Digg Links

Carry a plastic water bottle at your own peril; the sway of public perspective is coming back down on you. From popular rating documentaries, to papers and politics, the biggest news on the soapbox is the problem around bottled water and the waste that the industry demonstrates.

The production, moving and disposal of water in petrochemical plastic bottles consumes tremendous amounts of water and energy, and pumps out large amounts of greenhouse gases and waste.

Director of the upcoming 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 behind Tapped are pushing the movie with an across-America roadshow, asking sponsorships from people to lower their water bottle numbers and exchanging 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. From the pen of Annie Leonard of the famous ‘The Story of Stuff’, this short animated film shows the methodology that is behind swaying Americans into purchasing over half a billion bottles of water a week, despite the option of a few cents cost for a drink from the tap. Find her animation on You Tube.

With her book ‘Bottlemania’, author Elizabeth Royte investigates one of the greatest marketing tricks of the last century and provides a strong environmental wakeup call. She asks the questions we must come to answer to. Who appropriates the drinking water? What will happen when a bottled-water company holds your town’s water supply? Is the water coming from your tap entirely safe? What is really the environmental footprint of production, transporting and disposal of a plastic water bottle?

Politicians from everywhere around the globe are beginning to understand that they have to take responsibility for action – particularly when the meetings where they serve are large consumers of bottled water. How often do we see a politician at a press conference drinking from a water bottle. They can locate a water glass in Parliament House.

Leslie Samuelrich of Corporate Accountability International, told “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 society from Australia to prohibited the selling of bottled water. Some 60 cities in the US and a handful in Canada and the UK have now prohibited spending taxpayer money on bottled water.

It is certain that this problem will be tabled at World Water Week 2010 from September 5 to 11 in Stockholm, Sweden, the annual meeting for the environment’s most urgent water-related dilemmas.

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

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.