Drinking Bottled Water Responsible For Huge Emissions
Maleny Residents, Caloundra Council And Democracy!
November 29, 20071,000,000 Signatures For ‘Whales Revenge’?
December 3, 2007Green Pages Australia says Australians are spending over $300 million on bottled water a year. The Bottled Water Alliance, headed by Planet Ark co-founder John Dee, estimates that over 456,131 barrels of oil are used every year to manufacture bottled water for Australians – not to mention the litter problem! He says:
“Bottled water is responsible for over 60,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions every year. Consumers don’t realise the amount of oil that is used to make, transport and store bottled water…
Only 35% of plastic PET gets recycled in Australia. The other millions of bottles end up in landfills.”
Collaboration With Councils
The Alliance hopes to get us to look for alternatives to drinking water in bottles. Manly City Council’s Mayor, Peter Macdonald, will be the first to lead his community to oppose bottled water and formally push forward an initiative to discourage its use.
The Alliance will be writing to other Mayors and Councils, asking them to take the initiative on board.
Other action has already been taken by the government. The Department of Environment and Climate Change has already banned access to bottled water for their public servants, taking them out of vending machines and discouraging staff from purchasing them.
Filtered Water A Good Alternative
There is a range filter jugs available in local supermarkets and John says,
“For water on the go, Brita™ makes a sports bottle filter that works for up to 80 refills. At just $10, the filter is not only saving 79 bottles from being tossed in landfills, it’s also extremely cost effective…
When bottled water first came out, no one thought it would sell – people thought it was a scam. Now we’re spending more than $385 million a year on our water. It’s time to unscam ourselves.”
The Alliance is hoping to reduce the country’s expenditure on bottled water by 20% through this initiative.
Check out The Bottled Truth published by Manly City Council.
I can remember being amazed in the mid 90s – while volunteering at my kids’ tuckshop – at how many school students would spend their pocket/lunch money on buying bottled water when they could use the drinking fountains. Clever marketing then but time to change now!
7 Comments
I buy a bottle of water perhaps once a week, and reuse it throughout the week, placing it in the freezer between uses (overnight) to kill any bacteria that might form. But I still like to replace it at least once a week, because I’m not sure how sanitary simply freezing this receptacle is. For me, it is simply a bottle to throw in my bag for drinking water while out and at work. Can anyone correctly advise me on how to properly sanitise my bottle so I can use it for longer periods?
Wayne
Hi Wayne, my apologies in this very late response to your query.
If you’re still interested in knowing about plastic bottles, this is what I was able to find on the net. As far as I can see, this is one of the better industry based responses to the plastic bottle story.
Check out the link at
http://www.industrysearch.com.au/News/Risks_of_re-filled_plastic_water_bottles_not_true_-_industry-29556
Hope this has helped, Georgie
Its not just small plastic water bottles that are causing significant environmental damage. Spring water delivered in large plastic bottles, like the ones commonly used for office water coolers are also having a detrimental effect.
The trucks used to transport these bottles to and from offices and homes throughout Australia emit large volumes of CO2, contributing significantly to the dangerous effects of climate change.
Swithching to a plumbed in water cooler is a simple way to do your bit for the environment. There are many companies around who sell or rent plumbed in water coolers.
Tana Water is one such company. For more information, you can check out our website at: http://www.tanawatercoolers.com.au
Hi, why are we attacking bottled water? Would it not make more sense to attack bottled soft drinks? It would be interesting to survey how many more Coca Cola trucks move around this country than trucks than carry bottled water. The liquid in the soft drink company bottles is extremely deleterious to health whereas water is essential for life. A big problem with banning bottled water is that it takes away peoples choice of drinking water with the fluoride chemical added which can’t be easily filtered out,as opposed to unfluoridated tap water which can be easily filtered to eliminate chlorine, alum and agricultural chemicals. There are many varying qualities of bottled water also, and to lump all together as “bottled water” does not allow any distinction in quality. Australia does not need to bring in bottled water from overseas, if banning takes place from an environmental reason, start with imported water please.
You make some good points Lesley – life wasn’t meant to be easy was it?
“how many more Coca Cola trucks move around this country than trucks than carry bottled water”
I once read an article claiming that Coca Cola make more money on water than they do Coca Cola. Probably not that difficult when they can take natural spring water from the ground cheaper per litre than we can take it from the tap. Whether this equates to more trucks is another matter.
Lesley does raise some points about choice but how many are in the category of looking at the chemical composition of one brand over another?
My wife is an offender (I never buy bottled water except overseas) and she does it for convenience though does ‘prefer’ some brands over others.
In my view, water should be provided at the cost of sourcing it (non profit, and including offsetting CO2 emissions included), should be in re-washable/re-usable bottles and available at service stations and the like where bottles are ‘exchanged’. This would not only employ people but put a true value on the cost of providing drinking water both to the environment and in monetary terms.
I will be buying bottled water too if they put fluoride in our town water,
I believe lots of people buy water because there is too many chemicals put in the water supple in Melbourne and other towns as well. Did you know they add Fluoride and because that corrodes the pipes, and makes the water acicid they add lime, aluminium sulphate, chlorine, sodium hydrochloride. All these chemicals go into our water. Take the Fluoride out, and we will not have to buy botled water.FLUORIDE IS A POISON