Seattle has become the first city to ban restaurants from serving single-use containers that cannot be recycled or composted.

The City has made a contract with a local company, Ceder Grove Composting, to handle all the compostable packaging and food waste that is disposed of by restaurants.

Every food service establishment will eventually be required to have bins to collect compostable and recyclable waste.

The City estimates that the new ordinance will divert as much as 6,000 tons of waste made up of disposable food service-ware and food waste from ending up in landfills.

Seattle City Councilmen Mike O'Brien praised the ban as a step towards Seattle's larger environmental goals. "With our requirement that food service packaging must be compostable or recyclable, Seattle has taken a big step toward a zero waste future,"

Seattle is the first and hopefully not the last city to enact such a policy. San Francisco and Toronto have also been considering similar programs.


Photo Credit: joephoto from flickr creative commons 

On July 28th, the UN General Assembly voted in favor of recognizing clean drinking water and sanitation as a human right.

122 of 192 member nations voted in favor of the non-binding resolution, no nation voted against it. However, 44 member nations did abstained from voting. The US was in that 44.

Over 900 million people do not have access to clean water. More than 1.5 million children under the age of 5 die every year from lack of clean water and sanitation. The vote was a gesture by many nations that they were committed to bringing clean water to as many people as possible.

In light of the huge trend in water privatization and monetization around the world, this vote expressed the widespread feeling that water cannot be treated as just another commodity.
If humans need clean drinking water to live, like they need air, than water cannot be put on the market to the highest bidder.

The US, the UK, Canada, Australia and Botswana were among the countries which did not vote. The US expressed concerns that the resolution was not consistent with international law regarding water and might undermine future international law regarding water.

A Canadian company, Planet People has developed a line of non-toxic cleaning products that, to reduce packaging and carbon footprint from shipping, do not come with water.

The IQClean line of cleaning products comes with a bottle and a cartridge of plant based cleaning fluid. Users of the product simply fill the IQClean bottles with tap water and the cleaning liquid from the cartridge is added in. When the cartridge is empty, instead of buying a new bottle from the company, customers just by a new cartridge, saving on plastic production and shipping.

The company claims that through savings on fuel from shipping and petroleum products used in the manufacturing of plastic, they have reduced the carbon footprint of cleaning products by 70% compared to conventional cleaning products.

Other suppliers and manufacturers have realized that not shipping water in a wide variety of household products allows significant reductions in packaging and shipping costs as well as the products overall carbon footprint.

Many companies are realizing that the premise of shipping water does not make sense economically or environmentally. Wal-mart, Proctor & Gamble and Unilever have all had programs to concentrate products so that consumers can add water from a local source at the time of use,.

This trend provides more evidence that using local and sustainable water for all your needs, is just plain smart.

3M announced a new product today that is meant to be an alternative to bottled water, called the 'Filtrete Water Station'.

The device basically takes your basic Brita water filter and combines it with BPA free reusable water bottles, skipping the step of pouring water from a filter jug to a reusable bottle.

When you pour water into the top of the filter, it directly fills 4 water bottles that can be detached and taken with you on-the-go.

3M claims that the filter works faster than your average filtering home water jug, processing 2 and a half times more water. One filter will take care of 100 gallons of water before it needs to be replaced.

1 Filtrete Docking water bottle docking station and lid plus 1 Filtrete Fast Flow Filter, 4 - 16.9 oz (500mL) Filtrete Water Bottles has a suggested retail price of $42.99. Replacement  Filters  will retail for $12.99, Filtrete Water Bottles (2 - 16.9 oz (500mL) Water Bottles) will be available for $15.99.

The company claims that by using the Filtrete for your water needs has the potential to keep 3,000 water bottles out of landfills. 

Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell took a stand for bottled water companies this week by reversing the state's ban on spending government funds on single serve water containers.

Many city and state governments around the country have taken bottled water out of their budgets in the last year to end wasteful spending on a product they often produce themselves.

Many city governments have been taking a closer look at the impact of plastic waste in their municipalities and the hypocrisy of having government workers purchase a product from the private sector that the government produces and often promotes to the public themselves.

Despite Gov. McDonnell's claim that he has lifted the ban in order to help Virginia's economy, it is very easy to suspect he is doing a little favor for the industry.

After all, the news was announced by the biggest bottled water lobby around, the International Bottled Water Association. They were very excited about his decision.

Tell Gov. McDonnell to take a step forward, not back.

UPDATE:
In our comments below, Tom Lauria, Vice President of Communications at the International Bottled Water Association informed us that the IBWA did not actually announce the decision of Governor McDonnell to reverse the state bottled water ban as stated in this post. Governor McDonnell announced the decision nearly 4 days earlier, to the Richmond Times Dispatch.

With the World Cup came lots of talk and thoughts, maybe too much, about the World's favorite sport, soccer. Now that the tournament is over, we can think about more important things, like soccer fields that double as water catchment systems.

Designers from the charitable design organization Atopia Research, have come up with a soccer field that acts as a community center and water catchment and storage system specifically designed for a typical African village.

The project, called PITCH: AFRICA ('Pitch', to the world outside the US means 'soccer field' FYI), is based on the idea that most of Africa gets plenty of rainfall but only at specific times of the year. Therefore, a good rainwater catchment system has the potential to create a consistent water supply all year long.

If you match a rainwater catchment with a very popular community activity, you get a centralized and easy to access water source that can be used to water plants, cook and drink. The soccer field basically acts as a large water catchment surface where water collects and is drained through a semi-permeable surface into a storage tank and then filtered. In theory, this system is able to provide 1000 people with water, year-round.

The idea is explained by the designers in this video below, courtesy of Fast Company:

A small start-up in San Francisco's Noe Valley called Green11  is taking the refill concept that has been successful with water and coffee, to cosmetics and cleaners.

The company's retail shop simply sells you refills of shampoo, soaps and household cleaners for your own refillable containers. Green11 also has a strict policy of only carrying products that are non-toxic, with no known harmful chemicals. They currently carry brands such as Kiss My Face, Bio-Kleen, EO and Shikai

Product containers and packaging makes up over 30% of municipal waste. This includes 31 million tons of plastic waste generated each year!  71% of translucent plastic packaging (HDPE) that are commonly used for many types of cosmetics and cleaning products end up in landfills..

Skipping the need for a new plastic bottle for these products on a large scale could make a huge difference in reducing this waste. We hope to see shops like this show up in neighborhoods around the country.

You can vote for them through the Pepsi Refresh project here.
 

Peter Gleick, author of the new book 'Bottled and Sold: The Story Behind Our Obsession with Bottled Water' interviewed yesterday on Good Morning America with George Stephanopoulos on ABC about the rising issue of bottled water and what the country can do to fix it. Watch below:


 

There is no shortage of green marketing with body care products. When shopping for them, you will find hundreds of brands that will tell you they have the product with the most natural, organic and environmentally sound ingredients.

But one German company is taking the green messaging a step further. Their brand doesn't boast about how they are saving the planet, but rather the branding itself tells you what you should be doing to save the planet.

'Stop The Water While Using Me' shampoo, shower gel and toothpaste aims to remind you to conserve water every time you are in the shower or brushing your teeth.

This is kind of like having a PSA billboard in the washroom with you. I must admit it would make me think twice about a long shower or leaving the water running while I lather up. As we have mentioned before, the little things add up to save a lot of water.

Bottom line: 'Stop The Water While Using Me' spreads a good message and is just brilliant marketing. By the way, the products themselves are actually eco-friendly, made with biodegradable containers and organic ingredients.

The shampoo, shower gel, and toothpaste are available for 13, 12 and 8 Euros respectively. 

The America Water Works Association (AWWA) has an annual conference to bring together water utility professionals from all over the country.

I imagine the conference, held in Chicago this year, is incredibly wonky and the average person might not be able to appreciate it without falling asleep.

However, they have a pretty serious tap water tasting competition every year, where many cities from all over the country participate to find "the best of the best". The surprise winner this year? Stevens Point, Wisconsin. That is impressive. A small town beating out the biggest, most sophisticated water systems in the country.

But what is more impressive? New York City, the biggest mega-metropolis in the country was number two!! TapIt's beloved home city beat out the best, including Boston, San Francisco and many other cities with amazing water systems.

New York is doing something right with it's water, that's for sure.

Photo credit: Jenny Downing on Flickr