Movies, Books, Politicians the Water Bottle is Under Siege

April 26th, 2010

Bring a plastic water bottle to your own demise; the pressure of widespread belief is coming back down against you. From popular rating documentaries, to the written word and politics, the red hot debate in town is the problem around bottled water and the waste its industry demonstrates.

The production, transporting and removal of water in petrochemical plastic bottles requires large quantities of water as well as energy, and creates ridiculous quantities of greenhouse gases and waste.

Director of the upcoming documentary ‘Tapped: get off the bottle’ Stephanie Soechtig says “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 people behind Tapped are plugging the movie with an across-America roadshow, collecting money from citizens to lower their water bottle use and exchanging their discarded plastic water bottle in exchange for a reusable stainless steel bottle. Download Tapped from Amazon or iTunes.

A similar film ‘The Story of Bottled Water’ was released on World Water Day in March. Created by Annie Leonard of the critically acclaimed ‘The Story of Stuff’, this animation shows the process that goes into swaying Americans into wasting at least hundreds of millions of bottles of water every week, despite the option of a few cents cost for a drink from the tap. Look up this new animation on You Tube.

Through her book ‘Bottlemania’, investigator Elizabeth Royte demonstrates one of the most massive marketing tricks of the last century and provides a powerful environmental alarm bell. She investigates the questions we must at some point answer to. Who owns the drinking water? What happens when a bottled-water business seizes your town’s water source? Is the water that comes out of your tap completely safe? What is really the environmental cost of producing, transporting and disposal of a single plastic water bottle?

Politicians from everywhere around the globe are acknowledging that they need to do something – markedly when the places in which they debate are high consumers of bottled water. How often do we observe a politician at a political debate sipping from a water bottle. They might use 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 place in Australia to stop the retail of bottled water. Some 60 towns in the United States and a few places in Canada and the United Kingdom have lately prohibited the spending of taxpayer holdings 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 current water-related problems.

Article written by Tracey Bailey, founder of Biome Eco Stores.

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Water Bottles Need to be Clean to be Safe: How to Clean Your Water Bottle

February 22nd, 2010

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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