Recently in Bottled Water Category

As the issues of water privatization, drought, and scarcity of clean drinking water become more highly debated topics in the public sphere, documentary films have also brought light to the subject. Such films have been produced for decades, but more recent, award-winning documentaries show the dangers of wasting water and allowing larger companies to push plastic bottles over the tap.

The 2009 award-winning film, "Tapped" most specifically addresses the issue of bottled water. The film analyzes the dangers of plastic bottle pollution as well as how big companies such as Nestle have privatized water and left communities without sufficient resources. The film's official site also highlights many other water issues and promotes the need for conservation in print and through a compelling blog. You can watch the entire film online on Hulu. For anyone trying to convince a friend or family member to abandon plastic bottles, this is the perfect tool.

Also in 2009, the film "Blue Gold: World Water Wars" examines how water, which appears to many to be an incredibly abundant and inexpensive resource, might someday soon be cause for warfare. The film also specifically looks at the battle between governments and private industry to control water.

Finally, the 2004 film "Thirst" explains why water will become a more precious and coveted resource within the next decade. Since the film is now nearly a decade old, it is quite interesting to see what was predicted correctly about the future of water.

All three of these compelling documentaries offer key points in the debates over bottled water, water resources, and access to safe drinking water. For those who use Netflix, all three films are currently available either on DVD or streaming.

Photo Credit: "You've Seen So Much"  by Adam Simpson from flickr used under the creative commons copyright.

This Earth Day, April 22nd, students at Wofford College in Spartanburg, South Carolina created a visual display to bring attention to the use of water bottles. The bottle Earth was meant to educate students about how much waste is created by using plastic water bottles and was an effort to raise awareness about the benefits of the tap.

Wofford's students used green and blue dye to fill around 1000 water bottles, and then neatly arranged the bottles to show a global display in front of the historic Old Main on the school's campus. The bottles were collected from a recycling area located near the campus dining hall. The bottled globe was put together primarily by students enrolled in one of the college's environmental studies courses and was led by senior environmental studies major Danielle Peoples. The vibrant display brought Earth Day to the attention of many students. A video about the display is located here.

Photo Credit: Alex C. Hicks Jr. and GoUpstate.com

Brazil's Recycling Environmental Institute recently released a PSA featuring a Brazilian artist creating beautiful bottles of sand art, imitating popular bottled water designs, as a way of bringing awareness to the growing scarcity of potable water around the world. The creative short clip shines light on the drought conditions many are living in and reminds the audience how much one can take clean bottled water for granted.   

Nestle Waters recent appeal to end London, Ontario's three-year prohibition of bottled water has stirred up the coals of debate amongst city councilmen and has put the bottle ban's future into question.

 

Passed in 2008, London's ban on the selling of bottled water at city-owned sites has appeared to be a relatively popular initiative: "I didn't receive any phone calls in the last three years-no complaints, nothing," said Councilman Bill Armstrong. Within the three years of the bottled water ban's existence it has benefited the citizens of London both economically and environmentally. It has reduced the amount of single use plastic containers that enter the London waste stream by an estimated 25%, and the economical tap water substitute has cut the annual expense of drinking water by over $1,000 per citizen.

 

But the supposedly harmless suggestion to review the bill, by bottled water industry giant Nestle Waters, has councilmen weighing the rationality behind the 2008 ban. Councilman Paul Meerbergen speaks against the ban, calling it "a real step backwards." Those opposed to the ban argue that the bottled water directly competes with sugary beverages, and that removing this healthy option compromises the health of London's citizens. 

 

One of the bill's biggest criticizers, Mayor Joe Fontana, claims that to deny people the opportunity to buy bottled water is "philosophically dumb." But it does not take a philosopher to see that their argument based in maintaining the "citizens health" contains more holes then a pasta strainer.

 

The city of London, Ontario can easily create a health conscious community without bottled water by implementing and promoting tap water alternatives. The argument of  "citizen's health" also ignores the environmental impact of the single-use bottle entirely. Communal water bottle refilling stations are just one of the many ways that London officials can pacify their fears of sugary excess amongst citizens, while creating ecological improvement for their community.

 

 

Looking to close its $8 million dollar budget gap, Yale's municipal assembly is urging the city of New Haven, Connecticut to cut out its $32,000 yearly expense on bottled water in favor of low cost, well-regulated and readily available tap water.

 

The new petition, led by Yale Universities chair of city services and the environmental committee Justin Elicker, would end the supply of bottled water to New Havens municipal offices, which currently receive regular shipments of 5-gallon jugs of bottled water. Recognizing the irony in regards to the 5-gallon jugs supplied to the municipal office, Elicker states, "it is just tap water, filtered a little bit, from Worcester, Mass." If passed the city order would also end the purchase of personal sized bottles of water, which are bought by the city and resold to New Haven public school students.

 

Calling this proposal a "no-brainer," Elicker reasons that "The way things stand, people perceive they have to pay $1.50 for bottled water every time. But the reality is that tap water is of very high quality, so we need to be teaching our kids that tap water is good and healthy." The city of New Haven has backed up these claims by inquiring local water authorities to conduct numerous tests, which proved the water was in fact of a high purity level and well-regulated.

 

It has been estimated that New Havens switch to tap water will decrease the cities water expenses from $32,000 to a mere $160 annually. The proposals success would also help reduce the citizen's day-to-day expenses and help to educate the community on the superiority of tap water. Yale alderman Matt Smith added that among the fiscal benefits the environmental benefits of consuming less plastic and reducing interstate trucking give even more reason to support New Haven's tap water proposal. 

The Canadian Bottled Water Company Redleaf Water has just introduced the industry's first truly biodegradable water bottle. Utilizing an organic compound that is mixed with the same PET plastic found in common non-biodegradable bottles, Redleaf's Bio Bottle can be recycled and repurposed like other PET bottles, or left to decompose into a fully organic microbial state.

 

Many other biodegradable plastics already exist within the bottled water industry, so what makes Redleaf's Bio Bottle superior in comparison? The organic additive that allows the plastic to biodegrade is made from oil and other nutrients found in the environment. This additive does not change the physical characteristics of the PET in the bottle, which allows it to be recycled within the same waste stream as standard PET bottles.

 

This is not the case for other "biodegradable" plastic bottles. Other plant-based bottles are made from a blend of petroleum-based PET and up to 30% plant-based material. This plant-based material changes the physical characteristics of the PET, thus these plant-based plastics must be exposed to a product specific chemical process at a composting facility, and have to enter a waste stream separate from PET bottles. This specialized recycling method requires further resources, and if not properly recycled, these bottles will not decompose and will become a permanent part of a landfill.

 

Surely the best solution to bottled water is to utilize low-cost and low energy tap water and a reusable water bottle. But in a country where 1500 plastic water bottles are consumed every second, Redleafs's Bio Bottle is still a welcomed alternative to a problem of  epic proportions. 

 

 

San Diego based non-profit organization Hug it Forward is working with communities to help build schools made from discarded plastic bottles and other non-biodegradable trash in an effort to create more educational infrastructure in Guatemala. This collective effort to advance impoverished communities is not only creating environmental change but also teaching students the importance of being environmentally aware.

 

The "Bottle School" concept is simple, effective, and holds numerous benefits: they repurpose non-biodegradable trash and create an incentive for cleaning up littered streets, which, in turn educates the community on the importance of recycling and encourages an environmental outlook. They create jobs for local tradesmen and filter new capital into the community's economy by purchasing all of the schools building material locally. They give the students a hands-on learning experience and a sense of pride in the school that they helped to build.

 

The technology behind the "Bottle Schools" economical and eco-friendly construction method was pioneered by the Pura Vida organization.  Instead of commonly used cinder-block, these "eco-blocks" (plastic bottles stuffed with trash) are adhered between layers of chicken wire and covered with concrete. These trash filled plastic bottles serve as a form of insulation for the new school and greatly cuts building material costs.

 

The first "Bottle School" was built in 2009 and made use of over 5,000 plastic bottles that contained more then 2053lbs of trash. This school, located in Granados, Guatemala now serves a municipality of 13,860 people and currently 297 students attend the school. Hug it Forward has already completed 6 schools, has three underway, and a goal to have built 100 schools by the end of the year.

 

To help Hug it Forward reach its goal of 100 schools in 2011 all you have to do is give a hug. "We spread our message with a hug tracking system on our website, HugItForward.com. Every hug someone registers raises money for the construction of more bottle schools. Everyone is capable of giving or receiving a hug; therefore getting people involved is easy and feels good." - Hug it Forward website

 

Photo Credit: Tree Hugger

 

 

New Speaker of the House, John Boehner (R-Ohio), announced his intention last week to budget House spending by cutting back on bottled water. The waste-reducing idea, which is projected to save Congress almost $800,000 a year, is part of a new plan to cut the House of Representative's spending by $35 million.

The innovative idea was applauded by DC Water General Manager George Hawkins in a letter sent to Speaker Boehner. Hawkins saluted Boehner for his interest in putting an end to budget spending on bottled water, which cost approximately $190,000 in the first quarter of 2010 alone. Should Congress choose to abandon the bottle, DC Water will supply each member of Congress a free reusable water bottle as well as offer free water quality testing in any congressional building. Hawkins also noted in his letter that tap water only costs around a penny a gallon, while bottled water costs hundreds of times more. Learning to love the tap would be both an environmentally conscious and financially savvy decision for Congress.

Those interested in promoting this eco-friendly budget cut can sign an online petition to eliminate House spending on bottled water by going here.

Photo Credit: "Bottles in a row" by Xavi Taleda from Flickr used under the Creative Commons Copyright

The Environmental Working Group (EWG) has just released its 2011 study of bottled water labels to determine the level of transparency they give to the public.  There are four basic questions that the EWG was looking for the companies to answer: What is the water's source? Has it been purified and how? Has it been tested and what were the results? Has it gone through advanced treatment?  They took this information to create a Bottled Water Scorecard which graded each label with a score from A (full transparency of information) to F (very little to no information given).

Of the 173 labels included in the study, none of them received an A score with full transparency on all three questions, 3 received a score of B that included most information given, 27 scored C and gave some information, 47 received a D and 96 labels--more than half--failed the test entirely with an rating of F.

There was only one brand, Nestle Pure Life Purified Water, that actually showed consumers directly on its label what the source of the water was, how it was treated, and a toll free number to call to request a water quality test report.  This bottled water received a B score, along with Gerber Pure Purified Water and Penta Ultra-Purified Water.

Most of the top brands, including Aquafina, Dasani, and Crystal Geyser do not even answer at least one of the four questions.  Nearly a third of the labels give no information about the purity of the water or how the water is treated.  With titles like "Vintage Natural Spring Water" (score: F) and "Voss Artesian Water," (score: F) and prices exceeding 1000 times the price of tap water, you would expect the most pure water available. However, not only are most bottled waters simply bottled tap water, but most companies refuse to disclose even these elementary questions about testing, contaminants, source, and treatment methods.

None of the bottled waters received a score of A--so why even include it as a possibility? Well, that honor was saved for a different type of water--filtered tap water. EWG recommends your own filtered tap water right from home.  Information on all these four questions about source, purification, and test results is available at the EPA's website. All of that, without the price tag of bottled. So kick the bottled water habit and switch over to tap today.