At The Right Water Bottling Company, because we work on an exchange program for the 5 and 3 gallon bottles, all of our bottles are re-used. 
Any bottles that cannot be re-used are shredded down and sent to recycling companies. This vastly reduces the number of bottles going into landfills.
We also are a proud user of the oxo-biodegradable earth caps for our 5 and 3 gallon water bottles, which are completely biodegradable within 5-10 years, compared to the other caps, which take hundreds of years to breakdown. With these caps, there is no guilt in throwing them away into the landfills. (See how this process works below.)
And while the 500 ml bottles are a one-time use, you can help us by returning these bottles to your local recycling facility and get your deposit back.
Right Water also captures the waste water from the reverse osmosis process. It takes 2 gallons of municipal water to produce one gallon of product water, so we capture and re-use that water in other ways such as washing down the exterior of our facility and our delivery trucks.
We also recycle and re-use as much of the cardboard, plastic and paper products from packaging and waste.
We all know that our environment is an important part of our future, so we are doing our part to reduce our carbon footprint, and in turn, are helping all of our customers to do the same.
How it Works: Degradation of the Earth Cap
The formulation used in the Earth-Cap, contains a proprietary mixture of: • a pro-oxidant• a photo-initiated initial degradation inhibition element• a secondary bio-degradation initiator. This unique formulation has been developed to give the plastic cap, an in-house storage shelf life of approximately 24 months. There is a further “dwell time”, of around 6 months after disposal. This is followed by a rapid breakdown of polymer properties resulting in acute embrittlement, after 36 months from disposal. The three stages of the cap breakdown are classified as follows:
1. Embrittlement – After the cap is used, and then disposed, the embrittlement process begins. This embrittlement is activated primarily by sunlight, and/or heat generated within a landfill. The embrittlement process is similar visually to that of a shattered windshield-where the plastic cap begins fragmenting into small pieces. Scientifically, the molecular weight of the polymer chain has been reduced, thus increasing the microbial accessibility, and eventual bio-digestion.
2. Micro-fragmentation – this is the further fragmentation of the embrittlement
stage into smaller fragments, which then begins the bio-digestion. This micro-fragmentation of the polymer chain promotes the growth of microbial colonies to expedite the biodegradation.
3. Bio-digestion – Is the consumption of the micro-fragmentation pieces, by the microbial colonies, resulting in the Earth-Cap being ultimately consumed.