EcoRazzipointed me to this video. Can the bottled water industry really be looked at as good stewards of the environment? They certainly think so! I get why they created this video…there is currently a tremendous amount of bad press regarding bottled water – as there should be – but, they’re running a business and in the interest of continuing to make money they need to make themselves sound good and appear to be doing something to make their industry better. The reality is, the only thing they can really do is to STOP selling bottled water! Yet the only way that will ever happen is if WE STOP PURCHASING it! Anyway, I think this advertisement is ridiculous – just look at how proud they are of themselves…for what?? A little recycling? That should be standard – not even an option! I love how at the end the fake reporter asks what they’re doing to protect the ground water and the guy responds by in short saying, we have a legacy of protecting it and we belong to a group that helps protect it. Ok, but the question was WHAT are you DOING?! I mean, that wasn’t even a real news reporter, so if they were going to set up fake questions they should have at least planned to answer them rather than dance around them!!!
Category : Food & Beverages, Travel
$8.95 - 1L bottle
These are SO COOL!!! I totally want one! I’m not crazy about plastic even when it is BPA Free, but for occasional use it’s certainly still better than a regular disposable plastic bottle. It’s crazy how small they roll up when empty! Check them out at ReusableBags.com
Category : Food & Beverages
So I finally got around to exchanging my old Sigg water bottle for one that is BPA-FREE! It’s fun to have a new one after a couple of years but not having to pay for it! And it is much better to know that I won’t have to risk any BPA leaching into my drinking water!
Category : Food & Beverages, Household
I’m a firm believer in tap water (well I do filter my tap water through an under the sink filter). I know, like you I used to think bottled water was the ONLY way to go and I did everything possible to avoid drinking out of a drinking fountain or a regular faucet. I’ve smartened up though! I thought this article was definitely worth sharing – hopefully I can pursuade you that TAP WATER IS BEST!
Consumers are wasting billions of dollars a year on billions of gallons of bottled water in large part because advertising spin has led them to believe that water in a bottle is safer or better than tap water.
Truth is, tap water generally is just as safe, clean, and healthy as bottled water, and in many cases more so. In fact, the federal government requires far more rigorous and frequent safety testing and monitoring of municipal drinking water. The Environmental Protection Agency requires that utility companies test municipal water hundreds of times per month, while the Food and Drug Administration requires only one water test per week by bottling companies.
“Bottled water causes many equity, public health, and environmental problems. Beverage companies often take water from municipal or underground sources that local people need. As much as 40 percent of bottled water comes from the tap. Producing plastic bottles uses energy and emits toxic chemicals. Transporting the bottled water spews pollution into the air, adding to global climate change.”
I just found this on another site and wanted to share. I rarely purchase bottled water anymore, and by rarely I’d say it would be a stretch to say I purchase it as frequently as one bottle a month. I have to be rather desperate as I always pack my own stainless steel bottles when traveling.
posted by Mel, selected from Food & Water Watch Aug 10, 2009 3:08 pm
Tap water is regulated by the EPA as well as state and local governments, but bottled water is only checked by the Food and Drug Administration. The FDA doesn’t even get to most food plants every year, with some plants going five or ten years between inspections. Though the FDA is supposed to test bottled water at the same standards as the EPA, FDA guidelines are years behind the EPA’s. Here are some of the more disturbing examples:
- Municipal water is not permitted to contain E. coli or fecal coliform bacteria. FDA rules for bottled water include no such prohibitions.
- Municipal water from surface sources must be filtered and disinfected, or it must have strict pollution controls. There are no filtration or disinfection requirements for bottled water at the federal level. The only source-water protection, filtration or disinfection provisions for bottled water are delegated to the states, and many states have adopted no meaningful programs.
- Cities must have their water tested by government-certified labs. No certification requirement exists for bottlers.
- Municipal tap water must be tested for coliform bacteria 100 or more times a month. New York City takes 500,000 samples of its water per year. That’s nearly once a minute all year long. Bottled water plants only have to test once a week.
This town clearly understands how terrible bottled water is and they’ve done something about it! In case you didn’t know – the actual water in the bottle isn’t regulated as tap water is, the plastic not only can leach toxins into the water you plan to drink but if not recycled (as most aren’t) they take forever to break down in our land fills!
Associated Press
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 9 July 2009 12.03 BST
Bottled water is often criticised as an environmental menace. Photograph: Bruno Vincent/Getty Images
Residents of a rural Australian town have voted to ban the sale of bottled water. They are possibly the first community in the world to take such a step.
Residents of Bundanoon cheered after their near-unanimous approval of the measure at a town meeting on Wednesday. It was the second blow to Australia‘s beverage industry in one day. Hours earlier, the New South Wales state premier banned all state departments and agencies from buying bottled water, calling it a waste of money and natural resources.
“I have never seen 350 Australians in the same room all agreeing to something,” said Jon Dee, who helped spearhead the “Bundy on Tap” campaign in Bundanoon, a town of 2,500 about 100 miles south of Sydney. “It’s time for people to realise they’re being conned by the bottled water industry.”
First popularised in the 1980s as a convenient, healthy alternative to sugary drinks, bottled water today is often criticised as an environmental menace, with bottles cluttering landfills and requiring large amounts of energy to produce and transport.
Over the past few years, at least 60 cities in the United States and a handful of others in Canada and the United Kingdom have agreed to stop spending taxpayer money on bottled water, which is often consumed during city meetings, said Deborah Lapidus, organiser of Corporate Accountability International’s “Think Outside the Bottle” campaign in the US.
But the Boston-based nonprofit corporate watchdog has never heard of a community banning the sale of bottled water, she said.
“I think what this town is doing is taking it one step further and recognising that there’s safe drinking water coming out of our taps,” she said.
