Topicana Limited Edition Orange Juice Review ~ Look What Sassy Cat Dragged Home ~ To Buy or Not to Buy Episode #285

Tropicana Limited Edition Orange Juice

Whilst perusing the orange juice selections at the grocery store, I noticed this "Limited Edition" 65th Anniversary Tropicana carton.   I can think of only three things that could possibly be limited edition about orange juice:

1. Container - yep, an old-fashioned waxed cardboard carton which the milk and juice companies seem to be leaving behind in the dust.
2. Artwork - yep, I luv it!  So cute.
3. Weight - nope, Tropicana did not revert this to 64 ounces.  This is the current downsized 59 ounces.  Grrrrrrr

Cost: Limited edition waxed cardboard was 50 cents cheaper than the newer plastic bottles.  Which would you buy?

Sassy's review is mostly about the container.  Personally, I prefer the waxed cardboard.  It is shorter.  The taller bottle does not fit on the bottom shelf of my refrigerator.   One time, I shook a plastic bottle of orange juice, I did not have the cover screwed on exactly right, it flew off and I had a sticky orange-juiced kitchen to clean up.  Plus, it was 50 cents cheaper.

Does it cost Tropicana and others 50 cents less to utilize the waxed cardboard cartons?  I dunno.  I could ask, but I doubt they would get back to me anytime in this century.  But the cartons are smaller than the bottles, so shouldn't they take less space in shipping, thus save them some money?

Maybe Tropicana is being environmentally supportive with recyclable plastic bottles?  Back in 2009, Tropicana joined forces with Waste Management "to launch a national initiative to increase the rate of juice and milk carton recycling. The initiative kicks off the long-term goal to increase beverage carton recycling nationwide... "  LINK to article.  The cartons had to be removed from other recyclable materials and sent to a special mill for a process called hydropulping, which recovered the paper fibers from the carton so they could be turned into paper products such as tissue.  (Think about that the next time you blow your nose!)

Anyway, in 2011 Pepsi (which owns Tropicana) switched to the plastic carafes, claiming that customers want to see the orange juice.  I believe the Simply Orange brand, which already used the plastic bottles, was chomping a little too much into Tropicana's #1 market share, so ... monkey see, monkey do.  Believe it or not, Coke (which owns #2 orange juice market giant Simply Orange) sued Pepsi because they copied their plastic carafe design.  As far as I could find out, the litigation is still ongoing.

Anyway ... there went hydropulping of the waxed cartons.  So we could say the plastic is recyclable.  But that would mean it would have to be sorted out of the rest of the world's garbage to be recycled.  Living in a state where hundreds of tons of garbage from other states is trucked in and dumped -- unsorted -- into private landfills, Sassy is darn skeptical about what percentage of those lovely plastic crystal carafes get recycled.

Don't think for a minute that mega corporations like Pepsi and Coke give a damn about the environment, whether or not their packaging is recycled.  Nope, it is all about how much $$$ they can dip out of consumers' wallets.

On a scale of one to ten, Sassy awards Tropicana Limited Edition Orange Juice a 5.  I award the plastic carafes a 1.  I want waxed cardboard cartons back. I want them recycled. I want 64 ounces, not 59 ounces. I want to pay 50 cents less.  Maybe I'll decide I want to drink water instead.  Orange juice has way too much sugar in it anyway.

=^o^=