Bottled Water is Wasteful!
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Update: Now Aquafina, a subsidiary of Pepsi-Cola Corporation is admitting on the label of their bottled water that there water source comes from city tap water! As if this company is not wasting precious water to create the plastic bottle it makes anyways. This company is contributing to greenhouse gases and further creating a need for oil at a time when this country should be trying to wean itself off of oil.
I think I might have mentioned this before, but I just found this article that my boss at work referred me to about: the wastefulness of bottled water. The article comes out of a research study at Oregon State University Corvallis, which states that every year "Around the world, factories are using more than 18 million barrels of oil and up to 130 billion gallons of fresh water" and that's just to make the bottles, "Another 41 billion gallons of water is then used to fill them." So why are we using more water to make the bottles then the actual amount of water being put into the bottles? This sounds incredibly wasteful.
Lets take a double take on this statistic...18 million barrels of oil per year, and 130 billion gallons of water to fill 41 billion's worth in the bottles? Whoa! People, people, lets take chill on the water bottle usage a little...but we won't because every year bottled water consumption goes up about 9-10 percent.
Please, please recycle your plastic water bottles or find a more permanent and durable plastic that is more suitable for re-use. There really is no need to keep buying more and more bottled water when you can essentially filter your own tap water anyways (Aquafina and Dasani water are just filtered tap water.)
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My wife and I were really upset about this fact, and around Earth Day we bought a couple of Nalgene bottles. We fill them up at home and carry them to work -- I fill mine with ice before I leave. I thought I'd probably stop using it, but at about US$8 it was about as much as 8 of the same sized water bottles. Instead, I haven't bought a bottle since - and will usually refuse them if offered. Just my two cents!
This is awful. I knew that bottled water costs more than gasoline by the gallon, but I had not registered all the energy being used.
Dear Madam / Sir,
You have recommended the following statement:
"Please, please re-use the plastic bottles you already have, and just keep re-using."
But unfortunately it is against the following information:
"PET Bottles Shouldn't Be Re-Used
Did you know chemical released by plastic water bottles can cause cancer (It is not the water that affecting you but the chemical releasing from the bottle)
Do not re-use mineral water bottles
Many are unaware of poisoning caused by re-using plastic bottles. Some of you may be in the habit of using and reusing your disposable mineral water bottles (e.g. Nestle, bisleri, Aquafina, Kinley, Evian, etc…), keeping them in your car or at work. Not a good idea.
It happened in Dubai, when a 12 year old girl died after a long usage (16 months) of SAFA mineral water bottle, as she used to carry the same fancy (painted by herself) bottle to her school daily.
In a nutshell, the plastic (called polyethylene terephthalate or PET) used in these bottles contains a potentially carcinogenic element (something called diethyl hydroxylamine or DEHA). The bottles are safe for one-time use only; if you must keep them longer away from, it should be or no more than a few days, week max, and keep them away from heat as well. Repeated washing and rinsing can cause the plastic to break down and the carcinogens (cancer-causing chemical agents) can leak into the water that YOU are drinking. Better to invest in water bottles that are really meant for multiple uses.
This is not something we should be scrimping on. Those of you with family- do please advise them, especially children. Please forward this information.
Prevention is better than cure.
How to avoid:
Check on the bottom of the bottle there is a triangle sign and there will
be a number on it. If the number is higher than or equal to 5 --> then this bottle is safe to use.
Whatever number under 5 will release the chemical. For most bottle water, the number is 1."
However, I am still looking for the authenticity of this claim, either. In case this is true, how one can inform those who read and applied the above-mentioned statement?
mashalah@gmail.com
It is a horrific waste of energy and money, most especially in the US, where safe tap water is the rule, not the exception. It's all about 'branding', yet again -- you're 'better' if you drink water from this label, or that one, it's all advertising hogwash.
I'd heard the same thing that the anon poster above wrote -- that it is not a good thing to re-use cheap plastic bottles, that it is hazardous, most especially in a very hot climate, which helps the plastic break down into toxins.
I've got a number of tupperware and also some nalgene water bottles; I fill them half full of filtered tap water and put them into the freezer, end up with a huge hunk of ice, keeps the water cold for a few hours. Sweet.
One last thing -- hey, if your tap water isn't totally clean, filter it. I've installed a double filter under my kitchen sink, on the cold water side only, as that is what I use for drinking and cooking. It's perfectly good tasting, or not tasting, as the case actually is; the water is totally free from any junk or gunk, makes the best coffee or tea, etc and etc.
Please THINK before you buy into our 'branded nation' mentality, save your money and your world.
Peace.
Austin Texas
damn hippies!!
That PET stuff is bogas, check Snopes.com
Besides all this advertising crap they throw at you, and the fact the bottles can kill you.
i find it funny how people will waste that $2.00 to buy a bottle of water, when most businesses will give you a cup of water for free.
Duh? Where has everyone been, has anyone even read the label before this story broke? Aquafina has always been reverse osmosis purified municipal water.
Read the label next time.
The PET is in the bottles won't cause cancer, but the build-up of bacteria around the area where you drink and the inside of the bottle (from backwash) can cause mild sickness. PET bottles are designed to be disposable ... imagine buying a paper SOLO cup and using it over and over for weeks at a time. It won't cause cancer, but it's just not healthy.
Also, increased safety of public water sources is not the issue (in America at least). The reason people buy bottled water is because it is convenient to carry around, not because it is the most sanitary water they can find or because drinking bottled water is "cool" (it's not 1995 anymore).
If the government enchanced their recycling programs, and people actually cared not to dump the PETs anywhere but the recycling bins, yeah, we might be able to produce less new bottles.
^^^Yeah, what he said.^^^
The plastic bottles causing cancer is just an urban legend.
Really, what is the difference between bottled water and people drinking soda all day from a plastic bottle. I don't mind you beating up on water in a bottle, but you should include soda as well. Speaking as someone that does not touch soda, Me drinking water out of a bottle is no different than you drinking a soda, Only I did not drink the extra chemicals in the soda. Same damage to the environment.
The sad thing is that even in a highly industrialized country like America, 90% of those bottles will not be recycled.
And the difference between a bottle of soda and a bottle of water is that water is something readily available from drinking fountains, taps, and billions of faucets. Soda has to be purchased, whether in a can, bottle, or fountain drink cup. While soda also uses a ridiculous amount of water for plastic bottles, bottled water is simply water, something that costs dollars per gallon in a bottle, yet less than a cent per gallon out of the tap.
When I was a kid, we collected used pop bottles for 2-5 cents each, gallon milk jugs were 25 cents. By the way, in '05 the U.S. Air Force burned 3.2 billion gallons of jet fuel while the U.S. fought with 4 countries that do not have an air force. So, when it comes to saving carbon, the obvious choice is to stop the war machine.
While water is readily available, it is usually polluted with chlorine and fluoride. Yes Soda cannot be found free in a tap, but is it necessary for you to drink? Soda is not a requirement for survival like water is, so are you really a better person by trashing the environment with soda bottles?
The under 5 number for the recycling number is an urban legend.
http://www.plasticsmythbuster.org/resin_code_5.asp
We’ve been advocating that people give up bottled water for the shear waste it represents (both the environmental and financial) for some time.
We’re asking folks to break the bad habit of bottled water and re-allocate their spending to give water to people who really have none.
If you’re interested, check out http://thewaterproject.org/Bottled_Water.asp
Give it up to give it away!
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Great Article! Thanks!
Great article, please check out this video made by two magicians to help promote tap water!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWO_5lKVBAA
Livan of Tappening.
Plastic water bottles are a terrible waste of money and energy. A lot of folks hate the taste of tap water so I bought a Fit & Fresh LivPURE Filtered Water. Great product and less than 10 bucks!
Its a great improvement that the unneccesary use of bottle water is getting so much attention and that people are starting to think about the consequences of their purchases. However cutting out bottled items is just one of many habits we have to change our impact on the environment. Using less of all kinds of things would be great and living a less materialistic lifestyle overall. We need to be conscious about all the things we use, eat, drink and other purchases we make. Do we really need a new cell phone or ipod and make sure we are always modern and up-to date? We need to all make a change in lifestyle not just stop our purchase of bottled water.
Aquafina comes from Tap water, HA! Imagine that...guess Lewis Black was dead on about that. Imagine the waste.
However, I saw this invention by Dean Kamen and is Water Purifier
Go check it out, it's an amazing invention that can turn any dirty fluid into drinkable water.
As shown on the "Colbert Report"
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Hi,
As you can conclude from this blog I totally agree with you and find bottled water a utter waste of resources.
Eddt
My husband and I agree. We have been very concerned about the bottled water costs and the newest contriversy BPA! We need to keep this chemical away from our kids! We have discovered Coco Mason Designs...www.CocoMason.com and have been very pleased with these bottles. Our kids love them.
I had no problems getting out of the bottled water habit but I still had a problem. I’m an athlete and you NEED to replace your electrolytes and sports drinks only come in plastic. So I found a solution and became a distributor of this alternative way of adding electrolytes to your body.
www.enlyten.com/mberg
not everyone is standing in front of the sink choosing to buy a bottle rather than turn on the faucet....most people are not near a tap and are choosing between a healthy bottle of water and very unhealthy bottle of soda, which actually uses the same container as the water.....water is getting a bad rap here, please encourage people to choose water before soda.... www.iwantmyh2o.com
we do our part to minimize our imprint on the bad and maximize the best!
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