Sunday, September 27, 2009

WoW! It's really ok to drink bottled water.....



Well, not really--although Poland Spring is working hard to convince us that it is. Don't get me started on the whole bottled water thing.

The US has (or, maybe had, unfortunately, but that's a long and sad topic for discussion at another time) a wonderful , safe system for supplying water to its citizens. Just turn on a tap and you get safe drinking water.

Why anyone would buy bottled water has long been a mystery to me. The power of advertising is great.

But now, at long last, after billions of plastic bottles have been manufactured, filled, transported, bought, used and discarded, there's a bit of a backlash against bottled water.

So Poland Springs has apparently hired Nick Naylor (Thank You For Smoking) to do some explaining.

They now have --

A better bottle for you and our environment!

Our Eco-Shape® Bottle...
  • is made with an average of 30% less plastic versus comparable size carbonated and non-carbonated beverages.*
  • features a label approximately one-third smaller.
  • is more flexible so it's easier to crush for recycling.
  • is easier to carry.

I really like the term eco-shape(R)---what does this mean? the shape is good for the ecology? or maybe it's shaped to look like it's good for the ecology...so ambiguous.

(sent by Sylvia)





2 comments:

  1. Unfortunately...not all the water in the U.S. is good for drinking; I don't like chlorine or fluoride in my water.
    There is a better alternative, the ENSO biodegradable plastic bottle. As an environmental company we realized that plastic bottles weren’t going away so we developed a biodegradable plastic bottle that biodegrades in an anaerobic or anaerobic environment. There is a lot of talk about water bottles but the same plastic is used for soft drinks, teas, laundry and dishwashing soap, etc. The water bottle is talking all the hits right now but we need a better solution for all plastic bottles.
    Max
    http://www.ensobottles.com

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  2. First, let me say that the purpose of my post was to ridicule bottled water suppliers, not primarily the bottle.

    The bottled water thing is something I will never bend on--if your water doesn't taste good, get a filter. The reason that bottled water is getting so much flak is that it's very simple to give up.

    I agree with you, though, that those other bottles are not gonna disappear--although making iced tea is so easy that I rate the bottled iced teas as not much less ridiculous than water.

    I've worked hard to reduce the amount of plastic that goes through our household, but haven't been able to totally eliminate it.

    And in my business, I use plastic jars & bottles as containers.

    So, if we are going to have plastic bottles, making more environmentally sound ones is a good thing. I'm not convinced on the biodegradability of them in normal disposal situations, but using less material is a good thing--a good start.

    ReplyDelete