Movies, Books, Politicians the Water Bottle is Under Siege
Bear a plastic water bottle to your own risk; the wave of widespread opinion is coming back down away from you. From popular rating documentaries, to articles and campaigns, the biggest news on the soapbox is the horror around bottled water and the waste of resources the industry creates.
The processing, transportation and removal of water in petrochemical plastic bottles requires tremendous waste of water along with energy, and produces large measures of greenhouse gases and waste.
Director of the hot new documentary ‘Tapped: get off the bottle’ Stephanie Soechtig claims “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 team behind Tapped are promoting the film with an across-America roadshow, taking pledges from Americans to reduce their water bottle abuse and taking their empty plastic water bottle for a reusable stainless steel bottle. Download Tapped from Amazon or iTunes.
Another such film ‘The Story of Bottled Water’ was released on World Water Day in March. By Annie Leonard of the well-received ‘The Story of Stuff’, this film displays the strategy that goes into conning Americans into wasting around hundreds of millions of bottles of water each and every week, instead of a few cents cost for tapwater. Check out this new film on You Tube.
In her book ‘Bottlemania’, writer Elizabeth Royte demonstrates one of the monumental marketing heists of this century and gives a super environmental alarm bell. She asks the problems we must come to deal with. Who distributes the water supply? What happens when a bottled-water factory holds your town’s water source? Is the water coming out of your tap completely safe? What really is the environmental factor of producing, transportation and disposal of one plastic water bottle?
Politicians from around the nation are beginning to realise that they have to take action – markedly when the places at which they serve are major consumers of bottled water. How often do we witness a politician at a political debate sipping from a water bottle. They might find a water glass in Parliament House.
Leslie Samuelrich of Corporate Accountability International, told “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 around Australia to prohibited the sale of bottled water. About 60 places in the US and some towns in Canada and the UK have lately prevented the spending of taxpayer dollars on bottled water.
It is doubtless that this dilemma will be on the agenda in World Water Week 2010 from September 5 to 11 in Stockholm, Sweden, the annual meeting for the globe’s most urgent water-related issues.
Article written by Tracey Bailey, founder of Biome Eco Stores.
Water Bottles Need to be Clean to be Safe: How to Clean Your Water Bottle
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.