According to research behind a recent BBC Panorama programme called ‘Bottled Water – Who needs it?’ (1), a litre of a well known French mineral water, generates 600 times as much Carbon Dioxide as a litre of London tap water.
I’m as guilty as anyone when it comes to buying the stuff. Ironically I only buy bottled water for the bottle. One for the gym, one for a walk… I keep them knocking around until I lose them or simply get fed up of the sight of them.
It’s crazy when you think about it. Many developed countries, where most of the bottled water is sold, have safe tap water. Over a billion people on this world do not have access to safe water (2), yet when it is flowing freely in our own taps we still find the need to buy it.
Just as crazy is the bottled rain water featuring on the show. The pleasantly named ‘Cloud juice’, comes all the way from King Island, New Zealand. According to the Cloud Juice website the water comes from ‘11,100 km off the Great Southern Ocean where trade winds evaporate pure, clean water into rain clouds that don’t touch land until they meet King Island’ Sounds like a dream doesn’t it? That’s because that’s exactly what they want you to think. Advertising often attempts to link our emotions to a product. Just read a book on Neuro linguistic programming or advertising, and you’ll find that out. However that doesn’t stop London’s Claridges Hotel selling it for £9 ($18) per bottle.
Here’s my own poetic skew on the sales basics of the bottled water industry…
Plastic comes from oil,
Water is free,
Wrap the water in oil,
And sell it to thee.
It’s worth pointing out at this stage that our America uses more than 70 million disposable plastic bottles a day. Just over 60 million of these end up in landfill (3), and the the market in Britain alone is worth £2 billion.
According to the National Geographic if you imagine your water bottle a quarter filled up with oil that’s how much oil it takes to create the bottle. (4) Recycleno
w.com reports that recycling one plastic bottle can conserve up to enough energy to light a 60w light bulb for up to 6 hours. (5)
There are pioneers like ‘Belu’, (6) that have started to make bottles out of corn. Not only that they are the first bottled water manufacturer that doesn’t contribute to climate change, but all their profits go to clean water projects as well. If you feel compelled to buy water, even after the World Heath Organisation has given the water supply in your country the green light, buying from companies like Belu is a step in the right direction. Next time I go to the gym I’ll think twice about the volcanic energy, my drink alleges to give me.
(1) BBC Panorama – Bottled water – who needs it? http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/panorama/7247130.stm
(2) WaterAid – Charity Number 288701 http://www.wateraid.org/
(3) Container Recycling Institute – http://www.container-recycling.org
(4) National Geographic Kids – http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/Stories/SpaceScience/Water-bottle-pollution
(5) Recycle Now – http://www.recyclenow.com/facts/interesting_facts/index.html
(6) Belu, Penguin approved natural mineral water - http://www.belu.org/home.asp
February 20th, 2008 at 2:14 pm
Gareth those figures about the number of bottles used per day is mind-blowing. I had no idea! I can’t even picture 70 million bottles!
February 21st, 2008 at 10:19 am
Why doesn’t everyone make bio-degradable bottles? Is it more expensive to use this sort of material than a plastic? AS most bio-degradable plastics are made from plants it can’t be that bad – can it?
February 26th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
‘Ken Livingstone has joined forces with Thames Water to launch a new campaign to persuade pubs, clubs, restaurants and hotels to offer their customers tap water rather than bottled mineral water as first choice.
Its aims are to:
# Raise awareness of the high quality of London’s tap water, the impact of bottled water on climate change and the environment, and its benefits to health and well-being
# Empower customers in bars and restaurants to ask for tap water rather than feeling obliged to ask for more expensive bottled brands
# Encourage restaurants, bars and hotels across London to support London On Tap and proudly serve tap water to customers, giving them a real choice about what water they can drink. ‘
Source: http://www.edie.net/news/news_story.asp?id=14235&channel=0