BP: Water Bottle

Design in the development of the plastic water bottle involves three important aspects. These aspects are the lid, the SKU number and the bottle itself. I’ll start with the lid. The lid of the name brand water bottles such as Aquafina, Dasani and other name brands are either green, blue or clear. Why is that? 

Well in class we learned that companies such as Aquafina and Dasani choose these colors for the lids because they symbolize different aspects of our planet. Earth (green), water (blue) and also the clarity of the purified water inside the bottle (clear). What is ironic about the lids is that they are made of plastic which is very harmful to our planet. 

The SKU number on the water bottle is placed on the label for the consumer to trace where the water that is inside the bottle originated from. These locations are usually springs that are glamorized on commercials for these water bottles that convince us that we are drinking clean pure water untouched by water bottle companies. It is ironic that water bottle companies add salt to the water to make it taste better, so the water is not truly unaltered by these companies.

The last aspect of the water bottle that I am going to discuss is the bottle itself. The bottle is made of clear plastic with ribbed sides. Why are the bottles designed this way? Well the transparency of the bottle is intentional so that we can see the clean pure water inside. The ribbed sides have two purposes, the first being so that the bottles are easy to grip but the second is so that when light hits these ribbed sides the water inside glistens which further makes us believe that the water is pure. 

Photo by Cody Cioffe

The important lesson to take away from these aspects of the water bottle is that the companies ensure that they are preserving the environment when in reality they are damaging the environment by using plastic as their material of the water bottle. They try to make the bottle and its components look as visually appealing as possible. So, these water bottle companies convince consumers that they are saving the environment by purchasing water bottles but consumers are doing the exact opposite. Ironic, isn’t it?