By now anyone on this planet should know that bottled water isn’t a Mother Nature friendly way to cart around and consume your daily H2O. About 30 to 40 billion plastic water bottles are discarded each year, of which 90 percent end up in landfills rather than recycling bins.

Let’s not even consider all the fossil fuels wasted in producing the bottles and trucking them around the world.

The solution for a group of entrepreneurs out of Michigan? box up the water. Their motivation:

It started with the simple idea of creating a new bottled water brand that is kinder to the environment and gives back a bit—we found that it shouldn’t be bottled at all, but instead, boxed. So we looked to the past for inspiration in the century old beverage container and decided to keep things simple, sustainable, and beautiful.

Their argument for why boxed is better?

76 percent of the box is made from a renewable resource—trees—”making it one of the most sustainable beverage packages available.
Those trees come from certified, well-managed forests.
The boxes are shipped flat, which is significantly more efficient than shipping empty plastic or glass bottles.
The boxes are recyclable—where facilities exist.
The company plans on donating 10 percent of its profit to organizations working to improve access to clean water, and promote reforestation.

And it seems to be catching on. There isn’t a day that goes by where the words “boxed water” don’t appear on my twitter timeline, or pop up on my instagram feed. There’s much to be said for the concept, the simplicity of the packaging and the overall aesthetic. One thing’s for sure: Boxed water is definitely better-looking than the competition. And isn’t that what matters anyways?

There’s a list of Boxed Water Is Better outlets on the company’s Web site, www.boxedwaterisbetter.com .

Follow them on twitter @helloboxedwater