Frankly Green

Ship of Plastic Bottles to Send Eco-Message

Trek across Pacific will be atop 10,000 empties and dome with shower
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SAN FRANCISCO - You've heard of a ship in a bottle. How about a ship made of plastic bottles? That would be the Plastiki, designed to sail the Pacific on an 11,000-mile voyage highlighting the dangers of living in a throwaway world.

"Waste is fundamentally a design flaw. We wanted to design a vessel that would epitomize waste being used as a resource," said expedition leader David de Rothschild.

The boat is named in honor of the 1947 Kon-Tiki raft sailed across the Pacific by explorer Thor Heyerdahl, an ocean adventure that inspired de Rothschild.

There's a bit more of a tie-in. One of the Plastiki team members is Josian Heyerdahl, the explorer's granddaughter.

San Francisco to Sydney on a Plastic Boat

National Geographic Explorer David de Rothschild is setting sail from San Francisco to Sydney on a Plastic Bottle Boat in April. Plastiki is the 60 foot catamaran made out of 12,000 two liter plastic bottles that will make the voyage. The purpose of this trip is two fold-to investigate plastic litter, the most common ocean pollution, and to highlight the many ways plastic can be re-purposed.

Only one of the 15 billion pounds of plastic produced in the United States each year is recycled and much of the leftovers float their way to the Great Eastern Pacific Garbage Patch. Also, don't forget March 22 is National Water Day, and most people aren't aware that the Great Eastern Pacific Garbage Patch has grown to more than twice the size of Texas!

National Geographic hopes this voyage will showcase the many uses for smart materials so when Plastiki's voyage is over, the boat will be broken down and turned into emergency shelters, shipping pellets, clothes, and even more bottles.

Check out the photos and video of Plastiki and her gutsy captain, David de Rothschild, at National Geographic Online.

Just Say No to Bottled Water - Turn on the Tap

Here is an excellent site created by David Wilk. David has been a writer, editor, publisher, book distributor and web marketer and has been an environmental activist for many years. 

One day, after reading Charles Fishman's brilliant article "Message in a Bottle" on Fast Company magazine's website, he realized that the issue of bottled water carries the essence of almost all the problems we face in modern society. And because clean drinking water is so basic to our lives, these issues and concerns affect everyone and should be relatively easy to address. So on impulse, he made the decision to dedicate a significant portion of his time and effort to helping people better understand the consequences of drinking bottled water. And Turn to Tap was born.

Water Stars in New Ads For P&G's Pur Filters

BrandWeek
by Kenneth Hein

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Water is better when it's not in a bottle. That's the theme behind Pur Water Filtration's new "Voice of water" TV campaign breaking this week. Owned by Procter & Gamble, the brand is taking on the besieged bottled water segment with a $45 million-plus campaign which taps Scrubs star Zach Braff as, literally, the voice of water.

"I'm water. I shouldn't be trapped in a bottle. I've got things to do. Trees to grow. Thirsts to quench . . . " Braff says in the first TV spot. Supporting print ads, which debut in November magazines, read: "I don't need a cap and a label. I look better naked." Tag: "Pur. Good, clean water."

PepsiCo Notes Slowing Bottled Water Sales

The New York Times

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PURCHASE, NY — PepsiCo, which produces Aquafina brand bottled water, announced on October 14 that it is cutting 3,300 jobs and closing as many as six plants in part because of decreased bottled water sales.

...

A volatile economy, coupled with concern for the environment, has hurt the sale of bottled beverages, with more customers reporting that they reuse bottles and have cut back on consuming bottled beverages.

Information Resources, a research firm, told the New York Times that the sale of water filters has increased 16 percent in the first half of the year, according to the article.

Bottled Water Quality Investigation: 10 Major Brands, 38 Pollutants

Bottled water contains disinfection byproducts, fertilizer residue, and pain medication

Environmental Working Group - October 2008

Authors: Olga Naidenko, PhD, Senior Scientist; Nneka Leiba, MPH, Researcher; Renee Sharp, MS, Senior Scientist; Jane Houlihan, MSCE, Vice President for Research

I recently attended an excellent presentation by Ken Cook, the co-founder and President of the Environmental Working Group (EWG). I urge you to visit their web site which contains a wealth of information about toxins in our environment. On the site you will find information and product reviews on things like pesticides in produce, the best/safest sun screens, as well as current legislation and how you can help make positive changes. I plan to post additional information from their site but you should definitely take the time to browse it yourself!! 

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The bottled water industry promotes an image of purity, but comprehensive testing by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) reveals a surprising array of chemical contaminants in every bottled water brand analyzed, including toxic byproducts of chlorination in Walmart’s Sam’s Choice and Giant Supermarket's Acadia brands, at levels no different than routinely found in tap water. Several Sam's Choice samples purchased in California exceeded legal limits for bottled water contaminants in that state. Cancer-causing contaminants in bottled water purchased in 5 states (North Carolina, California, Virginia, Delaware and Maryland) and the District of Columbia substantially exceeded the voluntary standards established by the bottled water industry.

Has the Bottled Water Well Finally Run Dry?

B r a n d w e e k        
S e p t   7 ,   2 0 0 8
- B y   K e n n e t h   H e i n

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The market for bottled water may be drying up. Despite massive discounting, brands like Aquafina and Poland Spring are experiencing a sales drought unlike any the category has ever seen.

After almost a decade of triple and then double-digit growth, sales volume grew less than 1% for the first half of the year, per Beverage Digest, Bedford Hills, N.Y.

The chief culprit: the economy. Shoppers are less interested in paying for a product that they can get for free.

An Animation of Water Bottle Recycling Rates

This is a sobering video: An Animation of Water Bottle Recycling Rates US consumption of bottled water reached 30 billion bottles per year in 2005! And only 12% were recycled!! See Bottled Water Waste for more.

Unhealthy Thirst For Profit

Commentary: Water, water, everywhere, but so is the need to curb speculators
By Thomas Kostigen, MarketWatch

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SANTA MONICA, Calif. (MarketWatch) -- A majority of U.S. mayors voted to stop paying for bottled water with taxpayers' money. Instead, they are opting to use tap water at city meetings and for city employees.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom introduced the idea at the U.S. Conference of Mayors that took place earlier this week in Miami, and it was quickly embraced by others.   

To be sure, the beverage industry isn't happy about the move. "A few mayors have chosen sound-bite environmentalism over sound public policy in their zeal to appease liberal activist groups that are pedaling misinformation about bottled water," the Associated Press quoted Kevin Keane, a senior vice president of the industry's American Beverage Association, as saying.

But the mayors' move is smart. About 25% of bottled water comes from municipal sources anyway -- the same municipal sources that provide tap water. They also regulate and monitor water quality more regularly, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Reusable Water Bottles

As my regular readers well know, I have made many posts on Bottled Water Waste. I thought it was time to refresh a post I did a while back on resuable water bottles. But first, a few stats:

• The United States is the world’s leading consumer of bottled water. In 2006, bottled water consumption in the US reached a record 8.3 billion gallons, 185 million gallons of which was imported. The total amount spent on bottled water was over $11 billion.

• In contrast to tap water, which is distributed through an energy-efficient infrastructure, transporting bottled water long distances involves burning massive quantities of fossil fuels.

• It costs more money to drink bottled water than to put gas in your car--up to five times more--due mainly to its packaging and transportation.

• 86 percent of plastic water bottles used in the United States become garbage or litter.

• On average, one person uses 166 disposable plastic water bottles each year.

• If everyone in New York City were to use a reusable water bottle for one week, for one month, or for one year it would make a significant difference in reducing waste.
  One week = 24 million bottles saved
  One month = 112 million bottles saved
  One year = 1.328 billion bottles saved

If you want to even more facts, visit this earlier post on Bottled Water Facts.

Now, on to a way you can play a role in reducing bottled water waste. One easy step is to buy a reusable water bottle and fill it from a tap. Don't waste you money on Fiji Water (what a waste of resources to ship water all the way from Fiji) or any bottled water! Here is a list of a few options:

Kleen Kanteen - Stainless steel water bottles
Sigg - Aluminum water bottles
CamelBak - CamelBak recently converted its entire line of polycarbonate reusable water bottles to a new material that is free of bisphenol-A (BPA) and phthalates.
Nalgene - Nalgene also announced in April that they will phase out their use of bottles containing BPA

My personal favorite is the Kleen Kanteen. I have one for my desk in the office and one for the road so when I go to meetings out of the office, I can avoid consuming bottled water.

When washing any of these reusable bottles, I recommend that you avoid putting them in the dishwasher and opt for warm water and a little soap.

• The United States is the world’s leading consumer of bottled water. In 2006, bottled water consumption in the US reached a record 8.3 billion gallons, 185 million gallons of which was imported. The total amount spent on bottled water was over $11 billion.

• In contrast to tap water, which is distributed through an energy-efficient infrastructure, transporting bottled water long distances involves burning massive quantities of fossil fuels.

• It costs more money to drink bottled water than to put gas in your car--up to five times more--due mainly to its packaging and transportation.

• 86 percent of plastic water bottles used in the United States become garbage or litter.

• On average, one person uses 166 disposable plastic water bottles each year.

• If everyone in New York City were to use a reusable water bottle for one week, for one month, or for one year it would make a significant difference in reducing waste.
  One week = 24 million bottles saved
  One month = 112 million bottles saved
  One year = 1.328 billion bottles saved