The small Australian town of Bundanoon is credited with having started the resistance to bottled water, that has now through an initiative by Thames Water, reached as far as Buckingham Palace.
it was shown that the energy required to produce bottled water is 2000 times that to produce tap water
Watkiss revealed that England imported 20,000 litres ( 5,500 gallons) of water from Australia but at the same time exported 20,000 litres of British water to Australia
Australia suffered a drought that was so severe than it drove many farmers off the land
there was little doubt that things would start to happen.
In what may be the first ban of its kind in the world, a rural Australian town has banned plastic water bottles.
Campaigners in Bundanoon (population 2,500) in New South Wales, were incensed after a beverage company proposed plans to tap an underground reservoir in the town, then bottle and sell the water.
Over 350 residents turned out to vote for the measure. Only 1 resident voted against the ban, along with a representative from the bottled water industry.
The company has been looking to extract water locally, bottle it in Sydney and bring it back here to sell it. It made people look at the environmental impact of bottled water and the community has been quite vocal about it. We believe Bundanoon is the world’s first town that has got its retailers to ban bottled water. We haven’t found it anywhere else.
Now, all local businesses will stop selling plastic water bottles.
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, is known for his particularly progressive thinking when it comes to developing the economy of San Francisco.
According to the Long Now Foundation, which recently sponsored a presentation by him, mayors are the most powerful politicians in America, right up there with county supervisors. This is why cities pay so much attention to each other and learn so much from each other.
More and more homeowners are using rain barrels to conserve water while collecting soft, non-chlorinated rainwater to nourish grass and plants.
This weekend, in Calgary, Canada, Clean Calgary Association, in partnership with the City of Calgary, will hold its 8th AnnualRain Barrel Sale.
With spring coming, local residents there are thinking about their lawns and gardens. Water usage in Calgary doubles in the spring and summer due largely to lawn irrigation.
You might just think of it as Sunday, but this particular Sunday, March 22nd, has a larger importance – it’s World Water Day, an international day of observance and action, drawing attention to the fact that over 1 billion people that share this planet do not have access to clean drinking water.
Born from the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, World Water Day has a different theme every year. This year’s focus is on transboundary waters: sharing water, sharing opportunities.
My family goes through a ton of seltzer and the occasional bottle of soda, so when I had a chance to try Soda-Club’s Sodastreamhome carbonizer, I couldn’t pass it up. First there was the appeal of stemming the flood of plastic bottles into my recycling bin every week. Then there was the greeniness of using local tap water instead of paying extra (a lot extra) to buy flavored fizzy tap water from somewhere else. And of course, there’s the excitement of having a cool new thing in the kitchen to play with.
In a nation that’s getting ready to distribute an economic stimulus package of astronomic size, where is the money to stop poisoning our kids?
The author of the exposé of the D.C. lead incident, professor Marc Edwards, an environmental engineer, had this to say: “There’s no question that lead in schools is a big national issue —especially in some of the older urban cities that have this old plumbing infrastructure.”
I know I have written here and on Non-Toxic Kids about the radiation emitted from cell phones, and the increased risk to children. The Organic Consumer’s Association shared an article about a new study done in Sweden.
Before you start groaning at the news that New York City has a new bottled water company, take note that Tap’dNY isn’t that kind of bottled water company.
The company is not only open about the fact that it’s selling purified New York City tap water, it makes that its primary selling point.
“Our goal is to remind New Yorkers to think local, drink their own water, support our community, and do their part for the planet,” reads the company’s online “manifesto.” Tap’dNY’s blog adds, “Seems a shame to drive a bottle of water halfway around the globe, what with the climate and oil situations being what they are.”
But not so fast, my thrifty water-loving friend–if you live in the city or otherwise have access to municipal treated water. While the clear fluid coming out of your faucet is H2O just like the stuff in that naughty $40 plastic bottle, it may have a few things added to the H’s and O’s that could be more costly than any plastic bottle.
Unfortunately, municipal water treatment nowadays means more than just water cleansed of poop, pee, and various other nasty bits of stuff in order to make for a potable potation coming out of your tap. And what municipalities put into the water could be as unhealthy for the planet as they are for you.
Probably the most infamous introduction to municipal water is fluoride. Way back in the 1940s, fluoride found its way into American water systems after scientists discovered that people who ingested fluoride-treated water apparently had less instances of tooth decay. And ever since, fluoride treatment has been standard practice in municipalities worldwide.
Simran Sethi and Sarah Smarsh are writing a series on the impacts of everyday things.They will be posting previews on Green Options before launching the posts on Huffington Post. Here’s the low-down on how we’re quenching our thirst.
We’ve been seduced by the beverage industry into believing only they can quench our thirst with colored, caffeinated, vitaminized, electrolyted water. We have become so parched that we can’t walk down the street without toting a single-use plastic bottle touting the magical effects of its water source.
Apparently, Kabbalah Water will heal us and Bling Water will define us. At the Bling H20 website, Bling Water “creator” Kevin Boyd describes noticing on Hollywood studio lots that “you could tell a lot about a person by the bottled water they carried.” First of all, didn’t god create water? Secondly, the water is bottled in Dandridge, Tennessee - since when is Southern Tennessee a spring of L.A. status? Yes, Dandrige’s water ranks very highly on EPA’s water quality index, but why are we spending so much money ($40 for Bling’s “Go Green” 750ml bottle) on cross-continental water instead of cleaning up our local waterways? Tinseltown’s water is so polluted with run-off and industrial contamination that perhaps water by way of Tennessee does make sense.
