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Do You Drink Bottled Water? Think Twice Before Your Do |
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Do you want to live in a way that protects thefuture of our children? Do you wish to live in the greenest world possible with a conscience, respect and appreciation for the environment?
by MarleneAffeld
Do you want to live in a way that protects thefuture of our children? Do you wish to live in the greenest world possible with a conscience, respect and appreciation for the environment?
The majority of Americans have a strong sense of environmental and social responsibility. We endeavor to make environmentally beneficial choices in many aspects of our daily living, yet we ignore one of the major contributors to the plight of the planet.
Worldwide in excess of one billion people do not have an uncontaminated source of clean drinking water, this is in excess of 1/6 of the world population, however, as Americans, spend billions of dollars yearly for the convenience of drinking from a plastic bottle instead of a water tap. We should be ashamed.
1.5 million tons of plastic are used to manufacture bottled water every year. It also takes in excess of 25 times the amount of water to make each plastic bottle than the bottle contains. 300 million gallons of bottled water are imported to the United States yearly.
Often, in America bottled water is simply an indulgence. Despite our rationalizations, it is not a harmless indulgence. Bottled water is an environmental disaster. Thirty years ago bottled water hardly survived as a business in the United States. We Americans now spend more on "designer" bottled water than we spend on iPods or movie tickets - $15 billion in 2007. The expected United States expenditure for bottled water will be $16 billion a year before the end of the decade.
As a country we consume in excess of 30 billion single-serving bottles of water per year. Bottled water is the fastest growing beverage industry in the world, worth up to $22 billion a year. Less than 15 per cent of plastic water bottles are recycled, the remainder end up in the garabage system and cost America's cities in excess of 70 million per year to handle clean up and landfill expenditures. America yearly produces in excess of 800,000 tons of plastic bottle pollution that substantially magnifies global warming.
Last year, Americans carelessly tossed out 38 billion plastic water bottles, about $1 billion worth of plastic. That's an overwhelming waste, especially considering 1.5 million barrels of oil - enough to power 100,000 cars for a year - were used to manufacture these bottles. And that's not even including the gas and oil required for packing, shipping and delivering this gigantic volume of liquid.
If you are choosing to purchase bottled water, you are basically buying plastic, which is manufactured from petroleum products. When we buy a bottle of water, what we're often purchasing is the bottle its self. One of the main problems with bottled water production is the reliance on fossil fuels. From manufacturing to transportation, bottled water relies on oil, using 17 million barrels of oil and producing massive amounts of carbon dioxide every year.
In America alone, we are moving 1 billion bottles of water around a week in ships trains and trucks. That amounts to a weekly giant convoy equivalent to 37,800 18 wheelers. Water weighs 8 1/3 pounds a gallon. Water is so heavy you can not safely fill an 18 wheeler with bottled water, you must allow empty space.
There is an simple eco friendly solution. Tap water is considerably less expensive. As an investigative reporter for the NY Times points out, almost all municipal water in America is so good that nobody needs to import a single bottle from Italy or France or the Fiji Islands.
Clean and safe drinking water should be public and affordable. The more the wealthy opt out of drinking tap water, the less political support there will be for investing in developing and maintaining America's public water supply. That would be a serious loss.
Access to inexpensive, pure water is basic to a nation's health. In Fiji, a state-of-the-art factory spins out more than a million bottles a day of the hippest bottled water on the U.S. market, while more than half the people in Fiji do not have a pure or dependable source of drinking water. This means it is easier for the average American in Los Angeles or New York to quench their thirst with refreshing Fiji water than it is for the majority of people in Fiji.
Should you elect to get your suggested eight to ten glasses a day from bottled water, you may spend up to $1,500 or more every year. An equal amount of tap water would cost pennies a day. Recent studies show that many brands of bottled water fail to meet industry guidelines and the cost of even poor quality bottled water can grow quite high.
Much of bottled water is only plain tap water. Many bottled water firms repackage tap water into plastic bottles, then sell them back to the consumer at prices higher than gasoline and increasing just as rapidly. Aquafina, as an example, has finally been pressured into amending its labels to advise consumers that Aquafina water comes from tap water. Why not just drink tap water? More than a quarter of bottled water is just processed tap water.
Plastic containers leach dangerous chemicals. Have you considered why your plastic bottle of water has a warning on the label telling you not to reuse it? The longer you use that bottle, the more likely it is to leach hazarous chemicals into your water.
There is a green solution. If you are not confident in your local tap water or wish to quickly filter tap water when on the go, carbon-filtered tap water is safer and costs much less than bottled water. The Environmental Working Group states, "carbon filtration of tap water will dramatically lower levels of toxic by products; it is also 10 to 20 times less expensive than bottled water, and does not produce the waste and pollution associated with the packaging and transport of bottled water."
Portable water filters are a perfect solution for water filtration on the go. A portable water filter allows anyone to filter their own water, no matter where they travel; across town or around the world. A portable water filter allows you to free yourself from any harsh taste, additives or contaminates while protecting the environment and your pocketbook. Attempt to get the whole family involved. A five member family could save well over $7,500.00 a year.
Let us stop being unwitting victims of manipulative advertising. When a entire industry is built up by overwhelming us with a product we do not need, when an entire industry is founded on packaging and presentation, not the product, it is worth questioning how that happened and what the long term impact is upon our precious planet.
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