unbottled water

A Frugal Town in Lithuania Erects a Christmas Tree Made from 40,000 Recycled Plastic Bottles

2011-12-18T16:05:00.000+11:00

Okay municipalities of the world, pay attention. For a third consecutive year the city of Kaunas, Lithuania approached artist Jolanta Šmidtienė to assist with their annual holiday decorating. Recognizing the city’s somewhat dire financial state the artist challenged herself to build something that wouldn’t rely on any administrative funds set aside for the event. The result: an enormous 13-meter tall Christmas tree made from nearly 40,000 recycled green bottles and zip ties.

At night the tree is lit from the inside resulting in a glowing, translucent, emerald green spruce that’s making headlines across the country.

more images
source: http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/2O5JeC/www.thisiscolossal.com/2011/12/christmas-tree-made-from-40000-recycled-plastic-bottles/

Grand Canyon Plastic Bottle Ban Stopped

2011-11-14T09:53:00.000+11:00

from www.care2.com/greenliving by Jake Richardson, Nov 14, 2011

Depending on which you source you use, it appears administrators at the Grand Canyon National Park may have been influenced by the Coca Cola corporation to stop a proposed ban on sales of disposable plastic water bottle sales within the park. They are the largest single source of garbage in the park, according to the LA Times.

Success in reducing plastic water bottles at another national park (Zion) occurred when free water stations were installed, so visitors can re-fill their own water bottles. The same kind of water stations were installed for visitors at the Grand Canyon and tax payer expense, but then the administrators didn’t follow through with banning disposable plastic water bottle sales.

It appears the reason is due to the fact Coca Cola would have lost money selling Dasani to the park’s visitors, and banning disposables at the Grand Canyon could have set a precedent for doing so across the national park system. A much larger ban could have caused Coca Cola even more revenue loss, and they have donated millions to the park system.

Disposable plastic water bottles are problematic for a number of reasons, and they need to be eliminated or reduced greatly, especially in our national and state parks,which are supposed to be natural and trash-free. “Americans use about 50 billion plastic water bottles yearly, 167 for each person. About 38 billion end up in the landfills. End-to-end they would circle the equator 217 times. Making them uses ~20 billion barrels of oil and creates more than 25 million tons of CO2,” says the Department of the Interior website.

The proposed ban would have allowed visitors to have their own disposable plastic water bottles, but prohibited sales of them inside the park. This approach sounds like a sensible one for reducing plastic water bottle trash there – even a compromise compared to banning their presence altogether.

Even a large park vendor management company has said they want a ban on such petroleum-based plastic bottles in all national parks, “We’re of the mind that the clock is ticking on petroleum-derived plastic. There should be a biodegradable alternative. It’s bad for the earth, it’s bad for the oceans, its bad for ecosystems. This is a lose-lose proposition.” (Source: New York Times)

You can do your part by not buying water in disposable plastic water bottles – especially in national and state parks.

Students: Stop using plastic water bottles

2011-11-07T10:17:00.002+11:00

from www.tommiemedia.com by Geena Maharaj, Nov 2, 2011

Would you ever pay for something that you can get for free? Many St. Thomas students and faculty are guilty of doing this every time they buy a bottle of water. According to the National Resources Defense Council and Environment 911, we are spending 10,000 times more per gallon of water and allowing 800,000 metric tons of harmful pollutants to be released into the air by buying bottled water. The product’s success is truly a marketing mystery.

Bottled water entered the market in the ‘70s. It literally was a crazy idea at the time, but bottled water companies have been incredibly lucrative due to their deceptive and false marketing lexicon. This magic water doesn’t come from a pristine landscape that’s been purified by equatorial trade winds. In fact, blog Drink Tap states that 48.7 percent of bottled water is tap water.

Still, these large multi-national companies are making billions of dollars each year. It doesn’t take much to extract the water from the ground, slap an attractive yet misleading label on the bottle and sell the product at outrageously high and competitive prices.

A taste test done by Showtime Television between tap water and bottled water that supposedly isn’t tap water illustrated that 75 percent of New Yorkers preferred the taste of tap water. These statistics put any concerns of tap water’s purity and taste to rest.

Bottled water is also severely detrimental to the environment. The production of the bottles in the U.S. used the energy equivalent of 86 million barrels of oil to produce and transport plastic water bottles in 2007. That’s enough to fuel roughly 1.5 million cars for an entire year, according to The Sonoma County Gazette. On top of that, Environment 911 said only one out of every four bottles winds up in a recycling bin. The other 75 percent can be seen in landfills and bodies of water.

One reason why people continually buy plastic bottled water is because of its obvious convenience. In this day and age, people are incessantly on the go. Bottled water can keep up with that fast-paced lifestyle. However, purchasing a reusable water bottle is the perfect alternative. You can easily fill a stainless steel water bottle with tap water from your home and carry it with you throughout the day. This reusable bottle will last for years, which will save you hundreds of dollars annually.

In addition, if you aren’t a fan of the taste of your tap water or aren’t sure of its quality, you can easily purchase a filter pitcher or install a faucet filter. These inexpensive products can remove trace chemicals and bacteria.

Plastic bottled water is no purer or tastier than tap water, but harmful to both college students’ wallets and the environment. So the next time you want to purchase bottled water, consider the already extremely wealthy water bottle companies you’re supporting. Think about the harm you’re doing to the world you and your loved ones are living in. And if those factors fail to faze you, think about the money you could save for that hot spring break trip by buying a reusable bottle instead.

Plastic water bottle-makers sued by California over green claims

2011-11-06T10:44:00.000+11:00

from www.miamiherald.com by Susan Carpenter, Los Angeles Times, Oct 31 2011

California Attorney General Kamala D. Harris filed a lawsuit against three companies Wednesday for allegedly making false and misleading claims about their plastic water bottles' recyclability and biodegradability. The lawsuit is the first to enforce California's environmental marketing law, which makes it illegal to label a plastic food or beverage container as biodegradable because plastic takes thousands of years to break down naturally and may never do so in a landfill.

According to the lawsuit, Balance and AquaMantra plastic water bottles, marketed by ENSO Plastics in Mesa, Ariz., falsely claim the bottles are both biodegradable and recyclable. The labeling states the bottles contain a microbial additive that helps them break down in less than five years. The lawsuit says the microbial additive doesn't accelerate the breakdown process and also compromises the bottles' recyclability because the microbial additive is considered a "destructive contaminant" by the Association of Post Consumer Plastic Recyclers.

In 2008, California banned the use of the terms "biodegradable," "degradable" and "decomposable" in plastic food and beverage container labeling. California Senate Bill 567, going into effect in 2013, will expand the 2008 law to all plastic products.

An email request for comment to ENSO Plastics' public-relations department did not receive a response as of publication time.

A holiday in asia and a holiday from plastic

2011-10-17T13:15:00.002+11:00

from smh.com.au, by Michael Short

Tom Neal Tacker argues everyone is better off if you take a more eco-friendly approach to booking your next vacation.

There has been much coverage in recent days of Australian travellers' travails. Indonesia, a perennial favourite for budget tourists, has been central. In Bali, we have witnessed the woes of a New South Wales teenager busted for dope possession, as well as the plight of a Melbourne football identity and his family who were set upon in a nightclub. In Lombok, it has been a tale of a Newcastle nurse who suffered brain and kidney damage after unknowingly drinking a cocktail laced with methanol.

These are sad and alarming stories. They highlight the dangers of travel but they should be kept in perspective: the overwhelming majority of tourists enjoy their time away and return home happy and well.

Many of them, though, may well be returning home having inadvertently damaged the holiday destinations they visited, as well as having missed a richer cultural experience.

Veteran traveller and writer Tom Neal Tacker is here in The Zone to enlighten people about the effects they are having on environments and communities, to encourage people to think differently about tourism and to even inspire experienced travellers and novices to change how they view and experience holidays away from home.

His overarching message is that people ought to be more informed before they leave and more considerate while they are away. He says people are not sufficiently aware of their consumer sovereignty — the power they have by selecting where and how they spend their money.

The way to exercise that power, and a key way to become informed, is to ask questions before booking transport and accommodation.

"For instance, how many other visitors will be there when I'm there? What sort of impact does the tourism industry have on this particular country or region within the country? What sort of impact does my actual travel have on not only the trip itself but on the world's environment?

"Do I really need to fly 16 hours to go somewhere where I'm only going to go to stay five days? Why would I not consider taking a trip within Australia itself by train or going by coach or even driving somewhere? We all know that as soon as you board an aircraft and you fly with however many people on board, your greenhouse gas emissions are much greater using that mode of transport than any other."

As to what people might want to check before they book, Tacker has these thoughts about what to ask travel and destination operators:

"What sort of systems do you have in place for adequate waste removal or recycling? What sort of systems do you have in place for reducing your carbon credits in terms of where you're getting your food from? Are you trying to source as locally as possible or are you shipping stuff in from the other side of the planet?"

It's a planet Tacker is, above all, urging people to explore. It's a planet, though, that lacks a system of eco-accreditation, which puts the onus even more heavily on travellers to spend time on research. If you do not have a web connection, free access is available at public libraries.

There is no simple answer to the accreditation question. A global body would be bureaucratic, lumbering and open to corruption. But so too is self-regulation, so tourists need to take responsibility. This goes well beyond the idea that one can select not to have towels and sheets laundered daily.

"That was a start. But now we're getting to the point where certain businesses — hotels, lodges in various parts of the world — are claiming a certain degree of eco-awareness or eco-co-operation simply through changing light globes in rooms. But they are still not addressing the problems of rubbish removal, recycling of waste, water usage, being water-safe, fair employment, what sort of impact they may have on the local culture and society and religious mores.

"None of these things are being taken into account, and it's very self-regulated. And it's very easy to rort a system which is on a small scale being self-regulated."

The history of public policy is replete with what politicians coyly concede to be "unintended consequences". One such consequence Tacker has discovered is that being listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage site can be "the kiss of death".

Consider Vietnam's Ha Long Bay, feted for its limestone formations. Vietnamese authorities have used the listing to spruik the destination, and tourism has boomed.

"The limestone outcrops that stick up in the bay are quite stunning — as long as you do not look in the water. It has now been inundated by visitors from around the world, and there is not still the infrastructure in place to clean up after the people have left. We're talking about dozens and dozens of boats where people are just tossing their rubbish overboard . . . The water is just full of plastic bottles and plastic bags."

Plastic has become a massive problem throughout Asia, in particular, and yet the solution is simple.

Were tourists to take their own shopping bags and water bottles, it would make a huge difference. There is limited waste management and no recycling facility on Bali, for example, where the annual number of tourists exceeds the permanent population.

"If you look at most of the freshwater streams running through central Bali, there are just plastic bottles floating everywhere. There are plastic bags hanging in the trees. There is rubbish everywhere."

Read the full article at: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/happy-holidays-20111016-1lri9.html

City May Ban Plastic Water Bottles and Allow Marijuana Smoking for a Day

2011-10-11T14:20:00.000+11:00

from santacruz.patch.com

by Brad Kava

The Santa Cruz City Council may ban the purchase of plastic water bottles by the city government, a step in the right direction toward ending the 1 billion bottles that end up in the trash each year, according to a city report.

The ordinance would forbid the purchase of single-use water bottles in city offices except for times of emergency.

It does not, however, forbid the purchase of the bottles for resale, such as at events held at parks or for use by officers in the field where no other water is available. It will hear the issue at the meeting that starts at 3 p.m.

The council will also consider allowing smoking on October 22 in San Lorenzo Park, as part of a gathering by the Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana, which supports the rights of terminally ill patients to smoke the green buds.

The ban will be lifted for five hours, between noon and 5 p.m. The city will also look at strengthening its ordinance requiring city services and goods to be bought locally.

Currently it spends 21 percent of its annual purchasing, or $18 million, in the area, but that is on taxable goods and is a policy that not enforceable.

An ordinance would require that all local goods receive top preference. If a nonlocal company submits the lowest bid for a service, the city would reduce the local big by 3 percent and if that is the lowest big, would award the contract to the local at full price.

Why aren’t bottles recycled? ‘People don’t want water that tastes funny’

2011-08-19T17:51:00.000+10:00

from Crikey.com.au

by freelance journalist Nicole Gooch

Australians were urged to recycle the more than 260 million litres of bottled water they consumed last year. Yet none of those bottles were made from recycled plastic.

All Australian-made water bottles — brands including Mount Franklin, Pump, Peats Ridge or Cool Ridge — are manufactured entirely with virgin plastic, or PET, from non-renewable oil and gas. Australia’s PET bottle recycling technology causes recycled plastic to degrade and leach acetaldehyde, an organic chemical compound, into the bottles.

Only bottles of Coke and other carbonated soft drinks contain recycled PET as their strong taste can mask the acetaldehyde. And even then, soft drink bottles only contain a limited amount of recycled plastic because of marketing specifications.

Most Australian plastic bottles are manufactured by Visy, which has a 70% share of the Australian bottled water market. It also owns the country’s only food-grade PET bottle recycling factory in Australia. Tony Gray, public affairs manager for Visy, said in an email although acetaldehyde leaching has “no known health effects”, it leaves a noticeable “sweet taint” in bottled water. While that taint is not detected in soft drinks, Gray said: “PET customers set very low acetaldehyde acceptance levels for their water products.”

Coca Cola Amatil spokesperson Emma Peacock told the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism in an email that although CCA’s PET plastic bottles contain anywhere between 15-30% recycled PET depending on availability, quality and suppliers, water bottles do not.

“The only exception to this is our bottled water products which do not currently contain any recycled PET,” she said, due to tainting issues associated with recycled PET and the level of clarity required for bottled water. CCA controls 42% of Australia’s bottled water market.

Visy’s recycling plant manager Phil Jones says while the PET plastic recycled at his factory in Sydney’s western suburb of Prestons is heated at high temperature three times during the breakdown process to meet food-grade standards, this process also increased the amount of acetaldehyde leaching beyond levels specified for bottled water.

“The main reason why we are not using recycled content in water bottles at the moment is technology, as simple as that,” said Jones. The factory was built 10 years ago, which means it produces levels of acetaldehyde that are “right on the borderline of being acceptable”. “People don’t want water that tastes funny,” said Jones.

New technology is widely available in Europe that is known to reduce the heat cycle and therefore reduce acetaldehyde levels, and 100% recycled water bottles are currently sold in limited amounts in the UK, the United States, Mexico and Canada. But Jones said more money and a big enough market demand in Australia are needed to “justify the outlay”.

“Making a recycled bottle at the moment in Australia is more expensive than buying virgin material, and that’s purely because of the volumes of virgin material that is being produced to supply the Chinese market for fibre,” Jones said.

Visy’s PET bottle-recycling factory receives an “in-feed” of 900 tonnes of used PET bottles every month, collected from domestic curbside and commercial/ industrial waste. From this they produce 700 tonnes of recycled PET resin pellets, most of which are suitable for food packaging.

While the majority of this total in-feed comes from NSW and Queensland, 25% comes from South Australia, which has been operating a successful container deposit program for 30 years. On the other hand, none of it comes from Western Australia or from Visy’s material recycling facility in Springvale, Victoria. PET collected in these parts of Australia gets sent directly to China for recycling, said Jones.

“It’s cheaper to put material on a boat and send it to China than it is to put it on a truck and send it to Sydney,” he said.

Caught up among the 900 tonnes of bales of discarded PET bottles received by Visy, Jones said there will usually be 2% of general waste, such as nappies or stuffed toys, which come from people throwing them in the wrong bin. Plastic such as HD and polypropylene, used for instance in shampoo bottles, form a “mixed plastic stream” which is also bailed up and sent to China to be recycled as carpet or clothing.

PVC labels and bottle caps are rejected off the sorting stream and sent to a South Australian company to be recycled as “low-end point polypropylene applications”, such as plastic flowerpots.

But some PVC labels do make it through the sorting stream unscathed, which is extremely problematic. PVC burns at a lower melting point than PET, yet has the same density and is therefore difficult to separate from PET. Just like PET, PVC sinks in water otherwise used to sort different plastics from PET, yet it melts at 300 degrees( PET melts at 180 degrees). The PVC then overcooks and goes black, which affects the colour of the bottle and can cause “black specs” on it. Different plastics also stretch at different rates, potentially deforming the bottle.

“You can make a 100% recycled PET bottle if you can get the recycling stream clean enough,” said Jones in an email. Hence, Visy allows for no more than a tight 35 parts a million of “contaminated material”, such as PVC labels or paper, per tonne of recycled finished product.

But when asked if it would actually be physically possible for Visy to produce a Coke bottle made of, for example, 70% recycled content if requested by Coca Cola, Jones said yes, but the customer would have to relax its specifications on the appearance of the bottle. He said it has been done a couple of times over the years, but the bottles had a yellow colouring.

“And if you stack 25 recycled bottles next to each other on a shelf, the deeper you go the more yellow they will start to look, and if you put them against a virgin bottle, people will go ‘I’ll buy that because that looks dirty’.”

For now, most of the recycled PET resin produced by the Prestons plant is used by Visy’s PET bottle-making factories in NSW, where it is blended to virgin PET resin imported from Asia, to make new soft drink bottles. Jones said Visy recycles more than enough PET to meet its PET bottle manufacture share of the Australian market.

Visy’s main clients are Australia’s biggest multinational bottled water manufacturers Coca Cola Amatil and Schweppes. The company produces more than 2 billion PET preforms a year (the first step in bottle manufacture) and 1.8 billion PET bottles for soft drinks and bottled water.

But, according to the latest survey of the Plastics and Chemicals Industries Association (PACIA), of the 122,000 tonnes of plastic consumed in Australia in 2010, less than half was recycled in any form. Most of the rest ends up in landfill where, according to Clean Up Australia, it can take up to 1000 years to break down.

Visy’s Tony Gray said the major reason for such a low recycling rate is “probably that a significant amount of PET bottles are consumed away from the home and therefore away from access to kerbside recycling systems”. He argued: “As public place recycling infrastructure improves, PET recycling levels will also improve.” Others blame the low rate on the lack of a container deposit scheme in states other than South Australia.

But even of the 45.7% of PET that was recycled, only 15,900 tonnes — or less than a quarter — was actually recycled in Australia. The remaining 39,000 was sent overseas for reprocessing, mostly in China.

Coca Cola Amatil’s Emma Peacock said in an email: “Regarding the tainting issues in recycled PET, CCA is working hard to find the best solutions for increasing the sustainability of our packaging and in fact we take an industry lead on this.”

Peacock said CCA is continually looking at ways “to not only reduce the amount of material used in our packaging but to also increase recycled content and to encourage consumers to recycle”. But she was not able to provide any further details as “any plans for expanding our business would be commercially sensitive”.

*This story is part of Pure Plastiky, a project of the Global Environmental Journalism Initiative and the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism

19 Comments

PHEN
Posted Friday, 3 June 2011 at 1:44 pm | Permalink
What is the 260 litres reference? Is that an annual amount per person?
BEN
Posted Friday, 3 June 2011 at 1:54 pm | Permalink
Tap water tastes good too, you can put it in a reusable bottle.
MARK DUFFETT
Posted Friday, 3 June 2011 at 2:10 pm | Permalink
It would be interesting to know how much extra fossil fuel and other energy is consumed in transporting and processing (including multiple heat cycles) these waste streams for recycling, all in the name of conserving resources, as opposed to simple disposal.
IOZ
Posted Friday, 3 June 2011 at 2:18 pm | Permalink
re: “Australians were urged to recycle the more than 260 litres of bottled water they consumed last year. Yet none of those bottles were made from recycled plastic.”
Most people recycle all their fluid intake - thats what toilets are for…
Do you mean 260 water BOTTLES a year?
Further, just because water bottles are made of non-recycled plastic doesn’t meant that the plastic isn’t recycled into other products…
MATTSUI
Posted Friday, 3 June 2011 at 2:33 pm | Permalink
@ MARK DUFETT;
‘Simple disposal’ = Waste.
MARK DUFFETT
Posted Friday, 3 June 2011 at 2:40 pm | Permalink
@mattsui yes, I know that. My point is, which is the bigger problem, waste, or energy scarcity and generation-related pollution? I for one spend a lot more time worrying about the latter.
PHEN
Posted Friday, 3 June 2011 at 2:44 pm | Permalink
Incidentally, the fact that it apparently affects the taste and is more expensive in current technology makes it seem pretty reasonable that suppliers arent using recycled plastic for water.
LOVARD
Posted Friday, 3 June 2011 at 3:07 pm | Permalink
Why don’t we re-use the bottles like they do in much of Europe, most notably health and environment conscious Scandinavia?
The plastic bottles are a bit thicker to contend with the wear, but they are not dissimilar to ours.
The used bottles are returned to place of purchase (or wherever; though they do tend to have bottle refund schemes) , presumably washed and treated by the bottlers, refilled and returned to the shelves, the contents consumed and the bottles reused.
Seems relatively simple, energy and cost effective…. So probably completely unsuitable for us Australians, intent on maintaining our positions as one of the highest per-capita polluters, in one most fragile continents on earth….
NEW CASSANDRA
Posted Friday, 3 June 2011 at 3:27 pm | Permalink
Bottled water is for morons - ban it - it is almost free from the tap.
MESKI
Posted Friday, 3 June 2011 at 3:31 pm | Permalink
WTF can’t we go back to *reusable* not recycled *glass* bottles? In Thailand, they re-use the coke bottles until the machine handling dents on the bottom are worn off. Here, if you can still find a glass coke bottle, it’s single-use.
PAT
Posted Friday, 3 June 2011 at 3:42 pm | Permalink
I have tank water. It’s free. I put it in an old glass bottle with a wine stopper to keep it in. That was free once too - someone gave me the wine and the stopper evolved in a kitchen drawer.
New Cassandra got it right. Bottled water is for morons. Bottle it yourself.
I know for certain mine has the odd dead thing, bird poo, rotting vegetation and diverse fungus in it. I can’t be sure what ordure goes into the bottled stuff but I’ll bet it’s not as good as mine.
NICOLINO
Posted Friday, 3 June 2011 at 4:19 pm | Permalink
For the life of me I could never work out why it is that South Australia is the only state successfully operating a bottle return scheme and for thirty years. Too hard basket for the others I guess. The usual state of affairs in the lazy country.
ZUT ALORS
Posted Friday, 3 June 2011 at 5:06 pm | Permalink
I’m with New Cassandra and Pat : harden up, Australia, tap water is fine.
Unfortunately, many dills think their bottled water is a fashion accessory/statement.
BRUCE
Posted Friday, 3 June 2011 at 6:01 pm | Permalink
Actually Nicolino the NT have just introduced a SA-style container deposit scheme despite strong opposition from the soft-drink and booze robber barons. Start annoying your state pollies to pull their fingers out of the orifi of these corporations. It really is such a no-brainer. As for bottled water, there are so many gullibles who insist they must have it. Yeah, more banning and planning instead of industry “self-regulation’ (!!) please
BILL PARKER
Posted Saturday, 4 June 2011 at 4:59 pm | Permalink
[“Tony Gray, public affairs manager for Visy, said … although acetaldehyde leaching has “no known health effects”].
However the US EPA in 1994
http://www.epa.gov/chemfact/s_acetal.txt
suggested that acetaldehyde is probable carcinogen. But it must be noted that this and other MSDS data are referring to much higher concentrations than Gray.
But to focus on one chemical is evading the issue. It is the complete spectrum of leachables that must be evaluated as well as the same range in re-cycled bottles.
Personally I drink filtered water from stainless steel bottles, largely because tap water tastes crap. Harden up? Why?
MESKI
Posted Monday, 6 June 2011 at 11:09 am | Permalink
Given that your liver converts ethanol into acetyldehyde, and then to acetic acid, anyone who drinks alcohol is exposed to it. (and it causes hangovers )
A study of 818 heavy drinkers found that those who are exposed to more acetaldehyde than normal through a defect in the gene for acetaldehyde dehydrogenase are at greater risk of developing cancers of the upper gastrointestinal tract and liver.
So, it is a carcinogen, but it appears you need high doses *and* a genetic defect.
Polycarbonate bottles are a worse problem, they leach BPA en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bisphenol_A which makes an acetyldehyde look tame.
I go back to “Why not glass?”
BILL PARKER
Posted Monday, 6 June 2011 at 11:52 am | Permalink
Meski All this is symptomatic of our lack of general chemical knowledge. The acetaldehyde issue is indeed a minor risk, I agree the bisphenol story needs more exposure and certainly more study. Why not glass indeed.
BILL PARKER
Posted Monday, 6 June 2011 at 12:03 pm | Permalink
Here is a recent summary of BPA effects
http://informahealthcare.com/doi/abs/10.3109/10408444.2011.558487
MESKI
Posted Monday, 6 June 2011 at 12:38 pm | Permalink
And they make/made baby bottles out of this. If you’re a parent of a baby, check the bottle - it’ll likely have recycle code 7 on it. Please, don’t use it.

Investigation taps the inorganic truth on bottled water

2011-08-12T19:34:00.000+10:00

UTS:Newsroom

Investigation taps the inorganic truth on bottled water

23 Jun 2011

Picture by Peta Doherty

In summary:

In a project involving students from UTS, City University London and Hong Kong Baptist University, the Global Environmental Journalism Initiative has explored the environmental impact of bottled water from several perspectives
Results of the "Pure Plastiky" investigation have been published by both the Sydney Morning Herald and Crikey.com

When journalism educators and students were looking for an everyday product to investigate from an environmental journalism point of view, bottled water immediately came to mind.

"From cafes to supermarkets to boardroom tables, bottled water confronts us everywhere – but how much do customers really know about the industry?" said UTS Professor Wendy Bacon, the Australian Director of the Global Environmental Journalism Initiative (GEJI) and the Director of a new website Pure Plastiky.

GEJI is a partnership of ten tertiary institutions around the world developing a focus on environmental journalism through student exchange and curriculum development. It is part of the European Union (EU)/Australia Cooperation in Higher Education and Training scheme which is jointly funded by the Australian Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations and the European Commission.

The GEJI bottled water project Pure Plastiky aims to encourage debate about the environmental impacts of bottled water by researching and tracking Australian brands back to their water sources and the petroleum products used in packaging.

Elise Dalley. Picture by Alexandra Berriman

Project reporter and UTS Journalism Law graduate Elise Dalley said, "We looked at digging deeper into an everyday environmental issue that people often don't think twice about. Bottled water connects with issues of waste, chemicals, water and greenhouse gas emissions.

"We thought initially that it would be quite easy to find out about bottled water, but once we started looking behind the labels at the source of the plastic and the water, it got much trickier."

Several Pure Plasticky stories were first published by the Sydney Morning Herald and Crikey.com. One investigation by Dalley published by the Herald was about how companies are able to avoid laws prohibiting deceptive and misleading conduct by registering a trademark.

"Water is being sold in Sydney as 'organic' despite there being no difference between the bottled water and purified tap water. I believe people would think twice about buying water if they knew it was from a tap," Dalley said. Other reports published in Crikey.com were about the routine use of bottled water by some hospitals in NSW and contamination of bottled water.

The Global Environmental Journalism Initiative explored bottled water from a number of perspectives – marketing, recycling, local government policy and the manufacture of plastic bottles. The range of media included sound slide shows, video stories and surveys.

"Despite its claims about caring about sustainability, the industry was often closed when it came to providing information about production and manufacturing of their water bottles," Dalley said.

"It's a multi-million dollar industry which creates carbon emissions and generates a huge amount of waste. Every time someone buys a bottle of water, they need to weigh up the convenience against the environmental damage the bottle will cause."

Pure Plastiky received extra funding from a UTS teaching and learning grant and involved students from City University London, Hong Kong Baptist University and UTS in conducting surveys about attitude to use and disposal of plastic bottles. The results of 2011 surveys will soon be published.

Hospitals in NSW asked to ditch bottled water in a desperate bid to cut costs

2011-08-01T11:01:00.000+10:00

Hospitals asked to ditch bottled water for tap water to save costs.

HOSPITALS are being asked to ditch bottled water in a desperate bid to cut costs.

Nurses have been urged to serve tap water in jugs to save the state $1 million a year.

At least three million bottles are handed out to patients a year in a practice going on since 2007. But NSW Health is not sure why or how it started, as only half the state's hospitals use bottles - with the rest serving water in jugs.

With no official policy or reasons to justify the expensive practice, Health Minister Jillian Skinner has ordered all local health district chairs to look at banning the bottles.

It comes as government employees, including nurses, have been asked to rein in their costs to offset pay rises.

Mrs Skinner said she was concerned not only about the costs but the impact bottles have on the environment.

"If not, I see significant cost savings could be made in this area. I am particularly concerned that we're giving people the message that Sydney water is not safe to drink, and that we're responsible for discarding three million plastic bottles a year."

"I would like them to seriously consider whether they have a genuine clinical need to supply patients with bottled water," she said.

Some major hospitals such as Prince of Wales, Sydney Children's and Royal Hospital for Women at Randwick, don't use bottled water. These hospitals prefer nurses to hand out jugs to patients, and help those unable to hold cups.

One department source said there was anecdotal evidence that staff were using the bottles themselves.

Other hospitals use bottles because staff have complained of occupational health and safety issues over using jugs.

"There is inconsistent use of bottles across NSW, Some hospitals use bottles, some jugs," the source said. "You have to ask why some say it's an occupational risk to use jugs. There's also no clear or strong link between infection rates and use of water jugs."

In the lead-up to September's budget, all local health boards will have to provide the government with details as to why they want to continue using bottled water.

Mrs Skinner said she hoped boards would chose the more economical option.

Water is the liquid of life. Don't waste it.

2011-07-27T08:17:00.000+10:00

Brought to you by Good Magazine

Go Green: Say NO to Bottled Water

2011-07-25T19:00:00.000+10:00

Go Green: Say NO to Bottled Water

I've never really been into bottled water. I can't see paying for something that I can get for practically nothing from my sink. A few months ago I watched a documentary called Tapped and it really opened my eyes to the dirty business that is bottled water. After all the research I've done, it's become so important to me, so here I am trying to spread the word.

Bottled water usually is tap water. Companies such as Coca-Cola and Pepsi often buy municipal water. They pay next to nothing, and then go into towns and cities and drain the lakes. If there is a drought and a community is under water restriction, these companies will keep pumping. Often, by the time they are done, there is nothing left.

Water is bottled and sold back to the consumer for 1,900 times the cost of tap. It costs an average of $2.00 per liter of bottled water; it costs an average of $0.0005 per liter of tap water.

Many people argue that bottled water tastes better and is cleaner. This is not true. The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) requires public water suppliers to test their water for contaminants several times a day. You can count on your water being tested an average of 4 times each day. The FDA (Food and Drug Administration) requires that bottled water only be tested once a week or once each year, depending on the contaminant. A study of the 10 most popular brands of bottled water found an average of 8 contaminants including arsenic, nitrate, Tylenol, and industrial chemicals. As far as bottled water tasting better, I believe that this is usually psychological. I'm sorry if this offends anyone, but the truth is that bottled water and tap water are often one in the same and some bottled water may not ever receive treatment.

The process of making bottles for water is unhealthy. Every year, 1.5 million barrels of oil are used to makes bottles. The process releases toxic compounds such as nickel, ethylbenzene, and ethyleneoxide into the air. The communities where bottled water plants are located have staggering rates of cancer. The residents can't even sell their homes because no one else wants to live near these plants.

Bottled water isn't good for the people who drink it either. The plastic used for bottles contains BPA and phthalates. BPA is linked to reproductive and neurological damage and cancer. Phthalates mimic hormones in your body. Exposure to phthalates may cause brain damage, hyperactivity, and cancer, including prostate cancer.

One more negative effect of bottled water is that the bottles are thrown away where they end up in landfills or the ocean. Only about 20% of water bottles are recycled. Between California and Hawaii, there is a mass of trash floating in the ocean known as the Great Garbage Patch. It contains about 3.5 million tons of trash and is roughly the size of Texas. Most of this garbage is plastic.

The good news is that 90% of tap water in the United States is safe to drink. Your municipality is legally required to share the results of tests on public water, so feel free to ask for it. If you feel that your tap water is unclean, buy a filter. Ultimately it would be ideal to buy a reverse osmosis system, which removes the fluoride from your water. In the long run, it is a better investment than continuing to buy bottled water. There are too many negative effects of bottled water, so please, just say NO.

Bottled Water Labels Leave Something To Be Desired

2011-07-17T18:26:00.000+10:00

Bottled Water Labels Leave Something To Be Desired

Saturday, May 14, 2011 - 21:40 in Health & Medicine

Mad magazine in the 1970's envisioned a day in the future when bottled milk, air and water would be delivered from door to door. Well, few of us still have a milkman. But is bottled water a rational purchase? In Canada the government lets bottlers conduct their own tests. Are they to be trusted? Maybe. I just find the typical label on water bottles a little less than professional. For one, why do they ignore ionic charges? There's no SO4 or Na in water. But there is SO4 2-(sulfate or sulphate for my fellow Commonwealth citizens) and Na+(sodium ion). And can they make up their mind with regard to concentration? Look at the nutrition facts which reportread more

Read the whole article on Scientific Blogging

http://esciencenews.com/sources/scientific.blogging/2011/05/14/bottled.water.labels.leave.something.to.be.desired

Some bottled-up truths about purified water

2011-07-14T20:57:00.000+10:00

from an article at philSTAR.com

Some bottled-up truths about purified water
CONSUMERLINE By Ching M. Alano (The Philippine Star) Updated May 17, 2011 12:00 AM

Computer graphics by REY RIVERA
| Zoom

The long hot summer is here! And suddenly, all I can think of is a most refreshing drink of water to quench my thirst, wash away the day’s blahs, and soothe my weary spirit.
So, I grab a bottle of water (never cold, just room temperature water and not because of the mistaken notion that drinking cold water makes you fat, but that’s another story), open my e-mail and read this riveting item from Yahoo Green: “The Environmental Working Group (EWG is an American environmental organization) analyzed the company websites and product labels of over 170 varieties of bottled water in the US to see if the companies disclosed information on where their water came from, how the water was treated, and whether the results of tests to ensure purity were revealed.”
Thirsty for more information, the researchers also called the bottled water companies to ask if they would be willing to share information with consumers.
And the findings are: “More than half of the bottled water products failed the transparency test. Almost 20 percent didn’t say where their water comes from, and an additional 32 percent did not disclose any information on treatment or purity of water.”
Yahoo Green pours out more absorbing facts: Only three brands earned the highest possible marks Gerber Pure Purified Water, Nestle Pure Life Purified Water, and Penta Ultra-Purified Water.
A great majority of the bottled water companies refuse to divulge what’s really in their bottles. There are just a lot of bottled-up truths that consumers ought to know.
Taking consumers’ best interests to heart, EWG went out to seek answers to these questions: Where does the water come from? Is it purified; if so, how? Is the water tested, and what, if any, contaminants have been found?
Sadly, according to the EWG, of the top 10 best-selling brands, nine failed to answer all three foregoing questions. Of the 173 bottled water products included in the survey, only Nestlé Pure Life Purified Water discloses the needed information squarely on its label, and gives information for requesting a water quality test report.
All told, the EWG gave only three bottled water products a good rating for transparency: Nestlé Pure Life Purified Water, Gerber Pure Purified Water, Penta Ultra-Purified Water.
Probably most Pinoy households today don’t drink water from the tap and opt instead for bottled water. Indeed, bottled water is a thriving industry and there are just too many brands on the market today. Bottled water is peddled everywhere in bus and train stations; in the streets, vendors shove it in your face while you’re caught in traffic. Of course, you wonder where on earth did they get their bottled water?
But in the US, it was found that about “40 percent of bottled water is regular tap water, which may or may not have received any additional treatment.” And the truth is, “most municipal tap water must adhere to stricter purity standards than the bottled water industry. The EPA requires large public water suppliers to test for contaminants as often as several times a day, but the FDA requires private bottlers to test for contaminants only once a week, once a year, or once every four years, depending on the contaminant.”

Aside from the all-important question of purity or water quality, plastic bottles are one of the most environmentally-unfriendly industries. They pollute the environment and contain a cocktail of harmful chemicals like phthalates which have been linked to reproductive problems and BPA which disrupts the endocrine system (the glands that produce and store hormones).

So, think before you drink!

Another test done by EWG in 2009 found 38 low-level contaminants in bottled water.

DoNation: 'If 50 people give up bottled water, I will run a marathon'

2011-07-11T18:45:00.001+10:00

Forget hounding your friends for cash – a new sponsorship site asks people for good deeds, not their money. By Alice-Azania Jarvis

from an article published in The Independent

To Hermione Taylor, it was a logical solution to a short-term problem. Due to embark on a sponsored cycle ride from London to Morocco, she found herself unwilling to nag friends for money. "It was the start of the credit crunch and a lot of people were students," she explains. "It felt like too much to ask." So she asked for something else: a promise. A promise to do a bit of good for the planet."We knew we wanted to do something for the environment – and, ultimately, that does not need money, it needs action."

The result was a list of 216 "pledges" from friends and family. They ranged from promising to eat less meat to washing clothes on a cool heat and, says Taylor, amounted to 16 tonnes of saved carbon (or, as she puts it "84 return flights to Morocco"). In the end, Taylor's grand cycle – which saw her sleep on beaches, stay with good samaritans and camp on hotel roofs – took 40 days. Its legacy has lasted much longer. Not only did she find that three-quarters of her sponsors continued their green actions after the allotted two months – but Taylor realised she had hit upon something potentially far bigger that a cycle race.

Having read for a masters in environmental technology at Imperial College London, she was only too familiar with the difficulty of encouraging green behaviour: "I'd focused on behavioural change and had looked at all sorts of so-called 'pledge schemes'. Talking to everyone when I got back, I realised that this ticked all the boxes for a good one."

Her idea was to take her pledge system and marry it with the online giving culture, pioneered by websites such as JustGiving, Virgin Money Giving and The Big Give. It's a field which, over the past decade, has expanded enormously – JustGiving, which handles some 85 per cent of all online donations – collected a staggering £188 million for charity in 2010 alone. The company has come in for criticism for its private, for-profit business model – unlike Virgin Money Giving, they deduct 5 per cent of every donation made and charities must pay £15 a month for membership – but Taylor points out the good they've done. "They've made giving so much easier – though I knew I'd have to be bit more innovative. For me, it was all about action, not donation." And so began a long year of planning, networking, researching and fund-raising, as Taylor attempted to turn her idea into a viable social enterprise. She was awarded two grants which paid for her cost of living. The rest she did alone – well, apart from the support of the social enterprise community and the help, since January, of an intern. Taylor had to turn her idea into a web-based reality, which meant acquiring knowledge of marketing, communications and design.

It's paid off. Earlier this month, thedonation.org.uk went live. Among those who've already signed up are Xavier Roeseler, who's hiking Spain's Camino Santiago, and Bojana Bajzalj and Will Usher, who plan to cycle from London to Ljubljana in 21 days. On signing up to the site, sponsors are given a choice of 20 actions that they can pledge to perform for a limited amount of time. Grouped into five categories – food, travel, energy, home and shopping – they range from giving up bottled water to installing solar panels. Make your selection, and you're met with a brief questionnaire to record your current habits and assess the change you will make. For every sponsor, an approximate carbon saving is worked out, allowing users to calculate their impact. "That's a big draw for people," explains Taylor of this. "The fact that there's a measurable benefit really makes a difference."

There is, of course, one potential flaw. Unlike websites where you pledge money, the DoNation can't hold everyone to account. It's perfectly possible – at least in theory – to pledge a bit of good behaviour and then default on it. This is something Taylor has thought long and hard about – and she believes she has a solution: "What we've done, essentially, is use a form of peer pressure. All the pledges are listed in public and, given that it's a friend or acquaintance that you are sponsoring, you're likely to be surrounded by people to police you."

It's with this in mind that I decide to give the system a go. Taylor counsels against opting for anything too ambitious – I don't have a bike, so cycling's out of the question. Equally, though, there's little point pledging something you already do. So no promise to take the stairs over the lift, or to wash on a low heat. Instead I decide to green my frequent trips to the kettle by promising to boil only the amount of water I'm going to use. And you know what? I've stuck to it (so far). It means waiting a fraction of the time that it would to boil a full kettle, too. Bonus! "A lot of people find that there are other positive repercussions," agrees Taylor. "It's not just about carbon."

Over the next year, she wants to expand the DoNation's capabilities, forming partnerships with companies, and expanding into a host of pledge-making activities. So far, most people who have signed up for the site have been doing some kind of sponsored race. Hopefully, the events will get more varied as time goes on – "We'd love to do a wedding list!" she says. Central to everything is a single simple message: behaving responsibly can be fun: "It can be a chore trying to be green. But we're making it social."

Don't bottle it Up

2011-07-09T19:14:00.000+10:00

from an article at Leeloo.com

Don’t Bottle It Up

Posted on May 20, 2011 by Dale

Ever wondered what the appeal is with bottled water? Why do we spend over 100 billion dollars on bottled water each year?

It undergoes less quality control and scrutiny than tap water, so it can’t be the quality. It costs approx 1000 times more per litre than high quality tap water, so it’s not the price.

According to industry marketing experts we are buying bottled water simply for convenience,but at what cost?

In the United States alone, bottled water is responsible for the consumption of 17 million barrels of oil per year. This same amount of oil is enough to fuel more than 1 million gas guzzling cars and light trucks for a year. To compound this, the environmental impact caused by the production, distribution, storage, and disposal of bottled water is alarming. Australia’s bottled water consumption creates more than 60,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide annually, as much as the annual emissions from 13,000 cars.

Don’t turn away now, it gets worse. Australians only recycle 36% of their PET bottles. This is a shameful figure and means that around 373 million plastic water bottles will end up as waste each year. I don’t even want to get into the discussion about why we import bottled water from around the globe (Fiji, France, Britain) while exporting our own brands of water in return.

So next time you’re listening to someone rant about the price of petrol, maybe point out that their strange bottled water fetish is driving up the price of fuel, so do they really have the right to complain about it? Or if you are a know-it-all who is always giving others grief about their impact on the environment (like me!), maybe trade in your bottled water for a more permanent option before someone catches onto your hypocritical ways.

Source credit :: The Pacific Institute

Image credit

Clean water for life; more important than energy

2011-07-05T18:02:00.000+10:00

Stop coal seam gas now

Bottled water sometimes has contamination on tap

2011-07-04T09:36:00.000+10:00

An article from Crikey

Bottled water sometimes has contamination on tap

by Nicole Gooch from Australian Centre for Independent Journalism

Bottled water is constantly promoted as pure and natural, but research by the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism shows it undergoes an industrial bottling process that actually increases risks of contamination compared to tap water.

Yet bottled water is not as strictly monitored as tap water, says consumer advocacy group Choice.

Last December a batch of Cool Ridge bottles was contaminated with a chlorine cleaning solution. The incident served as a rude wake-up call to the reality of what goes on behind the firmly closed doors of Australia’s $500 million bottled-water industry.

After Cool Ridge consumers complained of a strong chlorine smell coming from their bottled water, the brand’s manufacturer, Schweppes, recalled all bottles with a use by date of 6.11.11 from supermarkets in Queensland and NSW. The contamination went largely unnoticed and Schweppes did not respond to the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism’s ( ACIJ) requests for more information.

Schweppes corporate affairs manager, Robyn Newman, said in an email she was “in full-day meetings for the rest of the week, then on leave for some time”. A call to the consumer info line was never returned.

However, Lydia Buchtmann, of Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ), said the Cool Ridge recall was not a safety risk and Schweppes “agreed to recall voluntarily”.

Buchtmann said chlorine is used to clean out equipment at the bottling plant and although it was a regular procedure to run fresh water through the processing equipment, “in this case, that may not have been done”.

Choice spokesperson Ingrid Just said consumers are just “being sold a lot of hype” and bottle manufacturers are “climbing over each other to have bottles labelled with ‘pure’ or pictures of waterfalls”.

Professor of Microbiology at the California Lutheran University Fred Rosenberg agreed. He said there is no such thing as pure water and disinfection is not synonymous with sterilisation.

Micro-organisms such as bacteria and fungi are always present in water — be it tap water or bottled water, Rosenberg said, but past disease outbreaks were mostly due to contaminations that occurred during the bottling process, not at the water source.

Rosenberg said while running tap water sourced from clean pipes is fine, the risk of contamination arises once the water starts coming into contact with foreign objects, for example bottling equipment and those working the machines. In addition to this, water sitting stagnant on grocery shelves with little oxygen provides an ideal environment for organisms to multiply, which, according to Rosenberg, can be particularly problematic for people whose immune system is compromised.

The latest United States recall happened last week, when Mountain Pure Water voluntarily recalled a batch of bottled water after mould was discovered in a shipment of its purified water sent to Clinton, Arkansas, which is recovering from floods. Health officials said it was unlikely that a healthy person would get sick from drinking the water, but people with a weakened immune system may be at risk. The water was selling in Walmart under a green label “Great value”.

While Sydney Water tests its drinking water for 70 different characteristics and publishes the results daily on its website, the NSW Food Authority told the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism it does not even monitor bottled water manufacturers on a weekly basis.

“The product is considered to be a low food safety risk. The authority would investigate any complaints made to it about bottled water, as per normal procedure with other food products,” said the NSW Food Authority spokesperson in an email.

The food authority states: “Bottled water manufacturers are required to comply with the Food Standards Code and are also responsible for meeting their own code requirements.”

Coca-Cola Amatil (CCA) director of media and public affairs Sally Loane, said in an email that water is tested hourly for contaminants during the bottling process, but results are not made available to the public.

In 2004 Coca-Cola was forced to pull its brand of Dasani bottled water of the shelves of Britain in the midst of a humiliating public scandal. Not only had it been found that Coca-Cola was selling water from the Thames, procured from the mains supply to its factory, but the bottled water also contained illegal amounts of bromine, a potential carcinogen created during the manufacture process.

Loane told the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism that its Mount Franklin brand of water is micro-filtered to remove any micro-organisms or particles and once the water has passed through the final filter, it is bottled in an environment that she said, had sterile air to prevent any airborne contamination.

Despite this assurance, Loane was unable to offer any detail about the treatment and manufacture process for Mount Franklin bottled water in Australia because the information was classified commercial-in-confidence.

In a similar story in the United States, a new study called the 2011 Bottled Water Scorecard found more than half of the 173-bottled water brands surveyed flunked a transparency test.

According to the report, recently released by the Environmental Working Group, 32% of bottled water brands will not disclose their internal treatment and purity testing methods, 18% fail to reveal their water’s geographic source and 13% publish water quality reports that lack any actual testing results.

The Environmental Working Group, a non-profit organisation who lobby for public health and the environment, said the bottled water industry spends millions on advertising each year, while “failing to disclose contaminants and other crucial facts about their products”.

Disinfectant by-products (DBPs), associated with cancer, were found in 10 brands of bottled water tested in the US in 2008 by the Environmental Working Group. The group also found 37 other contaminants in the water, including caffeine and pharmaceuticals, fertiliser residue and industrial chemicals.

In Australia, bottled water is considered packaged food and as such is regulated by the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code. Members of the Australasian Bottled Water Institute (ABWI) must also comply with their own industry code.

According to the ABWI website, the model code is a quality assurance program that establishes a strict set of standards for the safe processing of bottled water. These include standards on plant construction and design, personal hygiene and cleaning of tankers used to transport the bulk water.

Although Loane said CCA have its own stringent internal quality standards and is subjected to annual technical audits by ABWI approved auditors, the AWBI admits the model code is a self-regulatory scheme of plant inspections whereby bottler members submit the full records of their bottled water test results to the auditors.

The NSW Food Authority provided the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism with anecdotal evidence of past cases of bottled water contamination and admitted to “a small number, perhaps three or four, of minor issues regarding bottle water in the past five years. The majority of these concerned issues like mould or yeast present in the water. There were no reports to the authority of illness as a result”.

Professor Rosenberg said tap water in the US is more closely scrutinised than bottled water and although the Food and Drug Administration do test bottled water, the testing is often internal and not subjected to objective scrutiny.

“It’s suggested that if the company finds any problems that they report the problems, but of course, if you are in business to make money, then you will try to alleviate the problem before you tell anybody about it,” Rosenberg said.

Tap water in Australia is the responsibility of individual state health departments, who regulate it according to the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines (ADWG), developed by the National Health and Medical Research Council.

“We can’t be any more transparent really as to the quality of what it is that we are delivering,” said a Sydney Water spokesperson.

Water is filtered then disinfected using chlorine. Ammonia is also added in some systems in a disinfection process known as “chloramination”.

Drinking water is tested at every stage of the supply system. The Sydney Catchment Authority (SCA) tests water in the catchments. Sydney Water tests the water immediately after it is treated, in distribution pipes and at 650 customers’ taps, according to its spokesperson.

*This story is part of Pure Plastiky, a project of the Global Environmental Journalism Initiative and the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism

WARNING! Fluoride in bottled water!

2011-07-01T17:39:00.000+10:00

from David Icke's Official Forums

Hi there,
I´m based in germany and during the last year
it came to my attention that more and more
bottled waters contain fluorid,
sometimes listed under "mineral contends".

At first it appeared that especially Nestlé- related waters
contain fluoride,
when today I discovered
that ALL mineral waters sold by ALDI, one of the world richest discounters,
now contain fluoride, listed under "Ions" on the bottle..

Take care, it´s getting more and more,
read the label before buying,
they change ingredients without announcing it,
so better be safe..

L&L,

ytch

Massachusetts town undoes revolutionary bottled water ban ~ perhaps some historial metaphors are appropriate?

2011-06-27T17:51:00.000+10:00

Massachusetts Town Undoes Revolutionary Bottled Water Ban

by Timothy Hurst

One year after making international headlines as the first town in the United States—and possibly the world—to ban the sale of bottled water, voters at the annual Town Meeting in Concord, Massachusetts this week rejected the water bottle ban, passing instead a proposal educating Concord citizens about the environmental impacts of water bottles.

The initial ban, passed in April 2010, was set to go into effect on January 1, 2011, but the state attorney general's office said it was written as a bylaw that could not be enforced. The measure voted on this week would have addressed that specific problem, but it would not have protected the town against probable lawsuits from industry groups.

"The cost of defending ourselves against such a lawsuit could be steep," Jeff Wieand, chairman of the Concord Board of Selectmen, told the Boston Globe. "It's possible we could get a law firm to defend us pro bono, but if that didn't happen it would be a significant expense for the town."

Known as the home of environmentalist Henry David Thoreau, it seemed fitting last spring when citizens of Concord approved the anti-establishment water bottle ban. But Concord is also known for being host to the first battle of the American Revolution. And ultimately it was not only the cost of likely litigation that won out over environmentalism, it was also the cause of liberty, or so said the bill's opponents.

Whichever historical metaphor one applies to this story, it is safe to say that the protagonists in neither would be very impressed with the (small d) democratic tendencies in Concord, population 17,000, as evidenced by voter turnout at Town Meeting. A total of 537 residents voted on the measure at the Town Meeting; 272 opposed the ban and 265 supported it.

But in all fairness to Concordians, the bill came up for consideration late in the evening, around 11 p.m., after many residents had already gone home, according to Jean Hill, who filed the petition to ban the water bottles. Hill says the battle she's fighting for the environment is not over yet.

“I’m coming back next year. I’m 83 and I’m tough. I don’t give up,” said Hill.

Maybe those historical metaphors are appropriate after all.

Reprinted with permission from Ecopolitology

Grumpy Old Man: Water, Water everywhere…and its bottled!

2011-06-25T15:56:00.000+10:00

I love this Grumpy Old Man post – this issue drives me nuts! – Lisa

I had an experience in a restaurant last week when the bill arrived for the meal and included $20 for two bottles of still water!

"how much??"

This is becoming something of a habit with restaurants and no doubt quite a profitable one.

It got me thinking that we actually can pay more for water than petrol! How strange is this? I am sure most of us would be more than satisfied with water from the tap. It is after all chlorinated and has helped reduce the instances of tooth decay in the community very significantly over the years since its introduction.

The infrastructure for delivery of tap water is well and truly in place, whereas the production/distribution of bottled water is most definitely using finite resources … typically PET bottles which can be a derivative of fossil fuel.

The transportation costs are high, the labelling and closures are energy-sapping and of course the cost of displaying in the various retail outlets incurs electricity on-costs etc. Also not forgetting the proper disposal of the empty bottles … more energy usage to collect and regrade into usable pellets for use in making recycled items such as park benches. An attempt to balance the growing usage?

So why are we consuming copious quantities of bottled water? In the restaurant case referred to above, the water was in fact from Italy for heaven’s sake! Add the transportation costs for that and maybe it helps explain the exhorbitant restaurant price?

Many consumers would not be aware that Australia’s most popular water drink is supplied by the company who own possibly the largest selling carbonated beverage in the country … Coke.

So why don’t we grasp reality and simply make sure we drink tap water rather than bottled and/or flavoured water?

I would welcome feedback on this, as it has me very grumpy and confused as to why we have this amazing scenario, which in many cases costs a packet across all measures … environmental and our hip pockets.

Till the next time

GOM

a hilarious website and testament to 'news-speak': "Save the planet by consuming plastic"

2011-06-23T18:20:00.000+10:00

This is really hilarious: it is a website put up by the International Bottled Water Association to promote bottled water, going so far as to say that the industry is environmentally friendly.

The video "every bottle counts" shows just how long a bow is being drawn here: the "green hero" drinks bottled water for its convenience, but then explains that she is willing to cart around a bag full of empties so she can recycle them at home. Smart thinking, right? At the end of her day she is carrying 6 little bottles in a trash bag, instead of her one, stylish, refillable bottle.

The website also boasts that 30% of bottles are recycled, but forgets to mention that this means 70% of bottles are in landfills. Then there are the other numbers - like the 1.3 billion pounds (that 1300000000 pounds) of plastic resin SAVED since 2001 by making the plastic water bottles lighter. Hmmm...now what does that really mean? That the amount of resin used was much, much more than that - try at least 3 times as much - virtually all of it pointless except for profit, and 70% of it now in landfills or the ocean.

This is a real testament to 'news-speak'. Save the planet by consuming plastic? One more step along this path and we could see someone suggesting that we sequester carbon by turning it into plastic and burying it in landfills. Maybe the bottled water industry could get some carbon credits for that?

The Facts About Bottled Water

2011-06-21T16:24:00.000+10:00

Conservation, Potable Water, Water Contaminaton — by Natasha Murray April 26, 2011

The Facts about Bottled Water from Natasha Murray on Vimeo.

College students push to restrict bottled water

2011-06-16T18:21:00.000+10:00

College students push to restrict bottled water

By Jenna Johnson, Published: April 30

Bottled water: It’s a vending machine’s healthy alternative to sugary soda, a convenient way to hydrate on the go and, lately, a total faux pas on many college campuses.

Some environmentally gung-ho students are not only glaring at those who choose to chug from disposable bottles — rather than earthy-friendly reusable containers — they are also pushing for restrictions on bottled water sales on campus.

At the University of Maryland College Park, students have persuaded the undergraduate and graduate student governments to stop buying bottled water for their meetings and events. Now they serve large pitchers of tap water.

Washington University in St. Louis has adopted an all-out ban in the hope of alleviating the waste going into landfills. The president of University of Mary Washington in Virginia forbade spending school funds on bottled water. Goucher College in Baltimore removed bottled water from its dining halls and campus eateries, but not its bookstore and vending machines.

Proposed restrictions often are met with opposition and caution. Some administrators say they want to avoid discouraging water consumption, especially when students can become dehydrated while playing intramural sports (or drinking games). And there’s the ongoing fight against the Freshman 15: If a student is standing at a vending machine, a bottle of water is usually the least-fattening option.

“It’s definitely a complex issue,” said Aynsley Toews, coordinator of the U-Md. Office of Sustainability and a member of a task force looking at other possible restrictions. Already the group has heard concerns about the university losing money from bottled water sales and not keeping its students properly hydrated. “Then there’s flavored water, there’s vitamin water. What do you do with those?”

Similar concerns are echoed by the industry. “You are telling people not to drink water? Holy mackerel,” said Tom Lauria, a spokesman for the International Bottled Water Association. “It’s odd that colleges would look to ban a healthy, legal product.”

Even some environmentalists worry bans could alienate students who are just starting to warm to eco-friendly ideas such as running fewer loads of laundry. When DePauw University in Indiana contemplated a bottle ban in 2010, an opposition group popped up on Facebook, where one student wrote, “guess the next logical thing is to make meatless mondays official. this is ridiculous.”

Americans purchased 8.45 billion gallons of bottled water in 2009. Environmentalists say resources are wasted on producing and transporting bottles of water when most people could receive the same product — for far less money — from their kitchen faucet. Each year about 50 billion water bottles end up in landfills, according to estimates.

Rallying against bottled water has become a cause for college environmental groups in the past few years, especially with the popularity of “Tapped,” a documentary about the bottled water industry.

While bans remain controversial, many colleges are instead trying to make it easier for students to pick refillable bottles over throwaway ones. They are also educating students about recycling and how their several-bottles-a-day habit quickly piles up in a landfill.

Often that means building a giant sculpture made up of thrown-away water bottles. At Maryland, a group of students spent two hours pulling bottles out of trash cans to construct its five-foot-tall plastic statue of a water bottle. At Penn State University, students opted to spell out the word “NO” in collected bottles. (Lauria and water bottle proponents, meanwhile, note that their bottles are the single most recycled item in curbside programs.)

Many schools have also installed “refilling stations” that filter tap water and are easier to use than traditional water fountains. The University of the District of Columbia is in the process of installing “hydration stations” in all of its buildings, while American University is upgrading 100 water fountains to include a bottle-friendly faucet.

American also gives each incoming student a free, reusable water bottle at orientation, and a few times a year the sustainability director hosts a blind-taste test of an array of water options — including tap, filtered and several bottled varieties. The goal is not to limit the number of options students have, but to make reusable bottles the hippest choice, said Chris O’Brien, American’s director of sustainability.

“It’s cool to have a refillable water bottle,” he said. “It’s not cool to be seen with a product that produces greenhouse gases and is not sustainable.”

Bottled Water is Not the Answer

2011-05-31T20:51:00.000+10:00

Bottled Water Is Not The Answer

Most people who drink bottled water do so mainly for convenience, but there are those who believe that bottled water is healthy. What they may not know is that the bottled water industry is NOT regulated by the federal government because it is classified as a “food” and falls under the standards of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

So while tap water from our faucet is regulated by the stricter Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) the FDA’s water regulations are not as strict – and they regulate the bottled water industry. So while you could have bottled water that is unacceptable by the EPA, it could be just fine for the FDA and your local water bottling company.

Amazingly, bottled water is not tested for Cryptosporidium (a parasite) even though a 1999 study by the NRDC stated that 1 out of 5 (20%) bottled water tests contained higher than acceptable bacterial counts.

But, even with the FDA’s low standards, most corporations don’t comply with the FDA’s regulations concerning bottled water. In fact, 60 – 70% of these corporations avoid any federal regulation at all, simply by bottling and distributing their water within the same state. As long as they don’t cross state lines, they are exempt from all federal regulations.

As a child, when we heard that in the future water would be sold in little containers and cost more than gasoline, we thought that was beyond ridiculous! Yet, here we are, 40 years later, paying over a dollar for 16 ounces of water in a plastic bottle (There are eight 16 ounce servings in one gallon x $1 each = $8 per gallon).

And that is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the true cost of bottled water. If you’re an environmentally conscious person, then you may already be aware that Americans are throwing out 2.5 million bottles per hour! Please read that again – 2.5 million bottles per HOUR!

So, it is doubtful that we have reduced the size of the Pacific Garbage Patch which was twice the size of Texas when it was first discovered over 10 years ago.

Keep in mind that the Pacific Garbage Patch is only ONE of EIGHT of these floating landfills found around the world. In 1975, a study showed that we were throwing 8 million pounds of plastic into our oceans annually. Again, it is doubtful that this has been reduced in the last 35 years.

So, where does it all end? How can we stop this madness? Well, you can eliminate the use and disposal of plastic water bottles from YOUR own home entirely and provide your family with the healthy, purified water they deserve with a home water filtration system.

NOTE: Try out a glass water bottle, like the free one you will get when you order your water filter system from Aquasana.

Water bottles have a number stamped on the bottom of them inside a triangle. Most water bottles come with the #1, which means it’s made from polyethylene terephthalate. Phthalates are plasticizers can leach out of the plastic and into your water.

These compounds are called “xenoestrogens” and they mimic estrogen causing the body to become more dominant in estrogen. Estrogen dominance can cause conditions like endometriosis, uterine fibroids, and infertility.

Phthalates are cancer-causing after long term use, most specifically with reproductive organs. Usually, the harder the plastic, the higher the number on the bottom and the safer the plastic. The plastic used for bottled water is the least safest of all plastic containers.

So, how would you like your water served today?

GASLAND trailer ~ shocking information, an important film

2011-05-26T10:36:00.000+10:00

Very important movie, see the trailer here, it only takes a few minutes, and is enough to make you feel sick really.

Upcycled Plastic Water Bottles become Incredible Art Bowls

2011-05-25T18:01:00.000+10:00

Follow me	derekmarkham
	by derekmarkham

Upcycled Plastic Water Bottles become Incredible Art Bowls

PET water bottles are everywhere, mostly used only once, but artist Gülnur Özdağlar shows us how to upcycle them into works of art

We’ve seen some outstanding examples of waste-to-resource thinking for plastic soda bottles lately, from stylish shirts to dog beds, messenger bags, and even whole houses. Well, here’s a new one: Art bowls made from PET bottles.

Architect Gülnur Özdağlar has been creating bowls, cups, jewelry and home decorations from old PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate) bottles since 2008. She collects the bottles, then cuts, heats, drills holes and reshapes them into amazing creations.

The object for Gülnur is to “substitute with labour and artistic value the characteristics that the material loses during transformation”, thereby obtaining a product of higher value. She aims to create beautiful new objects from discarded things so that we would want to exhibit or wear them, highlighting the importance of recycling and thus encouraging it.

Her blog and Etsy store are named “Tertium Non Data”, which is Latin for “the third is not given” - a reference to an alchemic term relating to the process of combining two disparate elements to create a new, third element. Gülnur’s work is an amazing example of how everyday objects, in the hands of an artist, become works of art - not only that, but works of art made from one of the worst environmental scourges of our time.

If you’d like to try your hand at creating your own PET bottle bowls, she has a great tutorial on it atInstructables: Make an art bowl from pet bottle.

”After heating process, it becomes more stiff, rigid, durable and glassy. It becomes even stronger and crystallized when perforated. This re-formed and perforated second life as a bowl is longer than the original bottle.”

Be sure to check out Gülnur Özdağlar’s website, blog, and Etsy store for more information on her work, which also includes jewelry from PET bottles.

via If It's Hip It's Here

What is the Life Cycle of a Plastic Bottle?

2011-05-05T13:13:00.000+10:00

From an article at WiseGeek

Plastic bottles are used to package a wide variety of things, from juice to soft drinks, and they play a ubiquitous role in the lives of many consumers, along with other plastic products. With a growing awareness of the environmental issues which surround plastics, many people have become interested in the life cycles of plastic products, from manufacturing to eventual disposition in a landfill or recycling facility. Being aware of the process behind the production of plastics can encourage consumers to think more carefully about how they use and dispose of such plastics. Because plastic bottles are a very visible form of plastic use, plastic bottles make an easy target for activism and education.

The life cycle of a plastic bottle starts, obviously, with the creation of the plastic used to make it. The vast majority of plastic bottles are manufactured from petroleum, some of which comes from deposits as much as three billion years old. Some manufacturers use bioplastics made from plant materials to create their plastic bottles, out of concern for the environment.

In the case of a plastic bottle made from petroleum, the oil must be extracted before being shipped to a processing facility and then distilled to separate out the various hydrocarbons it contains. Oil extraction is performed all over the world in a variety of locations, and it has a number of environmental impacts. In areas where oil is drilled from the seafloor, for example, oil spills are common, and regions like the Middle East are famous for their heavily polluting oil fires, caused by intentional or accidental combustion of oil fields. In some nations, oil extraction is also bound up with a number of social issues. Nigeria, for instance, has an oil industry notoriously plagued with problems; oil workers are often poorly paid and exposed to very hazardous conditions, and periodic devastating fires along oil pipelines are not uncommon.

Once oil has been extracted, it is typically moved into container tankers for shipping to refinery facilities. At a refinery, the oil can be submitted to a variety of distillation processes, such as fractional distillation, where the crude oil is heated, causing its various components to separate so that the refinery can make gas, fuel oil, plastics, and a variety of other products. Crude oil can also be “cracked” with chemical catalysts to generate hydrocarbon chains of a desired length; this practice is common, because demand for various petroleum products constantly fluctuates, and cracking ensures that oil is used extremely efficiently and generates the maximum possible profit.

free water on tap at all London bus and rail stations

2011-05-04T12:56:00.000+10:00

Exempt: tube stations which get notoriously hot will not get the tap water vending machines due to logistical problems

Free water on tap at all London bus and rail stations

Mark Prigg, Science Correspondent
10 Jun 2008

Tap water vending machines could be installed in Tube and rail stations across London.

They would allow commuters to refill their water bottles, either for free or for a small charge, under plans announced by Thames Water today.

Andrea Riding, community liaison executive for the company, said: "There is a real momentum behind tap water but for people on the go it is a real problem. These machines would allow every rail and Tube station to offer free, chilled tap water.

"I think we have seen a real sea change in the attitude of Londoners to bottled water and now we hope we can bring that choice to people on the move as well."

She said Thames Water was in negotiations with several large agencies, includingTransport for London, about the scheme.

Mrs Riding continued: "We would hope that a company like TfL would run the operation and we think the machines would be a welcome addition to every Tube and bus station.

"It's something that will appeal to everyone, as you can simply fill a bottle on your way to work, then again on your way home."

The vending machines require a power socket and a connection to the water mains. They filter and chill the water and are also capable of selling reusable water bottles. Mrs Riding said the company was hopeful of winning the support of Boris Johnson, adding: "We worked with Ken Livingstone on this idea, so we are hopeful the new mayor will back it as well.

"There would be a nominal charge of perhaps 20p per half litre to cover the cost and upkeep of the machine but we are hopeful that a major sponsor could be attracted.

"The sponsor could have their advert on the machines and bottles and that way it should be possible to offer free tap water to everyone."

The announcement of the project comes in the wake of the Evening Standard's Water On Tap campaign, which aims to reduce the amount of bottled water Londoners consume because it is environmentally unfriendly.

More than 3,000 restaurants, bars and clubs in London have signed up by pledging to offer their customers free tap water alongside bottled.

The public's perception of bottled water is also changing. Shop sales fell by nine per cent to £284million in the year to March, according to independent retail analysts TNS.

Bottled Water Doesn't Always Taste Better

2011-04-20T12:08:00.000+10:00

Bottled Water Doesn't Always Taste Better

In blind taste tests, consumers often cannot tell the difference between bottled and tap water, or between expensive bottled water and cheaper brands.

Different waters have different tastes, depending on the natural minerals found in them. But blind taste test after blind taste test has shown that bottled water is not consistently preferred over tap water.

Credit: istockphoto

Drowning in #Bottled water

2011-04-11T19:21:00.000+10:00

from an article at CBS news

Americans buy, consume, and throw away the equivalent of nearly 100 billion 12-ounce plastic bottles of water every year, according to Dr. Gleick's calculations. That translates into roughly 300 bottles for every man, woman, and child. Laid end to end, these bottles would circle the earth more than 600 times - or reach from the earth to the moon and back 30 times.

What Does the Government Really Test?

2011-04-06T17:40:00.000+10:00

What Does the Government Really Test?

Think purity standards for bottled water are more stringent than those for tap water? Not so, says Dr. Gleick. Unlike tap water, which is regulated by the EPA, bottled water is regulated by the FDA - and, in addition to allowing for less frequent quality testing, the FDA doesn't monitor some contaminants that may be in bottled water. What's more, the FDA doesn't insist that bottlers provide water quality reports to consumers.

"Our standards for protecting both tap water and bottled water ought to be stricter," says Dr. Gleick. "But tap water is better regulated."

"Where water is, bread will come..."

2011-03-31T08:48:00.000+11:00

There is a poem by Rumi* that goes:

"Where water is, bread will come.

But not the reverse.

Water never comes from loaves.”

In it I think Rumi is using water as a metaphor for the spirit or the inner world, and bread for the outer. To me he is saying that when we take care of our inner lives, our outer lives will reflect that caring. In a world where there is so much emphasis on getting it together, on taking care of business, this is a radical approach. But it does not suggest sitting on a cushion all day, or withdrawing into a monastery, or ignoring the outer world in any way. Rather it is a suggestion that our inner well being is our first responsibility, and by creating harmony within we give a chance for harmony to manifest outside.

But in the world of water, it is not only a metaphor. When we get clean water to people in need, we are helping them to get bread on their tables. The very first step in alleviating poverty is clean water. Without it, sickness is inevitable, and when a person is sick they cannot feed themselves, cannot get up and go to work. When a family is on the breadline, this is devastating – a day without work becomes a day without food, which is a day without energy, and it spirals into a worse and worse situation.

That is why we are so focused on getting clean water to people in need, and why we are so horrified when, in the wealthiest countries, so many vital resources are wasted on the bottling of water. There is, simply, no harmony in supporting so much disparity . No harmony for the world, and no harmony within ourselves. It is a sign that we have separated ourselves from the rest of humanity in the most strong and perverse way.

At WonWater, through our unbottled.org project, we are beginning the work of developing water vending machines to sell chilled, filtered water into your own cup or bottle. The water will be filtered and chilled on the spot, making it better-than-bottled in taste, freshness, environmental impact, and cost, with none of the potential health implications of storing water for months in disposable plastic containers. When the project is up and running (so to speak) the profits will be channelled (sorry, more puns) into the WonWater Project – getting clean water to those in need, and bringing a type of harmony between the water needs of the richest and poorest among us.

*thanks to Coleman Barks for this translation and all his work.

Written by Gray Ramsey, founder of WonWater and unbottled.org

#bottledwater: 10 shockers 'they' don't want you to know about

2011-03-28T19:50:00.000+11:00

Crickets in Water and Nobody Told You?

Like any other products, water gets recalled, but more often than not you don't hear much about it.

There have been more than 100 recalls of contaminated bottled water, often months after the products were delivered to store shelves, says Dr. Gleick, who worries that the public rarely gets the memo.

What sorts of contaminants have been found in bottled water?

Benzene, mold, sodium hydroxide, kerosene, styrene, algae, yeast, tetrahydrofuran, sand, fecal coliform and other bacteria, elevated chlorine, glass particles, sanitizer, and crickets, says Gleick.

Yes, crickets.

What is the Life Cycle of a Plastic Bottle?

2011-03-23T19:25:00.000+11:00

from an article on WiseGeek
Plastic bottles are used to package a wide variety of things, from juice to soft drinks, and they play a ubiquitous role in the lives of many consumers, along with other plastic products. With a growing awareness of the environmental issues which surround plastics, many people have become interested in the life cycles of plastic products, from manufacturing to eventual disposition in a landfill or recycling facility. Being aware of the process behind the production of plastics can encourage consumers to think more carefully about how they use and dispose of such plastics. Because plastic bottles are a very visible form of plastic use, plastic bottles make an easy target for activism and education.

The life cycle of a plastic bottle starts, obviously, with the creation of the plastic used to make it. The vast majority of plastic bottles are manufactured from petroleum, some of which comes from deposits as much as three billion years old. Some manufacturers use bioplastics made from plant materials to create their plastic bottles, out of concern for the environment.

In the case of a plastic bottle made from petroleum, the oil must be extracted before being shipped to a processing facility and then distilled to separate out the various hydrocarbons it contains. Oil extraction is performed all over the world in a variety of locations, and it has a number of environmental impacts. In areas where oil is drilled from the seafloor, for example, oil spills are common, and regions like the Middle East are famous for their heavily polluting oil fires, caused by intentional or accidental combustion of oil fields. In some nations, oil extraction is also bound up with a number of social issues. Nigeria, for instance, has an oil industry notoriously plagued with problems; oil workers are often poorly paid and exposed to very hazardous conditions, and periodic devastating fires along oil pipelines are not uncommon.

Once oil has been extracted, it is typically moved into container tankers for shipping to refinery facilities. At a refinery, the oil can be submitted to a variety of distillation processes, such as fractional distillation, where the crude oil is heated, causing its various components to separate so that the refinery can make gas, fuel oil, plastics, and a variety of other products. Crude oil can also be “cracked” with chemical catalysts to generate hydrocarbon chains of a desired length; this practice is common, because demand for various petroleum products constantly fluctuates, and cracking ensures that oil is used extremely efficiently and generates the maximum possible profit.

Most plastic bottles are made from polyethylene terephtalate (PET) plastic, and almost all water bottles come from virgin plastic; an estimated 30% of the world's PET goes into plastic bottles. The plastic used in plastic bottles is made by mixing hydrocarbons extracted from crude oil with chemical catalysts, triggering polymerization. Next, manufacturers produce plastic pellets, which are melted down into “preforms,” which look like small test tubes; the preforms, in turn, can be heated, causing them to expand and turn into conventional water bottles. Typically bottling companies order preforms, expanding the water bottles at their own facilities as needed.

Did you know that there was free water on tap at all London bus and rail stations

2011-03-17T16:51:00.000+11:00

Exempt: tube stations which get notoriously hot will not get the tap water vending machines due to logistical problems

Free water on tap at all London bus and rail stations

Mark Prigg, Science Correspondent
10 Jun 2008

Expat-Advice