Earlier this year, San Francisco became one of the first American cities to ban plastic bags in stores. Then Mayor Newsom led the charge to ban plastic water bottles. What’s going on? Are these good developments? In the July/August issue of Fast Company, there is an excellent special report of Bottled Water. According to the article, “Bottled water is often simply an indulgence, and despite the stories we tell ourselves, it is not a benign indulgence. We’re moving 1 billion bottles of water around a week in ships, trains, and trucks in the United States alone. Meanwhile, one out of six people in the world has no dependable, safe drinking water.”
I was stunned. I read further.
In regards to Fiji Water, I discovered that “…the plastic for the bottles is shipped to Fiji first, the bottles’ journey is even longer.” Plus, their plant runs 24-hours per day with “three big generators running on diesel fuel.” I thought, ok I’ll buy glass bottles instead. Wrong. Glass bottles weigh five times what plastic weighs, with increased freight and energy costs. In fact, San Pellegrino “washed and rinsed, with mineral water, before [filling] with sparkling Pellegrino.”
The article goes on to say, “Americans went through about 50 billion plastic water bottles last year. Our recycling rate for PET [recyclable polyethylene terephthalate plastic] is only 23%, which means we pitch into landfills 38 billion water bottles a year — more than $1 billion worth of plastic.”
You may wonder, why pick on bottled water? What about other beverages? “Water runs from our taps in our homes, or from fountains in public spaces. Soda does not.” In our house, we have a filtration system at the sink. I try and fill bottles before leaving the house in the car or going to work or going to the beach. If I need to buy bottled water while out, I make every effort to get the empty container into a recycle bin. This is definitely food for thought and I’d be happy to hear from others.
* blog title from Rime of the Ancient Mariner
{ 19 comments… read them below or add one }
Perfect! A Post on water while we have a fire.
Seriously, filling up at home with one of the new stainless-steel type bottles (that keep the water cold like a thermos) and are easy to tuck in a purse, pack or back-pocket, is the greenest way to go.
The ones we use are called
Klean Kanteen Stainless Steel Water Bottles. They come in a choice of 3 Sizes and Cap Styles. The water always tastes clean. No worries about plastic chemicals getting into the water and won’t break. Not sure where they are sold locally but here’s a link.
http://www.kleankanteen.com/
PS I take credit for that accidental anonymous Post
PPS They are a little pricey so you might want to check out the product reviews on amazon. If anyone knows of a better alternative, hope you’ll let us know. For a long time I re-used small glass juice bottles, but the worry that they might break caused us to invest in this stainless steel alternative.
Water bottles drive me mad. Literally. Frothing at the mouth, expletive shouting–MAD. Those of you who know me are not surprised as there are rather a lot of things that fit into this category. The bottled water industry is a total waste. I’ve seen studies where the municipal water supply (tap water) of New York or Los Angeles are tested against the various bottled waters and the tap water routinely wins. Better quality, less contaminates, etc. When I think of the unbelievable waste that goes into the bottled water industry it makes me want to scream. That’s when I watch this great comedy bit from Lewis Black. I’ll leave you with this quote from George Carlin:
“There’s no such thing as flavored water. There’s a whole aisle of this crap at the supermarket, water, but without that watery taste. Sorry, but flavored water is called a soft drink. You want flavored water? Pour some scotch over ice and let it melt. That’s your flavored water.”
Thanks, Sean. You expressed how I feel. Imagine, water costing more than gasoline. How stupid can humans be? Shakespeare saw it in her time: “What fools these mortals be.” I’ve had the same unit for 20 years; change the filter once a year. If we can’t connect the dots on water + waste, how can we do it on oil + war?
I heard recently on KCRW that:
- 80% of California’s water is used for agriculture
- of the remaining 20%, called Urban Use, 50% goes to landscaping.
The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change addressed the question of water stress in Africa. The figure I’ve just found says
“The population at risk for water stress in Africa…is projected to be between 75 – 250 million and 350 – 600 million people by the 2020s and 2050s respectively.”
In harshest terms, that could say that 600 million people on the continent of Africa could die of thirst in my life time.
Now is the time to find solutions. I have a reverse osmosis filter in my house and I use a reusable bottle. Low-flow toilets and shower heads are also part of my lifestyle. However, the filter “wastes” about 1.5 gallons of water for every gallon I get to use. Is that acceptable? Any other ideas?
Heather, is that normal in reverse osmosis to lose some water in the process, I never heard of that before.
We all know how bad our Ojai water is, the worst I’ve ever tasted for a municipality. There was that time at Point Reyes in a motel where there was Sulphur in the water, the shower reeked.
It’s a no brainer, put in your own filtration system and reuse containers. But if you don’t have one in, you can do as Miss Aly and I would do, we would drive over to the 76 station near the “Y” on one of our bundled trips, and fill up our cleaned one gallon milk jugs, at the water dispenser for only 10 cents a gallon. Yep, 10 cents, $0.10/gal. For years the gent who owns the station has provided clean water cheaper than anywhere else in town. I don’t know if that is still the case, but was as of last August.
I used to get outraged at the waste in the bottled water industry, still do but I’m more philosophical about it now. When I see young girls and boys reaching for a bottle of water as opposed to a soft drink, I see a change for the better. We need to make it more available at home, to get out of the industry churn.
Have any of you seen the inside of one of the huge dispensers? All it is, is two to four quart sized filtering systems that you can get at the hardware store. Ojai’s water causes you to change filters allot more often, to keep them effective and efficient.
i can’t win for losin’ in regard to plastic bags, either. specifically at Starr Market (the closest one to my home), i recently came to the register with four items which i’d somehow managed to get all the way there without a bag. when the inevitable “Paper or plastic?” came from the innocent-enough young man at the end of the conveyor, i politely told him i’d just manage it as-is. after several awkward moments in which he had absolutely no reason to exist, he finally said “I’ll just hook you up with a bag, to make it easier”, and before i could look up my breakfast cereals were wrapped in plastic.
part of that’s my fault: i have a more-than-adequate collection of cloth bags at home, and have not yet solidified the habit of grabbing them on my way to the car (or better yet, store a few IN the car). still, it doesn’t help that the clerks push plastic as though they were dealers and we’re all junkies.
Evan, you hit the nail on the head re the clerks pushing plastic bags! It happens all the time, even when I bring baskets, backpacks and cloth bags galore. Just when I think I’m home free, they will bag the box of detergent or watermelon I’ve set aside. I just got a postcard from some friends visiting Denmark, and they wrote, ” When you go to the supermarkets they don’t give you a bag. You have your own or you leave clutching your goods in your arms , like I did.”
Clerks do encourage use of plastic bags, no doubt because they’re cheaper and easier for the markets, but it’s really truly not clear that this choice makes much of a difference.
Clark Williams-Derry has a nice discussion on Grist:
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2007/5/21/133629/656
The bottom line:
“And (heresy alert!) the truth is that paper-vs-plastic is an astonishingly low-priority issue.
For example, choosing a bag at the checkout line is typically far less important than choosing what to put in those bags. Meat vs. grains, local vs. non-local, and organic vs. conventional all arguably have bigger environmental consequences than paper vs. plastic. Likewise, the kind of bag you use probably matters far less than what kind of car (if any) you drove to the store, and how far you had to drive it.
Now, I don’t mean to denigrate all the well-intentioned folks who’ve taken an interest in this issue, or to deny that collective, voluntary action can make a difference in the world.
But in my view, the paper-vs-plastic “debate” fascinates us not so much because it’s genuinely important but because it reinforces a common frame about sustainability: that it’s all about personal choices. Paper vs. plastic is one of the few “either-or” environmental decisions that we confront daily. And for some reason we conflate making a choice with making an impact.”
Germany charges manufacturers for the disposal of their packaging.
Re: Germany
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~lbailey/greendot.html
Lets have the manufacturers pre-pay the CRV as an incentive to produce more environmentally efficient packaging.
Kit, i think you’re exactly right (via Clark):
“Paper or Plastic” is a false choice, and a nearly total non-issue. paper decomposes faster, but weighs much much more…plastic’s lighter, but lasts forever. the choice is CANVAS (or any other eternally reusable bag)! Starr (and others) even SELLS them, but doesn’t push them. with just a few reusable bags on hand, i NEVER have an excuse to bring home – and later throw away – more plastic.
and what is it with America refusing to look at, discover, and copy ideas that WORK? Denmark, Germany…the solutions are everywhere. IKEA (Swedish) now charges for plastic bags AND donates that money toward planting trees.
All true, but I thought we green Post authors and commentators already agreed on all this, ages ago! Ride your bike, walk, or minimize car trips to the store, pre cycle, eat local, eat vegan and present your humble cloth bags at the check-out counter!
In case any other readers come along, here is a link to an ancient Post article on plastic bags:
April 21, 2007 – It’s Easy Being (Plastic or Paper) Bag Free!
http://www.ojaipost.com/2007/04/its_easy_being_plastic_paper_b.shtml
PS The German “Green Dot” link is another great example of how Europe is in the lead. I hope the Ojai Green Coalition knows about all this. The two biggest (and cruelest)polluters in the world are Factory Farms and the Military. Our individual choices are what we are voting for, even as we realize it’s just a drop in the bucket.
De Suza: “Ride your bike, walk, or minimize car trips to the store, pre cycle, eat local, eat vegan and present your humble cloth bags at the check-out counter!”
Friends, let’s do these things – or those of them that are attractive to us – because they simplify and enhance our own lives. But let’s not fool ourselves that we can dress a consumerist, mortgaged, standard car-based Southern California lifestyle up as anything that is remotely sustainable, or can remotely contribute to the health of the planet.
Do you work at home? Or does your work have you driving and flying hundreds and thousands of miles?
Do you earn enough money to pay taxes? Of every dollar you pay to the federal government, between 30% and 80%, depending how you calculate it, goes to the most horrible planet and life-destroying actions.
To make a real difference, we need to decide to simplify our lives. Reduce our expenses and become less money dependent. Get rid of the mortgage and the rent, grow more of our own food, generate more of our own power. The result of succeeding in this will be: We will bike and walk most places, we will eat more local and more vegetables most likely, we will use far fewer bags, whether paper or plastic… etc. etc.
I know that many many people in Ojai, each in our own little pods, are struggling with how to solve this fundamental issue, and meanwhile chugging along with unsustainable life as usual.
What are the good ideas for addressing this issue? How can we reduce or eliminate our useless “necessary” expenses – mortgage/rent, commuting, health insurance, utilities, etc. – meaningfully in Ojai?
i like what you’re saying very much, Anonymous 10:03…your logic is resonating with me, and the revolution you’re calling for is a positively-framed one.
please keep it up…please keep pressing us like you are. please remind us – when we need it – of the perspective we need.