Rather than trying to force information out of the Nalgene corporation yet again, I decided there must be a better approach to learn about the packaging system of the Everyday Nalgene that allows it to be shipped safely from the Nalgene factories to retail outlets. I visited two stores on Thayer street that sell Nalgenes to try to get a glimpse first hand of how Nalgenes are packaged and shipped.
Stop #1: City Sports
Thayer Street City Sports
City Sport's water bottle collection
A recent shipment to City Sports
At City Sports I spoke with the manager, who informed me that all products sold at City Sports franchises are sent directly from manufacturers, including Nalgene, to the two City Sports warehouses, located in Boston and Washington D.C. At the warehouse, items are sorted in order to be distributed to
A wide variety of goods shipped all together from the warehouse in Boston to the Providence City Sports
individual franchises. The Warehouse reuses boxes sent by the manufacturers to ship a hodgepodge of items to the franchises. For example, a box printed with The North Face logo may arrive in Providence with a mixture of Under Armor spandex, New Balance running Sneakers and reusable water bottles. Once the items are unpacked and displayed in the store, City Sports recycles the cardboard. City Sports seems to be taking steps in the right direction by reusing cardboard sent from manufactures and recycling it at individual franchises. Despite the fact that they are reusing and recycling, the amount of cardboard produced is vast. Even though it is recycled, 100% of it cannot be transformed back into fresh cardboard (a process that requires much energy). As we all know, trees supply the main ingredient for cardboard, so it is important to realize that deforestation is in fact an environmental impact of Nalgene water bottles that is often forgot about.
An employee only section of City Sports. Although it is tempting to believe that reusing and recycling is a fail proof solution, there is still much waste generated.
Stop #2: The Brown University Bookstore
Brown Water Bottles
The Everyday Nalgene imprinted with the Brown logo
The cardboard packaging of mugs, resembling that of the Everyday Nalgene
By speaking with a worker at the bookstore, I learned that Brown’s water bottles arrive in a different method that that of City Sports. Because they are personally monogrammed, Brown Everyday Nalgenes are shipped directly from the Nalgene factory to the Brown Bookstore, in cardboard boxes printed with the Nalgene logo. The worker did not have a box of Nalgene water bottles available for me to see at that time, but she did show me a similar packaging system of coffee mugs, pictured at right. This coffee mug packaging it much smaller than that of the water bottles, as she explained to me that Nalgenes arrive in a box about ten times the size of this coffee mug one. Despite the size difference, the general set up is the same in that cardboard dividers separate each bottle to prevent scratching and thin sheets of paper separate the rows of bottles stacked on each other. After the bottles are unpacked from the box, the University recycles the cardboard. As with City Sports, this means that huge amounts of cardboard must be produced to supply the Nalgene factory with shipment boxes and the divider components. Cardboard equals deforestation, plus even more negative environmental impacts, such as those made by the factories needed to make the cardboard itself. Perhaps rather than simply recycling shipment boxes, the shipment boxes could be returned to Nalgene for reuse. If the material characteristics of cardboard prevent this from being possible, perhaps a reusable shipment system could be built into the trucks that transport Nalgene bottles from the factory to retail outlets. This is a good lead into the next issue contributing to environmental impacts that I will address in the next post, transportation and shipping.
thenalgene 