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July 23rd, 2008 admin Leave a comment Go to comments

Open Water

Is It Time to Rethink Bottled Water?

You’re on the go and want something healthy and easy to drink. So you stop by a convenience store or a soda vending machine and grab a bottle of water. As you sip it, you feel comfortable you’re doing something good for yourself…But are you doing something bad for the planet?

According to the Container Recycling Institute, in the U.S. alone, every day we drink more than 70 million bottles of water. Each day, one in six bottles end up either in landfills or incinerators. Congress quotes statistics that say 30,000,000 bottles a year go to landfills. And that’s just in the United States.

But why are plastic water bottles ending up in landfills? Aren’t they recyclable? Unfortunately, manufacturers (like Coca-Cola and PepsiCo) who’ve made pledges to use recycled bottles to create new ones are having trouble keeping their promise. Too few water bottles are sent to recycling facilities. According to the Container Recycling Institute, only 4% of plastic bottles are used to make new bottles.

So why don’t more states offer redemption money for plastic bottles? The truth is, it might not make any difference. In California, every day about 3 million empty water bottles end up in the trash, despite the fact they are worth $26 million in unclaimed California Refund Value (CRV) deposits, according to the State of California Department of Conservation.

Some experts even question if recycling plastic bottles is worthwhile, since they may take more energy to produce than those made from virgin materials.

It’s difficult to know, even, how long it really takes for plastic water bottles to degrade. Some sources claim is takes a million years. Others, 450 to 1,000 years. And still others, 50 years. In reality, how long it takes for a Water Bottle to biodegrade probably depends upon the environment it sits in. A bottle exposed to sunlight will degrade much more quickly than one that’s buried in the soil.

Yet even when plastic water bottles degrade, they may still pose a risk to the environment. According to USA Today, Carol Misseldine, sustainability coordinator for Mill Valley, California, claims 25% of plastic bottles are in the ocean. They will biodegrade there, but Misseldine says they break down into tiny pieces that fish eat, but which are indigestible. “Sometimes they suffocate or starve because the plastic makes them feel so full that they don't eat anything. But that plastic moves up the food chain and we eat fish, so the toxins eventually go into us,” Misseldine alleges.

There are other worries about plastic water bottles, too. Pacific Research Institute (PRI) says it takes 17 million barrels to make the water bottles Americans use – and that doesn’t include the oil needed to transport those bottles. This amount of oil could fuel over a million cars for one year.

Some claim plastic bottles pose health risks, too. When heated, plastic bottles may leach chemicals linked to cancer. According to Keith Christman, director of packaging at the American Chemistry Council, “the same goes for exposing an open water bottle to room temperature for too long. You want to treat it as an opened food product container…bacteria can grow in warm conditions.”

So what’s a person to do? Since most people who drink bottled water consume it on the go or because their tap water is unappetizing, switching to tap water isn’t the entire solution. Too, the Environmental Working Group claims tap water in 42 states contains 141 unregulated contaminants that have no safety standards.

That’s why “water in a box” is generating a lot of interest. The manufacturers of this product, called IceBox water, claim that for every 5,000 five liter boxes of IceBox water consumed, 25,000 plastic water bottles are being replaced, 1,396 pounds of plastic are removed from the manufacturing process, and 474 gallons of oil are not used. The packaging is 100% recyclable cardboard. The box is even printed with vegetable dyes.

In addition, each box has a patented spout made from Polyethylene – the same material found in IV bags. According to the manufacturer ( http://www.iceboxwater.com ), these spouts use “a fraction” of the oil used for plastic water bottles. Too, because of this spout, they claim the water stays fresh indefinitely. The spout’s one-way valve doesn’t allow contamination to enter the box, even after it’s been opened.

So whether you choose to drink tap water or IceBox’s “water in a box,” you’ll be doing yourself – and future generations – something very good.

About the Author

Kristina Seleshanko is the author of 16 books. For more information, visit www.KristinaSeleshanko.com.