Co-op unveils 50% recycled plastic bottles for own-brand water

By Michael Smith (Veshengro)

The Cop-op has announced that all of its own-brand water bottles will be switched to contain 50% recycled plastic, as part of a plan to "test the water" on how shoppers will react to a change in design. The bottles will be 100% recyclable and sourced in the UK

The switch, set to take place later this year, will reduce Co-op's plastic consumption by almost 350 tonnes annually. However, the new 50% recycled-content bottles will appear darker and cloudier than traditional bottles, and the retailer will gauge whether shoppers will be deterred by aesthetics.

The bottles will be 100% recyclable and sourced in the UK and form the latest in a line of commitments by the retailer and its 4.6 million active members to improve resource efficiency. Members have already backed an ambition by the retailer to ensure all product packaging is easily recyclable.

What part of single-use bottles being a problem does the Co-op not understand. It is irrelevant whether the bottle had 50% recycled content and is 100% recyclable. The bottle is the problem... Hello! Earth calling Co-op.

Earth to Co-op, Earth to Co-op, are you receiving? There are two points you are missing. The first is the water in the bottle which is not better that tap water but you charge a nice hefty price for having it put into the plastic bottle and then the plastic bottle.

The government may have announced the idea of something like the deposit and reverse vending machines are they are found in Germany but even, it would appear, the Co-op is not all that happy about it.

Dearest retain industry, if you do not want to pay for the clean up then do not create the problem in the first place. It is simple. Earth out!

© 2018

Take back the tap

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Take back the tap: Let's put and end to the big business fraud of bottled water

Corporations like Nestlé are wasting your money, and not just Nestlé. All bottled water is a scam and to a great extent the water actually comes from the same source that you have in the kitchen, the faucet, the tap. At times it may have been filtered to remove chlorine and the taste of it but it is still nothing but tap water and you pay hundreds of times as much for a bottle than you would if you fill up your own at home.

Industry marketing from corporations like Nestlé, and others, means that more people are buying bottled water than ever – even though about 64 percent of the bottled water comes from municipal water systems. That means that people buying bottled water are paying much, much more than they would for that same water from the tap. Bottled water is literally more expensive than gasoline – and about 2,000 times more expensive than tap water.

Bottled water companies profit from misleading advertising. People and the environment lose and this advertisement targets people of color, women, mothers, children and lower-income groups.

Industry marketing strategies designed to promote the safety of bottled water to people who historically lack access to safe tap water (especially recent immigrants) prey upon those who may mistrust tap water and communities concerned about obesity and sugary beverages.

The truth, however, is that tap water, generally, is more rigorously tested for safety than is any kind of bottled water and many of the bottled water that is marketed as “spring water” actually sprung forth from the same source as the water in your kitchen, namely the tap.

While it has to be said that in some areas in the USA, one of the richest countries in the world, the municipal water is not very good (and also not very safe when one considers some areas) but in general tap water is safe and a great deal cheaper – and safer – than bottled water.

The abstraction of water for bottling, often from municipal sources, prior to going into the general consumer stream, put a great strain on often already overstretched water resources and in some places, where the abstraction happens from aquifers, it puts water for people, animals and crops at risk but still Nestlé even is permitted to abstract water in times of drought in places such as California. They would otherwise sue the state for damages. Industry comes always first in capitalism.

Companies such as Nestlé also greatly benefit from public disinvestment in water infrastructure, as the chairman of Nestlé Waters stated in 2009: “We believe tap infrastructure in the US will continue to decline. People will turn to filtration and bottled water for pure water needs.” Well, that is definitely what they hope, aided and abetted by the senators and other politicians that they have paid off.

According to the CEO of Nestlé in a statement some years ago water is not and should not be a human right but should be for the corporations to make profits from. That is how callous those capitalists are. Every bit of Nature and human need is there only for their exploitation and profit.

On the water from we can fight them by refusing to fall for their tricks and filling up our own reusable water bottles at home – and at refilling stations, where they exist, and more and more are coming “on stream” – and thus not giving them our hard-earned money and making them rich.

Then we must demand from the powers-that-be in our countries, powers that often better would not be – that water infrastructure, including waste water, as much as other utilities, are taken (back) into public ownership and if that means outright expropriation. Vital utilities and services such as water, energy, health, transportation, and many more, should never be in the hands of private business, but in the hands of the people as a whole, either as co-operatives or in the hands of the state.

© 2018

Unlock the untapped potential of your faucet

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Drinking tap water might be the simplest solution to ocean plastic pollution (oh dear, and this even rhymes).

The solution to plastic water bottle pollution could be as simple as educating the general masses that (their) tap water is safe to drink. While it is not the case everywhere – the safety of the tap water, that is – and unfortunately also in many places in the US, in most places in the more civilized countries it is the case. Also, tap water undergoes far more rigorous testing for purity and safety than does any bottled water.

Bottled water, for anyone who does not know it as yet, is also one of the greatest scams ever created by industry. In the great majority of cases the water is nothing more than tap water filled into plastic bottles – the latter which then end up polluting the environment – and while it is true that in some cases that water went through some additional “filtration” treatment to remove chlorine, for instance, it still is tap water.

And for a bottle of that, which as tap water would cost you just a fraction of a cent, you end up paying hundred times as much and more. That sure does not make sense. Not only are we hurting the environment with the plastic (bottle) waste, we are also hurting ourselves in our own pockets.

The pollution of those bottles, which more often than not are not recycled in any way, shape or form, pollutes the environment even if they are properly disposed off into the waste stream.

In 2017 about 480 billion bottles of plastic will be produced and less than 10% of them will be recycled. The remaining 90% will end up somewhere – whether discarded in nature or in landfills – where the plastic then breaks down into microplastic and ends up in our groundwater, rivers and eventually lakes and oceans. In addition to plastic pollution, bottled water also has an enormous carbon footprint from production and transportation.

And the problem is getting worse as bottled water consumption is growing, all while households may already have access to a clear and present solution, namely their kitchen tap.

Unfortunately, some people are afraid to drink from the tap. A survey of 1500 households in the US and Europe found a growing mistrust in tap water. The concerns are based on a myriad of factors including multiple water crises like the one in Flint, Michigan, the water database by EWG and microplastics reported in tap water by Orbs, preference in taste, health expert opinions, bottled water advertising, and urban myths.

There is also a misconception around recycling, mineral water, and everything else related to bottled water. And so more people are turning to bottled water.

While there are some issues here and there the fact is that, generally, tap water has gotten better in both Europe and the US over the last ten years. More importantly, there is no scientific evidence that bottled water is healthier than tap water.

So here are a couple of recommendations:

1. Drink tap water. It is almost free and in most places in Europe and North America it is as healthy and clean, if not even more so, as bottled water.

2. Anyone worried about the quality of the tap water or who does not like the taste can use a water filter, such as a filter jug even, costing very little to buy and “run”.

3. Always bring a refillable water bottle to stay hydrated.

4. Ask for tap water in restaurants and bars. This, alas, may not always be successful.

It is time to stop polluting the environment with plastic and to clean up the oceans. This way our children and grandchildren can enjoy clean oceans full of life and plastic free sand beneath their feet on the beach. We also must not forget that, if we eat fish, those tiny particles of plastic find their way into the food chain – they already have done so – and end up in the fish that we eat and thus in us.

© 2017

America’s growing love affair with the most wasteful thing to drink there is

Once an occasional indulgence, bottled water is quickly becoming America's drink of choice.

The average person in the United States now consumes more than 35 gallons of bottled water per year, according to data from market research firm Beverage Marketing Corp. That's about 270 bottles, and more than twice as many as people drank 15 years ago. And that number is only going to go up: By 2017, the average American is expected to drink almost 300 bottles annually.

For perspective, consider that over the next two years, bottled water is expected to eclipse soda as the most consumed packaged drink in the United States.

Read more here.

5 Arguments against bottled “mineral water”

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Tap water costs almost nothing and comes conveniently out of the tap (or faucet, as our American cousins call it). Still most people buy water in bottles. Does that really make sense? Here are five arguments that fairly and squarely speak out against the purchase and use of bottled water.

Bottled (mineral) water is not as clean as claimed

Water is clean, fresh and healthy. Or is it? As clear as the water looks in the glass so shady and obscure is often its quality. German consumer watchdog organizations have found in 10 of 30 samples of “mineral” water tested residues of synthetic sweeteners, of pesticides and in ones of them of a corrosion preventative. Other tests have shown that in at least one-fifths of all samples pesticide residues were present. Despite the fact that according to the test reports the amounts of contaminants found in the samples are not injurious to health there must remain doubts to the supposed cleanliness of such water.

The often touted health benefits of mineral water also has been put into question as only 6 of 30 samples of such water had any higher amount of minerals than tap water. Furthermore time and again scientists discovered hormone disrupting chemicals in such bottled water, the origin of which are mostly unknown, though it can be assumed that they come from the PET-bottles in which the water was bottled.

While it is possible that contamination by pesticides, bacteria and the residues from pharmaceutics can occur also in tap water in general, however, water from the faucet, at least in Germany, Britain and other highly developed countries, is one of the most rigidly tested and controlled substance for human consumption. The same is not the case with bottled (spring) water. While, for instance in London, UK, the water is tested at least eight times during the day bottled water can go for months and months without ever being tested.

Bottled water, more often than not, is not regional and comes from long distances to the consumer, often from hundreds and more miles away.

Plastic bottles are far from harmless

The great majority of all bottled waters are – nowadays – sold in plastic PET bottles. PET, like most other synthetic materials, is produced using a high amount of energy and is based on oil or a derivative thereof. Alone for this reason its use is questionable on ecological grounds. And many of those plastic bottles are non-returnable (though in Germany returnable PET bottles with deposit are in use in the majority) and more often than not do not end up in the recycling stream even but go to landfill where they will tale hundreds of years to decay, and even that decay is not harmless.

Aside from that PET has been associated with BPA, as has polycarbonate and some other plastics, which is an endorphin- and hormone disruptor and should be avoided, especially for children.

The healthiest choice for both man and the environment is the use of reusable bottles and tap water.

“Mineral water” is expensive

The cheapest “mineral waters” cost about 25 cent per liter, branded ones start at about 70 cent on a scale that is rather open ended. A liter of tap water, on the other hand, is less than 0.2 cent. Thus, for six pack with 1.5 liter bottles of the cheapest bottled water the consumer ends up paying about 1.35 Eur. For the same amount of tap water it would not even come to 2 cent. Therefore, changing over to using tap water a substantial saving can be had.

Multinational corporations do dirty dealings with bottled water

Since 2010 the right to access to clean drinking water has been declared to be a basic human right. However, while millions of people still cannot get clean drinking water multinationals such as Nestlé, Coca Cola and PepsiCo still consider water a profitable commodity. Those corporations buy up public accessible wells and springs, bottle the water and then sell this water on as mineral or table water to consumers at a highly inflated rate. In the past this practice has in many regions, such as Pakistan, caused a drop in the ground water level and has caused a dearth of water for the population.

Even if enough water is available not everywhere, alas, is tap water safe to drink let alone that from wells and springs and thus there are times when bottled water may be a practical solution and Nestlé and others also tend to support clean drinking water projects in developing countries. However, the question remains: ist it permissible that water become a commodity and the answer here, in my opinion, must be a strong and emphatic no. Period.

Despite this and the fact that access to clean and safe water has been declared a fundamental human right Nestlé have declared that they do not accept this and that water should and must be a free tradeable commodity to make big bucks with.

© 2014

INFOGRAPHIC: IS BOTTLED WATER REALLY THAT BAD? YES

This expansive graph by Online Education tells you all you need to know about bottled water, as you scroll from top to bottom.

[Via Online Education]

Man was charged £75 for three bottles of water

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

I know that water is getting rather scarce but £5.50 per small bottle (250ml) of sparkling mineral water really takes the biscuit.

London business man, Edward Heaton, was charged this stately sum for three – repeat three – bottles of mineral water at the five star Wellesley Hotel in Knightsbridge.

Because it was hot he and his two business contacts opted to sit on the terrace and ordered three small bottles of San Pellegrino sparkling water.

While Heaton expected to pay a little more for the hotel's service he never expected what the charge would be.

After the meeting concluded and Mr Heaton requested the bill and was dumbfounded when he saw it.

He was charged not only the exorbitant sum of £5.50 per bottle. Nay the hotel also added a minimum charge of £50.17 plus a service change of £8.33, bringing the total to £75 (or $125).

Rip off, I think, is not the word. Extortion more like. Mind you, the cost for bottled water is extortion and exorbitant anyway and is a rip off to start with, regardless of what name may be on the bottle.

Not that, I am sure, you could even ask for a carafe of tap water in that kind of establishment without also being charged some silly fee for it.

© 2014

Nestlé is draining Pakistan to sell us bottled water

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Nestlé is draining developing countries to produce its bottled water, destroying countries’ natural resources before forcing its people to buy their own water back.

Now it is happening in Pakistan. Groundwater levels are plummeting, families are being driven into poverty, and whole areas are being rendered uninhabitable.

But we still have got time to help before Pakistan's water supply is completely tapped out – and if we show Nestlé its heartless policies are sparking a global backlash, we can stop it from decimating more of our natural resources.

But in this context we must also remember the words of the former CEO of the company stating that, as far as he and his company are concerned access to water is not a human right and that water is but a commodity to be exploited.

Until we all wake up and refuse top buy bottled water then those companies, and not just Nestlé, will continue to do as they do. The answer is a simple one: switch to tap water and leave the bottled, whether plastic or glass, behind.

As said, Nestlé is but one of the bottled water companies that are responsible for decimating the groundwater supply in many places. While Nestlé is now doing it in Pakistan Coca Cola has been doing it, and probably still is doing it, in India and those two companies also fill their bottles with tap water and then sell it to us at a horrendously inflated price. Each company has a brand of bottled water where with at least one of them it states – in very small print – on the label that the water comes from “municipal sources”, in other words, it is tap water.

Who in their right mind is going to buy a bottle of tap water at the rate of $1.50 per liter when from the tap it is almost free? Alas, it would seem that many people do believing, as they do not bother to read the label or want to understand the truth, that this water is better for them and safer, because it is bottled water, that the water that comes from the faucet.

Every one of us can take a stand and by doing so change what is happening by refusing to buy water in bottles and fill up reusable bottles from the faucet. Just don't reuse the PET bottles in which bottled water comes. Get a proper reusable bottle of a BPA free plastic, stainless steel or glass. But make the change for the sake of your finances and the Planet.

© 2013

Stay hydrated (this summer), but best avoid drinking from plastic water bottles

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Water in plastic bottles can cause all sorts of health and environmental problems – so rather use tap water and use a refillable bottle instead. If you do not like the taste of tap water or are concerned about the chlorine and possibly even fluoride in the water then use a (charcoal) filter.

The weather this summer has been (mostly) glorious, but the heat means we all need to drink more water to stay hydrated. A fact many people forget and then get sick.

As water makes up about 60 percent of our weight keeping well hydrated is vital for proper functioning as every system in the body depends on water. Dehydration can lead to all manner of ills, including kidney failure and death.
Water helps with alertness and performance in sports, it controls appetite, and it also keeps symptoms like fatigue, headaches and dry skin at bay.

In the summer heat, we perspire more and need to drink more. Also, perspiration causes us to lose salt which we have to replenish and for that reason the military issues soldiers with salt tablets in hot conditions.

But in the summer, drinking water from a plastic bottle – which we all know is an expensive way to get water¹, and is never great from an environmental point of view² – means that the exposure to chemicals such as BPA and phthalates³ which leach from the plastic into the water is made worse by the heat. (BPA and phthalates can cause a whole host of problems to the immune system, the brain and the prostate.)

When we talk here about plastic bottles it refers to those made from PET primarily and those made from polycarbonate material of the old style. There are plastic bottles that do not leach BPA and other nasty stuff and thus are usable.

So, follow these guidelines to stay hydrated, healthy and cut down on waste:

On the move: If you're out and about: drink tap water using a refillable, re-usable bottle and you have a number of choices in that department. The best choice is glass, but that is breakable. The next best is stainless steel but there are also some BPA free plastic bottles to be had such as the Ohyo, which is a collapsible water bottle, the Brita with even a built-in charcoal filter, or, last but not least, De Dopper. Plastic is not always bad in all three cases they are BPA free.

About 1.5 million tons of plastic are used to make water bottles each year around the world, and the processing itself releases toxic compounds like nickel, ethylbenzene, ethylene oxide and benzene. Not to mention the health problems that plastic water bottles can cause.

There are many public fountains and refilling places for reusable bottles that can be found on the Internet in and around London and possibly also elsewhere. Unfortunately many pubs and such like are very reluctant to fill up people's bottles and this is rather a shame. Everyone is seeing Pound signs in front of their eyes all the time instead of being community and environmentally minded.

At home: Drink tap water at home instead of buying water and, as said, if you don't like the taste or are concerned about impurities as well as chlorine or even fluoride then use a charcoal filter and filter your water. The same goes for being out and about.

You could also invest in a distiller which guarantees total safety as far as your water is concerned distillation will remove (almost) everything. I never say 100% as it simply is not possible.

You can use filtered water to drink at home, or fill up a refillable bottle to take around with you. But avoid, as much as possible, buying bottled water which, aside from the fact that the plastic bottles may leach chemicals, and thus the stuff is not good for your physical health, it is also not good for your financial health and that of the Planet.

Who, in their right mind, would pay $2 for less than a quart of bottled water which, in a great majority of cases, is but tap water which may, or may not, have been filtered and, maybe, undergone “reverse osmosis”.

In Britain and many other countries tap water is perfectly safe – safer in fact than bottled water as municipal water undergoes much stricter testing than does bottled water – to drink as it comes and even better so if filtered or distilled and then left to settle for a couple of hours.

Please remember also that hydration is not just important in the summer heat. Also in the cold of winter dehydration happens fast, only you do not realize it as easily and often it can be too late. So, remember to stay hydrated at all times with your own refillable water bottle and tap.

Give me tap...

© 2013

1 Typically bottled water retails at up to 500 times more than the price of tap water. ETC, University of Nottingham.

2 Bottled water also has considerable environmental costs, including the energy costs of production and transport, and the environmental costs of disposing of (or, very rarely, recycling) the bottles. Sustainweb

3 Studies have shown that phthalates, which are known to disrupt testosterone and other hormones, can leach into bottled water over time. NDRC

America's new found beverage love... Water

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

It was not all that long ago that America had a serious love affair with all things soda. Now, a new drink, which is in fact an old flame, is taking the country's heart by storm.

As New York City grapples with the legality of a ban on the sale of large cups of soda and other sugary drinks at some businesses, one thing is clear and that is that soda has run as the nation's beverage of choice has fizzled out like a flat Coca Cola. In its place we find a favorite for much of history, namely plain old H2O, also known simply as water.

But, while this is a great move, no doubt, the problem is that in most cases this water still has an enormous impact on the environment as it is, more often than not, bottled water, drunk in the belief that it is healthier than tap water, this is but a myth. This myth is, however, being perpetuated by the bottled water suppliers, including soda companies such as Coca Cola and Pepsi.

For more than two decades, soda was the No. 1 drink in the U.S. with per capita consumption peaking in 1998 at 54 gallons a year, according industry tracker Beverage Digest. Americans drank just 42 gallons a year of water at the time.

But over the years, as soda increasingly came under fire for fueling the nation's rising obesity rates, water quietly rose to knock it off the top spot.

Americans now drink an average of 44 gallons of soda a year, a 17 percent drop from the peak in 1998. Over the same time, the average amount of water people drink has increased 38 percent to about 58 gallons a year. Bottled water has led that growth, with consumption nearly doubling to 21 gallons a year.

It was not too far back in history that tap water was the top drink but then in the 1980s, carbonated soft drinks overtook tap as the most popular drink, with Coca-Cola and PepsiCo Inc. putting their marketing muscle behind their colas with celebrity endorsements from the likes of pop star Michael Jackson and comedian Bill Cosby and, I guess, that everybody thought that if those people endorse it then it must be good. Not considering that the main ingredient in both of those colas is phosphoric acid, an industrial cleaning agent and one which, when mixed with chlorine bleach, turns into phosgene gas. Lovely stuff, eh?

The problem with the new found love affair of the American nation is that the water that they are consuming predominately is not tap water but bottled water that the advertising agencies suggest to them to be purer and cleaner than tap. And who are the greatest water bottlers? Coca-Cola and PepsiCo Inc., and their best-selling waters are, wait for it, from municipal sources; in other words nothing more than tarted up tap water. And the consumer pays a hundred times more for it per liter than for tap. Nice marketing ploy.

There is no “smartwater” or “vitaminwater”... it is water, period and if you do not like the taste of your tap water – and the chlorine can be tasted at times – then use a Brita filter or similar and if you want to really go the whole hog as to safety then use a water distiller such as the Megahome Water Distiller. But go for tap and use a reusable water bottle. Your wallet and the Planet will thank you.

© 2013

US Congress wastes thousands on bottled water

Congress wasting thousands of dollars in taxpayers' money on bottled water that harms our environment

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

During and after the State of the Union recently, President Obama and Congressional Republicans waxed poetic about the need to cut wasteful spending in Washington. But there is an easy place to start:

According to Corporate Accountability International, Congress spent nearly $200,000 on bottled water in just three months last year. Recent studies estimate that bottled water costs almost 2,000 times more than tap water – even though the two types of water often come from the same sources.

Besides being a waste of money, bottled water is terrible for the environment: The energy needed to produce the plastic consumption is enough to fuel three million cars for a year.

But it is not just the plastic bottled and the fact that most of them never get recycled, for instance, that is the problem; the unnecessary extraction of water, whether from springs or municipal sources, as it the case in 40 percet of all cases, is what is the greatest problem even.

Nearly one million tons of plastic bottles are discarded as litter each year, ending up in landfills, lakes and streams. What's more, public water infrastructure in DC and around the whole country needs all the support it can get – especially from Congress.

And the same is true elsewhere too and while the American citizen can, theoretically, find out all theses things, such as Congress expenditure on bottled water in Britain, for example, that information is, and please don't laugh, covered by the “Official Secrets Act 1911”. Sad, I know. It is, however, the belief of the British government, over the years, that the general public could not understand all those fact and figures. In other words, the Subjects of Her Britannic Majesty are seen as and treated like children, or imbeciles.

American lobby groups are now calling upon Congress to stop wasting our money and end its use of bottled water and to sweeten the deal, DC Water (a local utility) has even offered to provide every member of Congress with a reusable water bottle as well as free water quality testing systems for Congressional office buildings.

When members of Congress complain about wasteful spending, they should curb their own bad habits first.

No doubt the same problems exist in the Houses of Parliament as regards to bottled water usage and other waste too. I could mention the waste of food, for instance, and while government keeps telling us that we must end the practice of food waste the catering establishment within the Palace of Westminster, in the way they operate, waste tons, literally, of food a week. Food that has been cooked but never been eaten.

They, whether in the Palace of Westminster or Whitehall or at Capitol Hill in DC, try to tell the general public how to live and behave but it would seem that it is a definite case of “Do as I tell you not as I do”. Shame they think that different rules apply to them than to the rest of us.

We can see that by the way the British MPs have been milking the expenses system and when they are caught with the hand in the till, so to speak, try to claim parliamentary privilege and thus exception from criminal prosecution. They really think themselves, in the majority, better than those that have put them there. Time for a change, methinks, a serious one.

© 2011

Think Outside the Bottle success

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

On the morning of May 5, 2009, New York Governor David Paterson issued an executive order phasing out state spending on bottled water in response to our grassroots efforts. It is the most comprehensive action taken by a governor to date, and it sets the standard for the 49 other governors we are urging to follow suit.

Even as water scarcity becomes an increasingly critical problem around the world, bottled water corporations would have us believe that the only place to get clean, safe water is from a bottle. But the fact is, our tap water is more highly regulated than bottled water -- and, as New York and countless other cities have demonstrated, going back to the tap is good for our communities and good for our pocketbooks.

There are even many that are as scrupulous as to talk of ethical bottled water because some of their profits help to bring clean water to the Third World. Talk of greenwashing or what.

I get sometimes completely misunderstood, on purpose, I believe, and those companies attacked will counter with the “fact” that they are using compostable water bottles. It is, however, not the bottles so much that I am complaining about – though they are included in the equation – but the fact that spring water (and municipal sourced water) is needlessly put into plastic bottles, the material of which also might not be good for health, and then sold at a horrendous price over the price of tap.

In most places in the Developed World there is nothing wrong with tap or even well water. If you do not like the taste, be this due to chlorine or lime scale, or whatever, get a jug filter or even better. That eliminates that problem and then get a nice reusable bottle of non BPA containing plastic, such as the “We Want Tap” one, or stainless steel one. There are enough choices about. Get away though from the bottled water, whether or not there is a percentage of the price that goes to this or that charity.

My concern, as said, is not so much the plastic bottles, though that is bad enough; it is the needless use of water.

© 2009
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Just a Drop ethical bottled water

Greenwashing in action

by Michael Smith

In a recent circular from the charity “Just a Drop” tried a bit more on greenwashing its ethical bottled water by stating that it now comes in a new BIODEGRADABLE and COMPOSTABLE bottle.

It does not matter whether it comes in a PET bottle or a BIODEGRADABLE and COMPOSTABLE one; bottled water is not and will never be ethical. Period.

Obviously having bottled water, if one has to have it, at conferences and such like and for personal use, in BIODEGRADABLE and COMPOSTABLE bottles is much better than having it in PET (plastic) bottles but why the supposed need for bottled water in the first place.

Also, as in this case they were trying to aim at bottled water as a promotional item at trade fairs and conference, why does water have to be given out in such bottles. Why not provide water dispensers and give out also small reusable sports bottles from lined aluminium, for instance.

Yes, such bottles are more expensive and in addition the provision of a water cooler, the latter which ideally should be a tap water mains fed one that has a built in filtration system, but such gestures would remain in the memory of the visitors a lot more than a plastic, whether biodegradable and compostable or not, bottle of water.

Bottles water, in my opinion, can never be classed as “ethical”, whether or not is it being sold by a charity which uses the profits from those sales to provide drinking water projects in the Third World. Bottled water simply is not and cannot, as I said before, ever be “ethical”, not even with the best intentions.

We have spoken about the issue of bottled water, especially the water in plastic bottles many times and the debate is going on in all green circles, but it is not just the plastic bottle that is the issue but the extraction of water for the purpose of bottling and selling in bottles itself that is rather contentious. This is particularly so in countries such as Britain, the USA and the like where the public water supplies are safe to drink, safer even than some of those sources from which the bottled waters are drawn.

I, for one, will rather drink – filtered, if need be – tap water from our municipal sources than so-called spring water that may have contaminants in it for which it may not even have to be tested, though for which tap water is being tested.

Most readers would be amazed as to what level of pollution and contamination is permitted in “spring” water compared to tap water. Tap water is by far, at least in those really well developed countries, safer than so-called bottled spring water and therefore we should use it, at home and in restaurants, in the same way as on the move.

Let's demand tap water wherever we can and if this is being refused then, maybe, we should no longer frequent that establishment.

© M Smith (Veshengro), January 2009
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Cancer-Linked Contaminants in Bottled Water Says EWG

by Michael Smith

A report released by the Environmental Working Group in October 2008 provides yet another reason not to drink bottled water: disinfection byproducts, fertilizer residue and pain medication. All these chemicals and more were found in multiple brands of bottled water EWG tested.

The cost of bottled water is about 1,900 times greater than tap water, but it is a price tag many people, however, appear comfortable in paying because they believe, falsely though, that they are drinking something "pure."

The Environmental Working Group's comprehensive report, however, does counter this assumption, with data indicating chemical contaminants in every brand of bottled water that they tested.

This report shows that bottled water is no more “pure” than tap water, also as regards to chemical residues and hence drinking tap, especially if filtered through charcoal and sand, in other words, the same stuff that is in, dare I mention a company here, Britta filters. That way your tap water more than likely is cleaner and safer than your bottled “mineral” water will ever be.

Tap water already has to go through much more stringent checks than any so-called mineral or spring water and hence the cleanliness and safety is, theoretically, much more ensured.

From what can be seen from the findings of this report is that, so it would appear, that municipal tap water, more than likely, is cleaner and safer than any of the so-called spring waters on offer. Help!

WalMart's and Giant's store brand of bottled water contained a cocktail of chlorine and fluoride found in municipal water, making these brands identical to municipal water with the exception of their price tags. In California these brands exceeded legal contaminant limits and were also found chemically potent in stores in North Carolina, Virginia, Delaware, Maryland and DC.

Maybe in this case one should ask as to whether it may not also just be repackaged tap water that has not even gone through any filtration process, let alone it being “spring”.

Sam’s Choice samples that the Environmental Working Group bought in the San Francisco contained disinfection byproducts, which have been linked to cancer and reproductive problems.

The Environmental Working Group has announced that it has filed a lawsuit to require Walmart post a warning sign on its bottles that the water contains a chemical known to the State of California to cause cancer, an act required under California law.

And this is aside from the fact that the bottles themselves, more than likely, will be leaching Bisphenol A (BPA) into the water.

Other brands tested by the Environmental Working Group contained other chemicals including fertilizer byproducts, chemical remnants of prescription medicines, industrial chemicals, bacteria, arsenic, and even boron.

The study also included assays for breast cancer cell proliferation, conducted at the University of Missouri. One bottled water brand spurred a 78% increase in the growth of the breast cancer cells compared to the control sample.

The bottled water industry, unlike municipal water sources, is not required to reveal the chemical components of its products but the EWG hopes that this report will educate consumers as to the impurities of bottled water and the risks associated with drinking it.

The Environmental Working Group recommends, just like the Green (Living) Review, that consumers drink filtered tap water instead of bottled water. Also insist on tap, filtered if possible, in restaurants, though I know that the answer often will be a “not possible”. If that be the case I would suggest that one leaves the restaurant and votes with one's feet.

© M Smith (Veshengro), November 2008
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TAP LAUNCHES A REFRESHING ALTERNATIVE TO BOTTLED WATER

- Tap into the growing trend of re-usable bottles to save money and the environment -

A new ethical enterprise called Tap has entered the world of bottled water, with a sole mission of getting Brits to re-think bottled water and turn to tap.

Despite having some of the highest quality tap water in the world, Britain spends £1.5billion per year on designer label water, discarding over 3 million empties. Not only is this impacting on the environment, but it’s costing the nation too, with bottled water up to 10,000 times more expensive than tap.

We Want Tap has really launched the real alternative to bottled water, namely what we already have and that is mains water, that is to say, TAP.

In a bid to break the habit, Tap has launched its very own re-usable water bottles. Think of them as flasks for water. Set to become the ‘must-have’ item of the summer, the bottles are stylish and sustainable, and available in two sizes, making them the perfect fit for your handbag, gym bag or fridge.

More importantly, they are made from a new generation of Tritan plastic which is 100% recyclable and free from the polycarbonate chemicals, such as being absolutely 100% free of Bisphenol A, also known as BPA, found in most other re-usable plastic bottles. What’s more 70% of profits from each Tap bottle sold will go to water and sanitation projects in the developing world.

Bisphenol A (BPA), as most of us know by now, I am sure, has had some rather bad press as it is related to hormonal changes in humans and can affect children's hormonal development badly. Hence Canada has banned all BPA products, which meant 1,000s of baby feeding bottles had to be withdrawn and also Nalgene had to remove its old version bottled from the shelves.

Guaranteed to last a lifetime, Tap’s new re-usable bottles offer a practical alternative to unsustainable bottle water. Priced at just £6 for a 400ml bottle and £8.50 for a litre version, it’s a small price to pay to help save the environment, and people’s wallets in the long run. They can be purchased online at www.wewanttap.com.

Tap's founder, Joshua Blackburn, said: "Bottled water is simply a marketing invention, a brand – and one that is costing our nation both financially and environmentally. In a country where high quality water is literally on tap, we should be re-thinking the amount we spend as a nation on designer water.

"Tap water challenges undertaken across the country have repeatedly shown that tap is top. To encourage people to love their tap, we’ve engineered the ultimate re-usable bottle which can be used over and over again – designer water is set to become a thing of the past."

As Tap is also a consumer campaign, a range of stickers can also be purchased on the website to stick over existing empty bottles of bottled water – refilled with tap water - and raise awareness of Tap. Stickers cost £4 for a pack of 30 stickers – five large bottle labels, five small bottle labels and 20 fun size bonus stickers. It is advisable that ordinary water bottles are refilled only 10 times as most contain polycarbonate chemicals, such as BPA, to some extent. A Tap bottle, on the other hand, can be used for life.

The Tap enterprise has been launched by Provokateur, the ethical communications agency, in association with Belu, the carbon neutral water company.

The Centre for Innovation in Voluntary Action is responsible for the distribution of Tap profits to charity.

Log onto www.wewanttap.com for more information

by Michael Smith, August 2008
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Reusable water bottles -vs- Plastic disposable bottles

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

The concept of disposable plastic items has, honestly, got to be one of the most stupid ideas in all of human history. On the same level, about, as nuclear energy, disposable plastics are made for a one-time only use and then end up as toxic waste that lasts almost forever. Its convenient and cheap in the short term, and polluting and cancer-causing in the long term. Plastic also does not biodegrade and there is no such thing as biodegradable or compostable plastic with the exception of that kind that is made with corn starch or lactic acids. Other plastics simply are not biodegradable and especially not compostable. Plastics do not biodegrade, they just simply, slowly, break down in the environment, that is to say this is true for plastic bags and other products of the polyethylene and related ranges. Harder plastics simply do not break down and they will still be down in that landfill or in the bush in a 1000 years. Only glass lasts longer.

The greatest problem with plastic, whether bottles, cutlery, dishes, etc., is that they will last for centuries if not nigh on forever in the soil and if they slowly break down – into ever smaller and smaller particles of still plastic – they release harmful substances into soil and water.

A shocking factoid: Americans use 2.5 million bottles every hour. Oh my.

So, what is one to do? As far as water bottles and bottled water is concerned this is easy. Just stop using both. Get yourself one of those reusable water bottles – no, it does not have to look like the army on exercise. Get the best water bottle you can find and afford and carry it with you wherever you go.

Concerned about quality of tap water? Don't be! There is no need, at least not in our developed countries, in the main. Pepsi's brand of bottled water, Aquafina, is the best-selling brand of water in the United States and it is – well guess what? – tap water – plain and simple. Coca-Cola's brand Dasani, is also nothing but tap water. So, why are you going to buy bottled water in plastic bottles?

We must all, well those that buy bottles water for sure, be stupid – tap water in a bottle.. at what cost? Who in their right mind – then again, oh well – would pay $2 and more for a bottle of what is more than likely tap water, even though it way have been filtered through charcoal and such? Doh! The mind boggles. We can do that also at home and at the office with water filters of the various kinds.

What is really amazing is that those Whole Food and Health Food stores, those claiming to be “green”, are also selling bottled water, in disposable plastic bottles. This does not compute.

Lets change the number one selling item at Whole Foods from plastic bottled water to stainless steel water bottles, and turn our future landfills into future land trusts. And let us all go and get reusable water bottles – whichever one is irrelevant, just get one, or even two or three, and use them.

© M Smith (Veshengro), July 2008

NYC Tap Water to be Served at Olympus Fashion Week

Well up to 25,000 plastic water bottles are, traditionally, given out during Olympus Fashion Week at Bryant Park. But this year, in an effort to "green" the show, participants will be given reusable liter-sized non-toxic aluminum water bottles which have been specially prepared backstage and hold nothing but New York City tap water.

Aveda, along with NY's most talented and influential designers, is trying to raise the fashion industry's collective environmental conscience (as if boycotting food wasn't a grand enough contribution). They also plan to eliminate the use of fur in shows, serve organic and locally-sourced food, and print programs and invitations on post-consumer recycled paper.

Michael Smith (Veshengro), Feb 2008

The Bottled Water Scam

Is bottled water better than tap water?

Environmentalists and health experts have stated that drinking bottled water is not, necessarily, any better for us than drinking and using water straight from the tap. The fact is that a large amount of bottled water is in reality nothing more than repackaged tap water.

Bottled water does not deserve the nutritional halo that most people give it for being pure. If you are not an exclusive bottled water drinker, you may find it worthwhile to check into filtering your tap water to save money. Though in most places this should not even be necessary unless you want to remove the slight trace of chlorine and such.

In a test on 1,000 bottled of 103 different brands of bottled water man-made chemicals, bacteria and arsenic were found in 22% of the bottles. Purer than tap, as the advocates of bottled water claim? I hardly think so.

It would therefore appear that while tap water may not be immune from contamination it may be a much safer option that bottled water. Apparently also the hygiene standards for bottled “spring” water a far, far lower than those for domestic tap water in the developed, especially the Western world, and often such bottled water falls very much below the worst tap water standard.

If you want to be real sure as to nothing being in the water and be secure of real purity then get and use a filter, be this a British Berkfield ceramic filter or the simple filter jug such as Britta, Kenwood, or derivatives of the same. While the filter on the British Berky, so I understand, basically lasts for ever and can be cleaned, the filters in the jugs are active charcoal, sand, etc. and have to be replaced once every month or so. But this makes it still by far cheaper than buying bottled water.

This is also my advice to anyone who may be concerned about the fact that most tap water is chlorinated. However, the traces of chlorine in the tap water is, in most instances, minute, though you may still be able to taste and smell the chlorine. I know I can smell chlorine in the water in many places but I also know that it is harmless. Knowing that I can smell and taste chlorine in the water to me is a good indicator that the water has been treated and therefore can be assumed to be to at least 90% safe.

If you are storing water as a preparedness measure you, more than likely have added a small amount of chlorine to the water that you are storing in order to keep it safe and fresh, and especially in order to prevent bacterial production.

Bottled water and our immense use of it is also NOT good at all for the environment, and that on two levels:

1. The extraction of this spring/groundwater, where it comes from the source, puts a great strain on our water resources.

and

2. The plastic bottles, the PET bottles, cause a huge problem everywhere and use, for starters oil, a non-renewable resource, in their production and while they can be recycled into fibre from which fleece jackets and blankets are made the great majority of such bottled, about 80% of then, end up in the landfill sites, thus putting yet another strain on the environment.

Anyone of us who is concerned about living a frugal life and/or about the environment should get away from the use of bottled water as much as at all possible and use tap water instead in our own reusable canteens. This is better for you, your pocketbook and the environment.
Do you really want to pay 65pence ($1) to £1.20 ($1.80) for a 500ml bottle of water that could in fact repackaged tap water, after all? I for one am not.

© M V Smith, May 2007

Bottled Water Boycott Highlights Waste, Resource Depletion

by Shreema Mehta

Apr. 26 – Environmentalists are calling for a boycott of bottled water in an effort to reduce the use of fossil fuels, protect the environment and protect local drinking supplies.

Campaign leader Food and Water Watch says bottled water dangerously "undermines confidence" in public tap-water supplies. "The more those who can afford bottled water depend on bottled water, the harder it is for communities to muster political and financial support for urgent upgrades to public water systems that most people depend on to provide safe, affordable water," the group said on its website.

Activists are urging members of the public to sign a pledge to end daily bottled-water consumption and to refill bottles with tap water rather than buy new ones.

The pledge is part of several environmental groups' efforts to halt the "commodification" of the nation's water supply through an increase in bottled-water production and private management of local systems.

"We need to maintain [the public water] system by adequately funding repairs and improvements to our national water infrastructure so that every citizen has access to clean and affordable tap water," stated Public Citizen on its own Water for All campaign site. "Bottled water is not the answer."

Over the past few years, sales of bottled water have risen sharply in the United States, to over 8 billion gallons in 2006, and with it the number of plastic thrown in landfills. According to the Container Recycling Institute, a nonprofit that promotes recycling, most bottled water is sold in "single serve" sizes which are "prone to being littered." The Institute's report also noted that 96 percent of bottled water is sold in polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic bottles, and that less than 15 percent of those bottles get recycled.

The activists calling for the bottled-water boycott also point out that the water sold in gas stations and grocery stores throughout the country is not necessarily safer than cheaper tap water. Tap water is regulated by the US Environmental Protection Agency, while bottled water is regulated by the US Food and Drug Administration. The FDA gives inspecting water-bottling plants a low priority because of water's stable safety record.

But a widely cited Natural Resources Defense Council study tested 103 bottled-water brands, finding that 26 of them at had at least one sample that contained enough contaminants to violate California state regulations, which are among the strictest. The group did not test tap water to see how it compared.

Additionally, as a federal agency, the FDA does not regulate water that is bottled and sold within one state, leaving it up to state agencies. While most state agencies surveyed by the NRDC said their regulations were equal to or stricter than the FDA's, thirteen states said they had no staff or resources allocated specifically to enforce regulations on bottled water, while an additional 26 states had "less than one" full-time staff member enforcing bottled-water programs.

Advocates say that while bottled water is generally safe, the public wastes money and plastic at the detriment of tap water accessible to everyone. In addition to calling for more money to go into protecting and improving local water supplies, the anti-bottled-water campaigners also point out that the popularity of bottled water can have long-term dangers on local communities where the water comes from.

Nestle's plan to build a water-bottling plant at Mt. Shasta in McCloud, California, for instance, has drawn criticism for its potential to deplete aquifers and reduce river flow.

Mark Franco, headman of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe, which lives near the proposed plant, said Nestle should not "sell what is a public trust, and take it out from people who need it."