Change Starts with You: Water Bottle Win
They're convenient, cheap, hassle-free and readily available...STOP! There are NO good excuses for using disposable plastic water bottles. They are terrible for the environment, unsustainable and most end up in places pictured below where they will stay there for hundreds of years. For the past two years, my workplace has been ordering flats of bottled water (despite our tap water being safe to drink) and just recently they finally listened to my complaint and made the switch to a filtration system.
sourceBut Water Bottles are Recyclable
Not really, each water bottle requires about 1/4 of its volume in oil to produce. Significantly more water is required to make the bottle than what it contains, and most water bottles aren't actually recycled. They end up in landfills or even worse, floating around in the ocean or discarded somewhere random. These bottles take 1000s of years to biodegrade, they cannot safely be reused because of the chemicals they contain and the recycling process is energy-intensive.
sourceThe above infographic applies just to the USA, where 38 BILLION water bottles are discarded every year. Needless to say, I wasn't happy when my office was using about 50 of them per day, who knows how much were being used corporatewide-likely thousands. I usually just filled my cup up from the sink (Toronto tap water could be safer than water bottle water) and would complain all the time but no one really seemed to care.
Finally, No More Water Bottles!
It probably wasn't my complaint on the annual surveys or to the office manager, it was likely due to the expense. Having bottled water delivered with office supplies worked out to around 33 cents per bottle, the equivalent amount of filtered water costs around 2 cents. Since the installation and the unit is around $4-500 that means that in about a month the thing will pay for itself ($0.33-$0.02)(50)(30) =465$. My employer was wasting money and had no excuse not to change to this system earlier.
Better Late Than Never!
If your office or family is still purchasing disposable bottles, please make the switch. It's horrible for the environment and you are wasting money. I hope that 2020 is the year where they start taxing single-use plastics so their true cost is reflected in the price.
I have a water filter that was 200 dollars including installation and a years supply of filters. They said it can produce 40L to 80L a day before you should consider changing filters more often. It's around 60 for a years supply.
My office doesn't have plumbing outside the washroom, so we rely on the water cooler. Those are collected and refilled so it's a decent option. The plastic is much more durable, too. It's much better than single serving bottles.
However, I would argue it is less hygenic than the bathroom tap water since the machine is rarely cleaned.
When people get sick from bottled water or water they store in a jug, it rarely makes news and people just blame it on something else (like fastfood or bad cooking). When tap water makes people sick, it is usually national news because it is so rare, especially with modern UV treatment.
I remember in biology class we went around swabbing various surfaces for germs then putting them into Petrie dishes to watch what grows. The place where the water came out of on the water fountain was significantly worse than the toilet seat and toilet water (after flushing.) Clean your taps and water lines!
There are 25Cents of Return on any plastic vessel in the EU region, that really helped a lot. I buy mostly beverages in glass vessels personally - it's just a bit unhandy if you have children around.
Drinking filtered water tap water is possible to a certain extent in my area. But the water here is overall very 'hard' and doctors warned us to mainly rely upon that. It might cause kidney stones, they said. So the mix makes a good result.
But I personally despise this plastic madness since I can think for myself. It really is madness!
Resteemed this conscious human being.
Great way of presenting it to the economists and capitalists @cryptoicat.
I feel most of them care more for money than the environment so if we can save them money and the environment at the same time that is some very creative and practical green friendly forward thinking.
Also if we can give back and put back more than we take out....
Assuming to be 8 Billion people in the world, imagine if each person planted just 1 tree on their birthday.... that would be 8 Billion trees / year.
More needs to be done. There's a lot we can do besides planting trees. Use less paper, less plastic, less gas, heat your home a little less, don't eat as much imported food, etc.
I have a water distiller in the basement. With a demand pump up to the kitchen...
Oh now brother, is verry big, plastic water.
Plus the water in them is basically your tap water anyways. Sometimes its filtered tap water :P
Perfect post!
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