Millions of people worldwide ARE Opposed to Plastic Bottled Water. Alternative Solution? Right here, Right NOW!
Submitted by ChakraDave on June 11, 2010 - 19:51
The momentum for a better Global drinking Water Environment is increasing.
One way to achieve this Mission is to reduce the global High energy wasteful costs in producing Plastic Bottles, then transporting these products (so-called mineral,spring, volcanic Water) daily to Supermarkets, Newsagents & Corner stores.
The facts:-
- 17 million barrels of oil used each year to produced plastic bottles.
- 1000 plastics bottles purchased every second in the USA, every day, every month, every year.
- 90% of empty plastic bottle is eventually sent to landfills; polluting groundwater for thousands of years.
- It took 3 liters of water to produce 1 liter of bottled water therefore for tourist travelling worldwide uses more of
- the local supply to have their plastic bottled water.
- Energy Wasting to fill Oil manufactured plastic bottles with water at the factory, move it by trucks, trains, ships
- and air freight to the user; then keep cool in the supermarket or home refrigerators.
- To then recover, recycle, or throw away the empty plastic bottles; wastes more energy & man-power.
- Waste Water.... clean-up costs
- Toxins leaching from these Plastic bottles can cause cancer such as: Bisphenol & others.
A number of towns have already banned plastic bottles from being sold. opposition is voiced by numerous environmental groups and organic health retailers have banned plastic bottles from their stockrooms.
Leading Water Professor Peter Gleick has a new book, called; 'Bottled and Sold' The Story Behind Our Obsession with Bottled Water can be purchased here: http://www.pacinst.org/bottledandsold/
The recommendations by Peter Gleick to reduce bottled water use; are lacking in vision; definitely not his fault as he has gathered historic and current facts about drinking water & the beverage companies Plastic bottlesdamaging effects upon our environment.
FIVE Reasons Not to Drink bottled Water
It's expensive, wasteful and -- contrary to popular belief -- not any healthier for you than tap.
http://www.mnn.com/food/healthy-eating-recipes/stories/5-reasons-not-to-...
Current Alternatives: What can you do?
- Buy a stainless steel thermos. However there are NOT adequate refilling points locally or globally. A Manchester UK NGO is currently finding local restaurants prepared to permit the informed public to refill their flasks from their premises. http://www.givemetap.co.uk/about However this approach is not sufficient globally, in my opinion.
- Buy an inexpensive carbon filters which turns tap water into sparkling fresh drinking water at a fraction of the cost
of Plastic bottled water. - Campaign for change as here & worldwide http://www.water.ca/special-ottawa-tap-water.asp
Future Solutions: by Dave Ashman @ H2OTrust Twitter, LinkedIn & Ecademy
We have had a vision since 1989 to provide globally on all Streets a new Vending machine dispensing Clean chilled Drinking Water.
Each SVD will enable all people desiring a drink of water @ a minimal charge; with our pre-issued stainless steel bar-coded Flask, the ability to refill their flask 24/7 with the highest monitored drinking water.
http://www.chakraworld.net/H2OTrust.swf
http://www.multicoloredwhitehouse.com/new-global-project.php
A prototype is still requiring PRODUCTION however with your open-minds or focused minds upon a solution; the perfect investor, partner or company will be found shortly.
Namely addressing our unsustainable wasted energy required in providing plastic bottles, landfills, transportation costs.
The 3 liters of water required to produce one litre of plastic bottled water especially in Arid regions of the world for the Tourist trade; leaving the locals in drought conditions.
Your opinions and solutions are welcomed.
Thank You
Dave Ashman
Skype: d-programma
Start a Blog!
Do you want to share your knowledge and opinions with fellow water enthusiasts? Start a blog on the portal!
Comments
1. Thank you for this post, as I
Thank you for this post, as I have raised several questions related to this in the past.
First, all this data is dated and USA centric. Do we have any organisation/ data that relates to India? If anyone has access or knowledge, can the same be shared?
As for eco-friendly solutions to drinking water, turning to the Indian way seems the best - that of combining the traditional with the latest technological offering. The tap at home is the best regular source of drinking water. Have it filtered, treated with the latest in domestic filtration systems, stored in steel cannisters or covered containers (patilas/ghadas).
Filtration techniques available range from the traditional straining through clean muslin cloth and boiling, re-straining, before storing in a clean earthen pot (ghada), to the advanced expensive ozonation and UV treatment processes that can be easily installed. However, no one process is completely effective. What is needed is a case-by-case application of water treatment method and storage. For instance, where water has higher iron concentration, storing in cannisters poses problem of effective cleaning. Here a wider steel jug can be used. So also for filtration and purification techniques, that need to take into account the iron content. Again, water that is likely to contain micro-organisms must be boiled and perhaps disinfacted further by chlorine tablets dring monsoons and flash floods. But how does the common man know what to do? How does he know what purification technique works best for the tap water or POU? What are the cheapest and easiest options available to him?
Schools and hospitals are already having vending machines for clean chilled drinking water, though how well they are maintained is another point to ponder upon. However, this system can be replicated across cities and rural areas, with nominal charges that cover the operational costs. Funnily enough, I notice that most of these places have plastic cups. Why cannot they be replaced by disposable paper cups?
An ideal situation would be where the municiaplities covering each area, issue a periodic (annual?) circular across their wards, stating the water constituents of the various areas, and listing the possible ways to ensure clean drinking water. The list should provide all simple options that even the poorest can implement for various type of water. Further listing, from the inexpensive purification techniques to the lastest in water purification, would empower the literate and those able to afford, to chose their methods of water purification, while perhaps fostering an environment of awareness about clean drinking water amongst all sections.
A legislation that restricts bottled water use only to travellers in remote areas and as part of disaster control measures during floods would be a beginning. Those buying botlled water, should bear the costs to environment, and this should directly go to a corpus created for NGO work in provision of potable water. For today, most buyers of bottled water in India are those who also have the wherewithals to carry clean drinking water from their homes, but are too laid-back, or at the most can afford to pay for access to drinking water provided by vending machines.