowstorm in February 2021 that left hundreds of thousands of people without clean water and still persists today or the Flint water crisis where a whole community lacked safe drinking water for almost five years.

Conventional water reservoirs that supply taps in homes are easily contaminated and cannot promise to provide safe drinking water, particularly during moments of crisis, the company adds.Primo and Scholle IPN are partnering on the Good to Go bag-in-box water project, addressing water contamination and scarcity in the US (Image credit: Scholle IPN).

Thinking inside the box
Bag-in-box water solutions provide speedy and eco-friendly access to safe water, the partners maintain.

A full trailer of 5-gallon water coolers – the kind often found in offices – can hold 2,680 bottles. Meanwhile, a full trailer of 20 L bags can hold 100,000 bags and produce 36 percent less greenhouse gas emissions than plastic bottles, they say.

“At Primo, our combined retail brand and product portfolio already provides us with a value proposition that sets us apart from our competitors in the marketplace,” notes Fogg.

“With Primo Good to Go, we further differentiate ourselves by adding an innovative alternative to single-serve water bottles.”

Primo’s Good to Go bags are available in select HEB and Walmart locations as they begin distribution nationally.

Each bag is equipped with the patented 2Pure film technology and ergonomic FlexTap, which work together to provide shelf-stable water.

Edited by Joshua Poole