|
|
Southern Sierran
Reduce Your Carbon Footprint:
Say NO to Bottled Water
BY VICKI LEE
 |
Think before you buy that drink:
Production of bottled water in 2006 alone released 2.5 million tons of carbon dioxide.
Of the 30 billion bottles that end up as litter each year, those that go unrecycled can take 1,000 years to decompose
|
The Sierra Club believes that all people should have access to
affordable,clean drinking water. This means protecting water sources
and securing adequate funding to upgrade municipal systems should be
national priorities.Visit www.sierraclub.org/cac/water.
The
bottled water industry, led by Nestlé, Coca Cola, and PepsiCola
aggressively promotes bottled water through sexy
marketing campaigns.They rival the Joe Camel ads that hooked kids
on cigarettes and the Happy Cows ads that belie the dairy industry’s
animal factories that dominate subsidized agriculture in California.
This trendy “healthy”drink can cost 500 to 4,000 times more than tap
water.In the U.S., more than 30 billion plastic water bottles end up as
garbage or litter each year. 85 percent don’t get recycled and end up
in landfills, or as litter—66 million every day. They can take 1,000
years to decompose and contribute to the vortex of plastic waste in the
Pacific Garbage Patch, which maybe twice the size of Texas. Visit www.algalita.org.
Smaller
bottles are made frompolyethylene terephthalate (PET),which generates
100 times more toxic emissions than glass. Researchers found that 8 of
10 PET bottles leave residues of the endocrine disrupter bisphenol A in
the water. Exposure to extremely low doses of bisphenol A is
strongly linked to breast cancer, prostate cancer,and diabetes. If you
are concerned about the quality or taste of your tap water, it is much
cheaper to install a water filter on your tap to remove the pollutants
than to depend on bottled water.No problems have been associated with
refillable stainless stee lor aluminum/baked enamel lined containers.
Reducing Our Carbon Footprint:
The
Pacific Institute in Oakland estimates that production of bottled water
for U.S. consumption in 2006 required the equivalent of more than 17
million barrels of oil, not including the energy used for
transportation. This released over 2.5 million tons of carbon dioxide,a
major global warming gas.The total amount of energy embedded in the use
of bottled water is the equivalent of filling a plastic bottle one
quarter full of oil, according to the Pacific Institute.
Vicki Lee is a Bay Chapter member who works on water quality and privatization issues in northern California.
[top of page]
|
|
|
