Bear a plastic water bottle at your own risk; the tide of public opinion is coming back down against you. From top rating documentaries, to books and political debate, the red hot issue in town is the problem around bottled water and the waste of resources that the industry pumps out.
The processing, moving and disposal of water in petrochemical plastic bottles consumes large use of water alongside energy, and pumps out tremendous measures of greenhouse gases and waste.
Director of the recent documentary ‘Tapped: get off the bottle’ Stephanie Soechtig sums it up “1500 water bottles end up in landfill every second – that’s 30 million water bottles a day! We wanted to show people just how much waste is generated by bottled water.” The crew of Tapped are pushing the documentary with an across-America roadshow, taking donations from citizens to reduce their water bottle numbers and swapping their discarded plastic water bottle in exchange for a reusable stainless steel bottle. Download Tapped from Amazon or iTunes.
A short film ‘The Story of Bottled Water’ was released on World Water Day in March. From the pen of Annie Leonard of the famous ‘The Story of Stuff’, this short animation explores the process that goes into swaying Americans into wasting over half a billion bottles of water a week, instead of a few cents cost for tapwater. Find the short film on You Tube.
In her book ‘Bottlemania’, investigator Elizabeth Royte demonstrates one of the greatest marketing coups of the twentieth century and provides a powerful environmental wakeup call. She details the questions we must at some point understand. Who distributes the water supply? What happens when a bottled-water company seizes your town’s drinking water? Is the water coming from your tap entirely safe? What really is the environmental footprint of making, transportation and disposing of every plastic water bottle?
Politicians from everywhere around the international community are realising that they need to take action – especially when the buildings at which they collate are major consumers of bottled water. How often do we witness a politician at a press conference sipping from a water bottle. Surely they might use a water glass in Parliament House.
Leslie Samuelrich of Corporate Accountability International, stated “Cities and states are spending hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars on bottled water, and that’s not to mention what’s spent to deal with all the plastic bottles that are thrown out.”
In July 2009, the NSW rural town of Bundanoon became the first society from Australia to prevent the retailing of bottled water. About 60 towns in the US and a handful of cities in Canada and the UK have lately stopped the spending of taxpayer money on bottled water.
It is doubtless that these problems will be debated during World Water Week 2010 from September 5 to 11 in Stockholm, Sweden, the annual meeting for the globe’s most time-sensitive water-related issues.
Article written by Tracey Bailey, founder of Biome Eco Stores.
Tags: water bottleApril 26th, 2010UncategorizedRead More >No Comments
You are doing the right thing for the planet by filling up at home and carrying a reusable water bottle and you’ve chosen a safe, non-toxic bottle-but if it’s not kept clean then it may not be healthy.
Whether your drink bottle is a stainless steel bottle, SIGG bottle or a BPA free plastic water bottle, it is important to stop mould and other deposits forming in the bottle.
Wash your drink bottles with warm, soapy water at the end of every day and let the bottle air dry upside down with the top off every day where possible.
Should any mineral deposits or lime scale form inside, fill your clean water bottle with Distilled White Vinegar and let it soak for 24 hours. Then rinse with warm water mixed with one tablespoon of bicarbonate of soda (baking soda), rinse out and let dry. Spots inside the bottle that look like “corrosion” are most likely a mineral deposit.
Fill your bottle with filtered water wherever possible. It tastes so much better, but also because water contains different minerals in every area this may affect what happens inside your bottle.
Do not allow liquids such as fruit juice to ferment inside the bottle.
With all reusable water bottles you can also try SIGG cleaning tablets and a specially-designed SIGG bottle cleaning brush, or simply a baby bottle brush. Only ever use a soft brush on aluminium bottles with lining like SIGG so as not to damage the lining. Stainless steel water bottles like Klean Kanteen and Nathan can handle a hard brush.
While all bottles are technically dishwasher-safe, it is recommended to not put them in a dishwasher. Most dishwasher powders are caustic, so they will eat into the metal of your bottle and damage the exterior pattern. Bottle tops should also not be put in the dishwasher because extreme heat expands and deteriorates the plastic.
Never freeze metal bottles as metal can split even with only a little water inside. Water does not always expand in a predictable direction! Freezing plastic water bottles is also not advisable because it may cause the plastic to breakdown and toxins to leach. It is fine to place your bottle in the refrigerator.
Tips on cleaning your water bottle brought to you by Biome Eco Stores Australia.
Tags: how to clean water bottle, SIGG, water bottleFebruary 22nd, 2010UncategorizedRead More >No Comments