Frankly Green

Tapped - A Film About Bottled Water

Worth a Watch!!! Tapped is a film that examines the role of the bottled water industry and its effects on our health, climate change, pollution, and our reliance on oil. By 2030 the United Nations estimates two-thirds of the world will lack access to clean drinking water. Tapped will illustrate the impact of the global water crisis on America and what we can do as individuals to enact change sooner rather than later.

Water Brands and the Rising Concern of Consumers

Thanks to Alison K. for this article!

Posted by Suzanne Blecher

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According to a Gallup poll released last year, pollution of drinking water is Americans’ primary environmental concern. With the risk of diseases associated with contaminants sometimes found in drinking water, marketers are creating solutions.

Atmospheric Water Systems has introduced a $1,595 dehumidifier/purification unit that bypasses water pipes, pulling moisture from the air and sending it through a filtration process. Last year Wellness Enterprises launched a portable water bottle with a filter built into the straw that claims to remove chlorine and lead. New York-based Green Depot sells the $650 Aquaovo Ovopur, a filtered dispenser resembling a giant porcelain egg.

Marketing opportunities stem from the average per capita consumption of bottled water dropped an estimated 3.5 percent last year from 2008, according to Beverage Marketing Corp. The recession and environmental concerns regarding plastic bottles have hurt. According to a US Congressional Report, bottled water producers are not required to notify the public of contamination and are not required to use certified labs in testing.

So what is a brand to do? Aquafina has introduced an Eco-Fina bottle using 50 percent less plastic than their 2002 bottle. Fiji is working to become carbon negative and commissioning to save Sovi Basin rainforest in Fiji. The Dasani PlantBottle is made of up to 30 percent plant-based materials.

For those of us who care more about the water in the bottle than the bottle itself, there is still work to do. And water brands should take notice.

Australian Town First to Ban Bottled Water

Kudos to Bundanoon for banning bottled water! Let's hope many more follow!

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An Australian town pulled all bottled water from its shelves Saturday and replaced it with refillable bottles in what is believed to be a world-first ban.

Hundreds of people marched through the picturesque rural town of Bundanoon to mark the first day of its bottled water ban by unveiling a series of new public drinking fountains, said campaign spokesman John Dee. Shopkeepers ceremoniously removed the last bottles of water from their shelves and replaced them with reusable bottles that can be filled from fountains inside the town's shops or at water stations in the street.

"Every bottle today was taken off the shelf and out of the fridges so you can only now buy refillable bottles in shops in Bundanoon," Dee told AFP.

Casco Bay Islanders Embrace Bottle Return Program

Thanks to my friend Bill H., who helped start the CLYNK program, for sending this. Word is that CLYNK is looking to expand to Massachusetts, New York, and Oregon!

Portland, ME - A returnable bottle program called CLYNK is making it easier for islanders to recycle. Many people on Casco Bay islands who might have wanted to recycle bottles and cans often tossed them in the trash instead. But the Casco Bay Ferry crews now pick up the special green plastic bags filled with returnables. CLYNK is in nearly two dozen Hannaford Supermarkets in Maine. People sign up for an account, buy the special bags, fill them up, drop them off at the stores and get their deposit refunds from their account. Island residents leave the bags at the end of their driveways and they are collected with the trash on Monday mornings. By making it easier for islanders to recycle it's expected that the waste stream on the islands will be reduced by at least 15 percent.

Link to Article

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.

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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.