Movies, Books, Politicians the Water Bottle is Under Siege
Bring a plastic water bottle at your own risk; the wave of popular perspective is forming against you. From popular rating documentaries, to articles and political debate, the hottest debate in town is the horror that is bottled water and the waste of resources that the industry pumps out.
The production, transporting and removal of water in petrochemical plastic bottles eats up large use of water as well as energy, and pumps out tremendous quantities of greenhouse gases and waste.
Director of the hot new documentary ‘Tapped: get off the bottle’ Stephanie Soechtig sums it up “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 of Tapped are promoting the documentary with an across-America roadshow, asking pledges from donors to lower their water bottle use and changing their discarded plastic water bottle for a reusable stainless steel bottle. Download Tapped from Amazon or iTunes.
A short film ‘The Story of Bottled Water’ was released on World Water Day in March. By Annie Leonard of the famous ‘The Story of Stuff’, this short film shows the process that is used to tricking Americans into wasting over hundreds of millions of bottles of water each and every week, compared with a few cents cost for clean tap water. Check out this new film on You Tube.
With her book ‘Bottlemania’, author Elizabeth Royte chronicles one of the biggest marketing cons of our century and provides a sudden environmental alarm. She asks the questions we must come to understand. Who owns our water distribution? What happens when a bottled-water corporation stakes a claim on your town’s drinking water? Is the water that comes out of the tap completely safe? What really is the environmental price of production, transporting and disposal of every plastic water bottle?
Politicians from around the globe are beginning to realise that they have to take action – markedly when the institutions where they serve are high consumers of bottled water. How often do we observe a politician in a meeting sipping from a water bottle. Surely they must be able to find a water glass in Parliament House.
Leslie Samuelrich of Corporate Accountability International, said “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 community in Australia to ban the retailing of bottled water. At least 60 places in the States and a few cities in Canada and the UK have banned the spending of taxpayer dollars on bottled water.
It is certain that this problem will be discussed come World Water Week 2010 from September 5 to 11 in Stockholm, Sweden, the annual meeting for the globe’s most problematic water-related dilemmas.
Article written by Tracey Bailey, founder of Biome Eco Stores.
Sphere: Related ContentWater 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.
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