Bottled Water Companies-Big Consumer of Oil!

Times Herald-Record

Sustainable Living: Bottled water’s environmental ills

by Shawn Dell Joyce

 

October 14, 2007

 

Many of us choose bottled water because we think it is the healthier choice.

 

Americans are the world’s leading consumers of bottled water, downing about 4 billion gallons per year in little plastic bottles. This is roughly equal to one 8-ounce bottle per person per day. While it certainly is healthier to drink water than soda, bottled water is actually very bad for the planet’s health.

 

There is much more to the ubiquitous water bottle than meets the lips. It actually takes three to five times more water to make and fill one plastic water bottle than the bottle contains. (Water is used in the production of the plastic in water bottles, then also to rinse those bottles.) If you add to that the average energy cost of making the plastic, filling the bottle, transporting it to market and then processing the empty bottle, you begin to see the hidden environmental costs.

 

“It would be like filling up a quarter of every (water) bottle with oil,” says Peter Gleik, a water policy expert and director at the Oakland, Calif.-based Pacific Institute, which studies “real life solutions to water crises.”

 

WATER BOTTLES, like other plastic containers, are made from natural gas and petroleum, which are both nonrenewable resources. More than 1.5 million tons of plastic are used to produce PET, the plastic in water bottles. The manufacturing processes that produce PET cause serious emissions, affecting both the environment and human health. The Pacific Institute calculates that the process of making the plastic bottles consumed in the U.S. uses approximately 17 million barrels of oil per year.

 

Instead of being made into bottles, that oil could fuel more than 100,000 cars. Once the plastic bottle is manufactured and filled with water, it has to be transported, using diesel trucks, ships or airfreight to reach our thirsty lips…” 

 

Shawn Dell Joyce is a sustainable artist and activist from Montgomery. She is the founder of the Wallkill River School, combining plein-air painting with environmental activism. Visit http://www.recordonline.com/earth for more of her articles. 

 

What a waste of precious resources…We have only one home; Earth. Let’s leave our children an earth that is beautiful and well-cared for.

 

More next time-Take care, & Live Green-Donna

 

P.S.Let’s become eco-friendly. Visit www.be-alkaline.com and www.be-alkaline.net -request your free e-book and newsletter to find out how you can have the best water on the planet and you make it in your own home. No more plastic bottles. For more information and research, write to Donna@be-alkaline.com and ask for further information.

 

 

Read Full Post »

Recycle Your DVD’s & CD’s

With the onslaught of everything being put to DVD’s and CD’s, the collections of some people are getting very large and many people are disposing of those they don’t want anymore. What impact is that making on the environment?

In 1983, there were only 800,000 discs distributed worldwide according to an article written by Susie Ruth, “The Dawn of CD/DVD Recycling.” The sales have now been “upped to 30 billion discs a year.”  And, as with everything else, we dispose of them. “Millions of these–unwanted, damaged or obsolete–end up in landfills, or worse, incinerated.” When is the insanity going to stop?

The problem that exists is that discs are made from a combination of materials which consists of a “volume of virgin resource use, manufacturing pollution, and waste” that is staggering. Ms Ruth describes the materials as this: “Aluminum from ore, gold, multiple dyes, and acrylic lacquer and polycarbonate made from fossil fuels. Glass, nickel, silver come into play, plus lots of water.” 

 To counter this overwhelming problem, Bruce Bennett, owner of Duplication Supply Group, launched the CD Recycling Center and Education Program. He stated he found that most people simply didn’t know what to do with unwanted Cd’s and DVD’s. “Every month 100,000 pounds of discs become useless.”

So since this program has been made available the center has been able to recycle over “2 million discs, 25% from individuals, and 75% from corporations” so far. It may not sound like much, but at least it’s a start to solving what is becoming a really big problem and will only escalate in the future. The recycled discs are being made into everything from building materials to auto parts. So “recycling discs not only saves energy and water, it, also, saves trees,” says Ms. Ruth. 

Suggestions in the article from Mr. Bennett: Instead of discarding old discs, share them with a friend, donate or trade them, or give them to a public library. And, with proper respect and care, any discs you may get in the future can last for a very long time if you simply keep them from extreme heat, cold, humidity, and sunlight.

For more information, or to send your discs for recycling, contact: Compact Disc Reycling enter of North America, 68H Stiles Rd., Salem, NH, 03079. Email to: info@cdrecyclingcenter.org , or call: 603-890-8996 to answer your questions about the program.

 Till next time…Live Green, & be Eco-friendly. Let’s take care of our only home: Earth!

Take care & God bless,

Donna

Read Full Post »

What Plastic is Your Bottled Water In?

Hi-Hope you are having a great summer Saturday.

Do you have your water bottle handy? Turn it over, and look for a little triangle embossed on the bottom, and there should be a number embossed within that triangle. Most water bottles, juice bottles, and soda bottles have a number 1 in that triangle. If that number is below 7, the toxic chemicals in the plastic could very well be leaching into the water. The lower the number the more chemicals. So, if the number is only 1, which it probably is…that will tell you that even more toxic materials are leaching into your beverage of choice including water.

You see water is a solvent. Nature’s most impressive solvent. Your water is shipped and stored in warehouses, for who knows how long, until you, the consumer, buys it and drinks that water with all those added chemicals going into your body.

Not only are many bottled waters derived from the Public Water Source and have the potential of having the chemicals from the No. 1 plastic in the water, but it takes 16 billion barrels of oil a year just to produce the pastic in which it is bottled-not to mention the incredible amount of landfills the bottles occupy each year, and the fact that they take 1000 years to bio-degrade. What a horrible legacy to leave to the children of the world.

So if you are concerned about the environment, let’s stop the insanity!! Let’s get eco-friendly and get healthy, too.

More info next time you won’t want to miss…Have a great day,
Donna

Email me at: donnsinfo@gmail.com Please don’t spam me

Go to http://www.be-alkaline.com to find out how you can make your own, delicious, safe, healthy, alkaline water in your own home that is ideal for drinking and be eco-friendly at the same time. Let’s Live Green, save the environment from toxic, plastic bottles, and help heal this beautiful planet we all call home. God bless—

Read Full Post »

Let’s Leave Our Children A Better Legacy Than Our Trash

Did you tune in to Good Morning America this morning? Can you imagine that the estimate of the garbage we’ll leave behind-each of us-is 60 tons? What we take from Mother Earth and what we leave behind for her to cope with is unbelievable.

We each use the equivalent of 411 trees worth of paper goods in our lifetime. One of the biggest culprits is paper cups. We waste 3 gallons of water or more each time we brush our teeth. The list of precious natural resources we individually consume goes on and on.

We use these resources and at the same time we’re affecting wildlife around the world. Just as one example, the little South African Penguins used to number 1,000,000. Now they’re under 100,000. More and more animals that depend on us to protect the environment for them are becoming extinct. They can’t protect themselves. Only we can!

Sunday is the official Earth Day. Consider what is done in your home, and see what changes you can make in your household to be environmentally friendly/responsible. Make it fun. It’s not that hard to conserve. It’s not hard to reycle. I understand that at www.walmart.com/green, Walmart even has organic, recycled products to buy. So many websites are offering suggestions. The only thing, most recommend the CFL’s for light bulbs. If you use them, BE CAREFUL! See my blog of April 19th for more information, please. It’s a debatable subject. Still, be careful.

More this week-end…Live Green

Love and peace, Donna

Be smart: Get Solar Energy- www.fuelnews.info -No System investment

Save 25% on your electricity bills and significantly lower the EMF’s in your home by going to www.skudabeck.myfti.biz . Saving energy is easy to do. We can make a difference in reversing Global Warming together.

Read Full Post »

Be Aware of the Potential Hazard of Compact Fluorescent Lamps

Warning given! This information is something that was just e-mailed to me. As a mother and grandmother, I find it imperative to make others aware it. Compact fluorescent Lamps are energy saving, and we are all interested about doing that; HOWEVER, and that’s a BIG however, it has been pointed out that they can be hazardous to your health and home if broken in your home.

The spirally shaped CFL’s are being promoted for replacing the “Edison” incandescent bulb that we have all been using for many years. When an “Edison” bulb needs to be replaced, we simply discard it in our garbage. If one gets broken, we vacuum or sweep up the broken glass and throw it away without worrying about safety except to make sure the glass is well contained so no one gets cut.

HOWEVER, what do we do with the CFL’s if they get broken in your home, office, school, etc., or how do you simply dispose of them when they burn out? Can we simply dispose of them the same way we have disposed of incandescent light bulbs?

The article with a very timely story that was sent to me was written by Joseph Farah of the WorldNetDaily. The article brings to our attention and makes us aware of the potential dangers that Compact Fluorescent Lamps, or CFL’s,  may pose to us and our families. As a mother and grandmother, I was very appreciative of knowing about this information, and I thank Mr. Farah for writing about this subject. 

To summarize: According to the Ellsworth American , Brandy Bridges of Maine, an obviously environmentally concerned mother, purchased CFL’s for her home and installed them in her home. One was installed in her 7 year old daughter’s bedroom. As it happened, the CFL broke and shattered on the shag carpet. The package had disposal warnings, so she called the store where they were purchased and was told not to vacuum which would have spread the pollutant, mercury powder. They directed her to the poison control hot-line in her area and was eventually directed to the state’s environmental protection agency.  The latter tested the air in her house for mercury levels. “While the rest of the house was clear, the area of the accident was contaminated above the level considered safe.”

Bridges was warned not to clean up the bulb and mercury powder by herself. They recommended a local environmental cleanup firm at a cost of at least $2,000.00 which would not be covered by insurance. Not being able to cover the cost, her daughter’s room remains unusable and is sealed off in plastic resembling a “hazardous materials accident” to avoid the contaminated material from getting out of the room. 

Can you imagine the stress this family has gone through simply for trying to be environmentally responsible? Other people have had similar experiences. What are we to do with these bulbs? Whatever you do, don’t break one in your home. Mercury is a hazardous substance. This is a subject that every parent must be aware of.  At present there is no uniform way to get rid of this hazardous waste material even if the bulbs simply burn out and are unusable. There is no protection for the garbage collectors who may handle these bulbs or any surefire protection from air and water pollution from these bulbs. There are alternatives for energy conservation and ways to limit emitting CO2’s in the environment without having to use these CFL spiral bulbs at present. 

 One, you can get solar. Check out the bottom of most of my posts to find out how you can get solar for NO investment in a system, installation, or maintenance. Solar is not a dream for your future homes, it can be reality for your home now. Go to www.fuelnews.info to find out more info. Using solar energy just makes sense. It’s clean, abundant energy.

Two, there is an affordable energy saving device for your home where you can save up to 25% on your electricity bills and get an energy tax credit for the purchase. It, also, lowers your EMF’s which has been called the silent health hazard. Go to http://www.skudabeck.myfti.biz , click on Products, and then click on XFactor and EMF Filter in the sidebar. Call my husband, Stephen, at the number on the opening web page for more information.  Discover how you can use the “Edison” incandescent bulbs, still save money on your electric bills, and conserve energy without having a potential mercury health hazard in your home and around your children.

Don’t forget to tune in tomorrow to watch ABC TV’s Global Warming specials starting with Good Morning America and continuing on the ABC evening news, and 20/20-Planet Earth 2007. Check your local listings for time and station.

God bless; Live Green, Donna

Emailto:adoptsolar@gmail.com

Read Full Post »