New an Improved or ?

We often hear companies telling us a product is 'new and improved' and sometimes it's really not.

Take Mount Franklin bottled water for example. They came out with what they call a new crushable bottle. The point of this is, supposedly, so you can crunch the bottle up so it takes up less room in your recycle bin. Oh yay!

That's how they're selling it to us, the consumer, anyway.

The reality is more likely that they wanted to cut down on costs by reducing the amount of plastic used. Thinner plastic means less plastic means better bottom line. It would be nice to think they did it because they wanted to be environmentally friendly and produce less plastic, though I have my doubts about that altruistic motive.

The bottle, however, is an epic fail in my opinion. As soon as you touch the bottle it's crumpling so when you remove the lid you accidentally squash the bottle and water leaks out. Unless you're really careful which I'm not and nor are my children. Not only that, by the time we've finished the water the bottle is so dented and lopsided it's useless. You CANNOT reuse the bottle!

I'm not a fan of bottled water, for environmental reasons, yet if we've gone out somewhere as a family and we've forgotten our water bottles and the children are thirsty and there are no water fountains, we will purchase bottled water for them. We bring the bottles home for recycling.

I'm even less a fan of water bottles that cannot be refilled and reused (because we often keep refilled spares in the car). My trusty water bottle is an old bottled that I've had for years. The rapper is gone so the brand is irrelevant and I've decorated the bottled so everyone knows it's mine and not to through it out. I love that it has been turned into my personal water bottle and I love that the plastic is firm so that I can refill and reuse it and keep it for a long time.

As for the new Mount Franklin bending, dented, crumpling bottles. We refuse to purchase them because we know they're not new and improved. We know they are a dodgy thin version the company has created to save costs. We now purchase Cool Ridge, the commercial featuring the funny Aussie puppets, because we can reuse their bottles and keep them for ages.