Ban plastic bottled water!

Changing the topic a little and to again demonstrate how stupid a nation we have become in some areas, I just had a short conversation with the FedX driver.
In the good old days, they were working 10-11 hour days, five sometimes six days a week.
Now they work only 32-40 hours a week and have closed some "unproductive" routes, or combined these routes with stronger ones.
My comment to him was why don't you just work 4 days a week instead of 5? Think of the gasoline/diesel fuel you would save...Like no one suggested that? Like FedX wouldn't want to run a national add campaign explaining how "Green" they have become...?
Dumb asses.

Don't the Britta filters have plastic in them? Aren't the Britta pitcher/filter contaiers plastic?
How do we get away from this crap touching our food and water?

I feel so guilty now about drinking bottled water. I try to use my britta filter but when I'm on the run, I confess that I grap a bottled water from the fridge if I'm in a hurry. Although I try not to by having water ready to go in a traveling bottle.

Water from the tap is not safe and those who think it's the same as when we were kids, are in denial of how crappy the environment is due to the massive population size. And yes, plastic is not a good thing but it's here to stay. Therefore, we should give up our plastic water bottles because I'm not giving up plastic trash bags. No way. I draw the line there (but I am fine with using resuable grocery bags).

So, here are some websites I found:

http://www.potableaqua.com/

http://www.cleanairpurewater.com/

http://www.allwaterpurification.com/

http://www.aqua-sun-intl.com/

http://www.aquasana.com/

As an interior designer I can testify to the fact that you can have a plumber install a water purification system for about $200 that costs about $200 and it will purify the water that comes out of every tap opening in your house. This is assuming you live in the average amount of Square Footage. If not, you will probably need more than one system so that means buying more than one replacement filter about every 6 months, which isn't so bad when you think about how much bottled water costs and of course, that bottled water may not be as safe as we think it is. Plus, plastic should be used for things that we don't throw away after chuging 8 oz. of liquid anyway.

Plastic that sits in a hot truck for days and weeks cannot be safe. Why can't we just fill up a couple of glass bottles and re use them? Perrier bottles work fine.
Fill them with filtered water if your tap water is not of your liking. Get a cooler if you like it cold. And as someone said here...WHY THE HECK ARE WE PAYING FOR WATER TO BEGIN WITH. WHEN DID THIS STYLE BEGIN???? The Evian, the Flashdance headband and folded workout socks, the cute little velvet sweats, God are we the phoniest people on earth or waht? And yes, the studies are well documented re the leakage of poison from the plastic in all except even MORE expensive botteles.

I purchased an electric distilled water maker from Sears. It cost less than $20.00. (Of course that was yesteryear.) It makes about one gallon at a crack. You add tap water a to the gizmo at night and by morning one gallon of distilled water at room temperature awaits you. Then you can flavor the stuff if desired. It costs about one and one half cents/gallon to produce and it fits easily on your countertop. When you look at the crap that is left behind after distillation you will feel warm and fuzzy realizing you just didn't drink it. It is probably mostly lime, but occasionally you will see something unrecognizable like the cyanide tab your wife put in it the night before.
Incidentally, there are high speed manufacturing machines that can make two liter plastic bottles at the rate of 6/second. That is quite quite a contraption. That beautiful factory is just down the street from me and the company is going strong. So are the soft drink companies also just down the street.
Make your own drinks--distilled water is a good start!

PLASTIC = OIL = Terrorism = Dead Babies all around. Use copper pipes? Nope, ruining the Congo. We are fucked any way you look at it. But bottled water is not a good thing no matter how you spin it.

To Plusaf:
All you just said in your whole comment above is that water takes production, energy, time and because of that it costs money.

Really?

Is that true?

What a revelation!

Who do you think you are?
Lecturing people when you know nothing about this topic, you barely read throughout both posts and all comments, no wonder if you have spent ten minutes on this in the past ten years.
And you want me to take you seriously?
You, the one that thinks to be better than these Canadians?
The one that thinks it's okay for these multinationals to legally steal water, treat it no more or less than your local water treatment facilty does and sell it?

Where in that statement and ALL YOUR STATEMENTS do you explain that these chemicals are not dangerous, where do you explain why it's right to take possession of a lake which is public property only to rob people's health and pocket?

WHERE?

I have been on this for years, you show up with your cynicism and ignorance and dismiss everything, years of scientific work, years of work from the great minds of our time, years of raising awareness for what's right for the people and our Nature and all you can say is "but where is the solution?" or not even knowing the meanings of the word "ban" or saying "Alternatives are a fantasy".

You don't give a damn about pollution, the endangered people's health and the growing power of these greedy,cruel corporations.

Call me a dreamer, go ahead but I will not fall victim of greediness and destruction.

You are only here to boycott this.

People like you do not want things to be changed because you are one of them.

I could waste thousands of words on what solutions out there could work best and what we could do to create a healthy and just system but you won't even try to see all of this.

I despise you.

You know better, you are the great mind that has offered zero solutions to this and said zero positive comments about this and that does not dream.
And dreams are everything.
Something you do not know.

Actually Plusaf if you would have payed attention to my comments you would have read about an available alternative to plastic bottles.
You can do the research your self.

Banning is the first step people should take to pressure these powerful corporations to stop poisoning us, getting rich at the expense of people's health.

You would see a change, they would have no choice but start using alternatives and lose a bit of their trillions or shall I say a bit of their greediness?

Continue:
that is however understandable to a certain degree but saturated with a sense of resignation towards this problem.

I hope you will start to imagine and consider some solutions to this sad and somehow complex reality as the old saying:
" If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem"

and a little optimism would help you also.

And now I will express what I think in regard to what you wrote to Csmount not that he can't speak for him self:

Your words:

" This is stupid.
The mentality is that if we ban "sold in the store" bottled water, that people would start bottling their own water with reusable stainless steel bottles . . . and that is an effing *huge* leap in logic.
People buy bottled beverages for their convenience, plain and simple. If water isn't available at the convenience stores and groceries, then more than likely the consumer will just buy another bottled beverage (like soda) which consumes even more water in the production."

More of your words:
"Yes, you would see an increase in the number of people that would bottle their own water if bottled water was forcibly removed from store shelves . . . but that would be drastically outweighed by the people that would just chose another bottled beverage, like soda, that actually takes more water to produce than bottled water. Hence, far more water being consumed overall by an increase in the consumption of soft drinks. The idea of banning bottled water is idiotic."

And all of that is not true, matter of fact:

“High profile tap water campaigns across many US states, and bottled water bans by public institutions have resulted in consumers reverting to tap and filtered water,” stated the analyst. “This is being mirrored in some major European markets such as France and the UK, with the economic conditions reinforcing this trend.”
More:
http://www.beveragedaily.com/Industry-Markets/Packagers-seek-water-pack-alternat...

They also offer an alternative push:

"It is in this market that a number of packaging groups are attempting to look to other methods of providing mineral waters in order to offset potential environmental criticisms.

After launching carton packaging for mineral water products in 19 countries, packager Tetra Pak says it is now pushing a fully recyclable carton on to the US market through collaboration with producer Plant It Water."
It is supposed to be 100% recyclable.

Your fear of people turning into soda because of the lack of plastic bottled water on the shelves is not "idiotic and stupid" requoting your insulting attempts to my post, that is
Cont. below

Continue:
How about you go talk to these people in Michigan, they wouldn't be very happy with you, here is why:
Nestle' takes water from them to sell it to shenanigans like you:
" A loophole in a recent interstate compact leaves the door open for bottled water companies to take what they wish.
Northern Michigan Rep. Bart Stupak, a Democrat, on June 16 introduced a resolution (H. Res. 551) that would put the nation's legislative body on record against any claims of private ownership of Great Lakes water in the wake of last year's federal approval of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Compact. The compact sets rules for water withdrawals and conservation and prohibits most transfers of water out of the Great Lakes watershed.

Stupak called the taking of water from the Great Lakes watershed for bottling alarming. He added: "Of much greater concern is a potential trade dispute between the United States and any multinational corporation or foreign government interested in diverting our water. We owe it to the people of Michigan, and the entire Great Lakes Basin, to ensure that Great Lakes Compact preserves and protects the quality and quantity of Great Lakes water." More: http://www.alternet.org/water/140946/will_bottled_water_companies_suck_the_great...

Water is the liquid gold of the 21st century.
While corporations urge local governments to privatize municipal water, communities around the world are organizing to ensure affordable access to this life sustaining resource. THE WATER FRONT is the story of one community's determination to fight the seemingly inevitable path of water privatization.
More at:
http://water-is-life.blogspot.com/2009/02/water-front.html

To Lucidstone in response to your comments to me and Csmount:

I was very precise in my response to EmperorThan, quoted below:

"Well you haven't taken the time to inform your self about Bisphenol-A and PVC, contained in most plastic bottles, including the ones we use to feed our children."
As you can see from the statement above I say both bisphenolA and PVC are contained in MOST PLASTIC BOTTLES including the ones we use to feed our children which stands true.
If I had made a post about the dangers of BisphenolA I would have made sure to mention and detail the numbers listed at the bottom of the plastic or "resin identification code" which indicates the different chemical composition of the material used and to aid recycling. It was a response to EmperorThan.
My both posts(old and current) focus on something else that is as important as the dangers of these chemicals which are based on water for free as a human right, replicating the great purification processes used by a few of the private water companies and bring it to our municipal water. The idea was and is to save pollution, money in the LONG RUN, and safeguard our health.
You can read more at the link as you should have before attempting to insult my degree of knowledge and my thought about this topic.

Back to the resin identification code one listed under the plastic bottle as you said is used for plastic bottled water and soda that does not contain BisphenolA but indeed contains PET or PETE.

It is thought to be safe just like it was mercury and asbestos and research has proven PET or PETE listed under number one to be toxic as well as bisphenolA.
You forgot to mention the above important update to the story shenanigan.
That makes you credible.
Here it is:
The “Discovery Channel” reports new evidence suggests that plastic water bottles may not be so benign after all as scientists in Germany have found that polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastics — the kind used to make water bottles, may also harbor hormone-disrupting chemicals that leach into the water. It is reportedly possible that some as-yet unidentified chemicals in these plastics have the potential to interfere with estrogen and other reproductive hormones, just as the infamous plasticizers bisphenol A (BPA) and phthalates do."
More http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/04/28/water-bottles-health.html

"Toronto’s “Globe and Mail” reports researchers in Germany have found traces of an unknown estrogen-mimicking chemical leaching into mineral water from polyethylene terephthalate, or PET, a widely used type of plastic bottle. Scientists detected estrogenic activity in 78 percent of polyethylene terephthalate samples, according to a study published online in Environmental Science and Pollution Research. The study, conducted at Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt, is the first to find consistent contamination of bottled water with a hormonally active substance leaching from polyethylene terephthalate, one of the world’s most popular packaging materials."

Continue below

I'm just looking for a few easy to carry by hand glass bottles I can fill with water to take with me, use as needed during my day, then return home and wash in my eco-friendly cycle to sterilize them and reuse them over and over. So the caps have to be reusable. I use a stainless steel thermos for my hot liquids but want a clear glass for my water to drink out of directly.

Versa you've got the right idea. Banning
stuff is always a touchy thing but just getting people to take 2 seconds and really ask themselves if they need to buy/
throw away another bottle is key.

On a side note, lots of states have a successful deposit/recycle program for
carbonated
beverages. Why not extend this practice in more states and apply it to all consumable liquids? We like it in Michigan- throw a party and take all your beer bottles back to the store, and you have enough $$ for breakfast in the morning.
Everyone wins!

To Hostile:
I invite people to ban the sale of plastic bottled water for its dangers to the human health, for our human right to free and clean water and the degrading of our nature.

Vote me and this campaign down if you don't like it.

I know we can all carry bongs and drink bong water. that sounds sounds like a great idea

You tell 'em, EmperorThan. What gives anybody the right to go around banning my decisions from me? If you want to stop people buying bottled water, you need to start an information campaign for them, not a legislation campaign against them. Don't make yourself the enemy of your audience.

To EmperorThan:
How did you manage to ignore these links among hundreds out there?

Is that what you do?
You quote a random sentence from the statements above and ridiculize them by saying:

"The staff inside plastic bottles does not cause cancer"
Who says?
Who are you to ignore years and years of scientific work and your only argument to it is:

"The staff inside plastic bottles does not cause cancer"

Are you explaining why?
Did you forget to mention the researches that were done about it and what were the results?

" I'm guessing all of these studies done on in-utero animals bombarded the BPA into the animal's uterus at a much higher dose than anyone..."

Did you just start your sentence by saying :"I am guessing..."

Years of research and you are guessing.

Hippy, how about you take a book written on this topic and read something, how about you do the research your self instead of GUESSING.

You said:" And to say that "obesity, behavioral problems, impaired fertility, early puberty, and cancer" are all caused by the stuff in water bottles is ridiculous. Not only because all of those things existed in the world before water bottles existed, but because they don't cite what mechanism in the body is creating these effects directly because of the chemicals in water bottles"

Obesity, behavioral problems, impaired fertility, early puberty, and cancer existed before plastic bottled water so mercury,asbestos and many other chemicals.
What's your point?
I never said that bisphenolA was solely the responsible factor in cancer,obesity and etc.

Never said that either about eutrophication.

I believe too our genes are sometimes responsible for these illnesses above but where in that statement are you explaining that bisphenolA is not dangerous and not responsible for the accelerated growing rate of cancer, obesity,impaired fertility etc?

Scientists do not explain the exact mechanism of bishenolA activating cancer cells just as they do not know the exact mechanism that initiates cancer in the first place.
And just because of that let's ridiculize their results as a logical consequence and your statement to do so is:
" The stuff inside plastic bottles doesn't cause cancer"
and " I am guessing..."
Even the FDA at the moment does not reccomend the use of plastic bottles containing bisphenolA.
It's mentioned on their website.

Well, you have a serious stand and I am not laughing.

You know better than them.

"• In a peer reviewed and published commentary, 36 scientists who are experts on BPA
research revealed serious flaws in two large industry funded study that found no
developmental toxicity with current levels of BPA exposure (Myers et al 2009)"

I love statements like that, they never say what the flaws were. A very vague statement that everyone will copy and paste when someone like me retorts. The stuff inside plastic bottles doesn't cause cancer, generalized environmental pollution does.

Let's say for instance I did a study and found that 100% of people who got cancer also breathed Oxygen. Then I told you "The government of Argentina recently classified 'Oxygen' as a hazardous chemical because of my recent study's findings."

Would you believe me then if I said Oxygen was a dangerous toxin? NO! Because everyone fucking breathes oxygen!!! If everyone is doing something it doesn't mean that thing is directly causing the said problem you're trying to diagnose. Water is toxic to every human at a high enough amount, I'm guessing all of these studies done on in-utero animals bombarded the BPA into the animal's uterus at a much higher dose than anyone could ever possibly get from a single bottle of water or possibly all the bottles of water they drank over their entire life.

And to say that "obesity, behavioral problems, impaired fertility, early puberty, and cancer" are all caused by the stuff in water bottles is ridiculous. Not only because all of those things existed in the world before water bottles existed, but because they don't cite what mechanism in the body is creating these effects directly because of the chemicals in water bottles. "This enzyme when reacting to BPA breaks causing the initiation of a tumor cell." or "these neuro synapses when in contact with BPA release this chemical in the brain causing behavioral problems." It's all a very bland and vague statement. What kind of timeline are we even looking at for those symptoms? How long do they last? None of that is explained. That's not how science works.

I'm pretty sure they also said recently that eutrophication from sewage runoff causes early puberty and malformed testicles in infant humans. So which is it? Is it plastic bottles or is it sewage runoff? Get your story straight. Obesity in America is genetic, meaning on our genes. So please explain to me how BPA initiates RNA to transcode our entire genomes to alter our DNA in every cell of our body to make us fatter BEFORE it leaves our body?

Sure I'm not offering any answers to these problems, but I'm also not arbitrarily calling for the banning of plastic bottles. And thats' the key.

"Do you think these are rumors? Think again." Don't say smug shit like that either, it makes you into the walking cliche hippy I assumed you were. I actually laughed aloud when I read it.

EmperorThan:
Do you not like environment friendlyness or something?

I don't get why some people are freaked out by their own tap water...

Yes, bottled water is bad for the environment, but other than that it's just a total scam. People pay ridiculous amounts of money for what they think is "spring water" or "water that trickled down a volcano for a month then got purified over a whole week".

It makes more sense to buy a re-usable bottle and fill it up from your tap at home. It's not hard.

Lots of bottled water is just tap water from somewhere else and frequently isn't any more clean than what is coming out of the tap at home.

This is stupid.

The mentality is that if we ban "sold in the store" bottled water, that people would start bottling their own water with reusable stainless steel bottles . . . and that is an effing *huge* leap in logic.

People buy bottled beverages for their convenience, plain and simple. If water isn't available at the convenience stores and groceries, then more than likely the consumer will just buy another bottled beverage (like soda) which consumes even more water in the production.

Which brings us to the conclusion that target banning water bottles is simply "stupid" because it will lead to the negative effect of having MORE water consumed by means of more soda bottles being bought in the absence of water.

And for all the possible critics . . . yes, I do bottle my own water. I've owned quite a few Nalgenes, a couple Siggs, and a Klean Kanteen (which is my personal fav) . . . but personally I do it because I enjoy the taste of my tap water, it's healthy, and it's dirt cheap. Which are reasons enough to do and promote it without having to sell the "save the world" ideology. Just something to think about.

they make stainless steel containers. Don't use aluminum, some research suggests a link to aluminum and Alzheimers. When you use stainless you need to ensure you use BVA free (I think that's the term, respond with correct term if you know it).
REDUCE FIRST!
Then reuse whatever you do use.
And finally recycle what can't be reused.

Stainless containers are durable, don't rust, and allow you to minimize the resources you use for the purposes of drinking water. It's really the responsible thing to do.

I got an idea, let's not ban anything. Let's let people chose what they want to do in life. And not decide for them what's good for them.

Maybe I want trans fats in all my food. Maybe I use plastic water bottles when I'm out running.

Besides not a single study has shown any conclusive proof waterbottles cause any problems in the human body. This is hippy fucking propaganda to try and prevent littering. Hippies are dicks. They need to just say what they mean, not try to meander their way into getting what they want just like Republicans.

Spread rumors and keep telling yourself the ends justify the means. I'll stick to my scientific method, thanks.

I have to admit that my family doesn't recycle, but I, myself, am a very environment friendly minded person. I totally agree that "plastic water" should be banned. Theres no reason why you cant drink water from the tap these days with all kinds of purifiers and stuff.

All right I got it !! we can use goat bladders. We can go out and kill some goats an presto we got ourselves a naaa that won't work P.E.T.A. will have a fit. Man I wish I could come up with some kind of metal bottel but naaa that would never go over because people today want Disposable stuff use it one time and throw it away so as not to have to clean the same one over and over. Well when I find a self cleaning bottle thats not made of plastic and won't destroy the world as we know it today. I will get back to this at another time

if you drink bottled water and aren't traveling through a 3rd world country you are a p---y . end of story .

we need to go back to glass,everything was better in glass anyway and its natural,but the oil industry wont make their millions...fuckin comys.......ahhh remember mtn dew in the glass?wish i had one! ,,!! o.0

I think the biggest factor of this campaign is really just awareness... the things we can do to cut down on plastic bottles --of all kinds, not just water -- are so simple and easy to implement in daily life... people lived for 1000's of years without bottled drinks, right?!!

Same goes for plastic bags... it takes something like 40 years for them to break down in a landfill, yet we use them so excessively.

Start small... save like 1 bag per shopping trip or forego one bottled drink a day, and get a friend to do the same, and you've made a huge difference already! :)

BAN THE PLASTIC BOTTLE!!??? Why what then shall I carry My water In ? Do you know how hard it is to carry water around in your hand.? Why I know you can put water in a metal container with a Lid but what shall We call this metal container?? I know we can call it a cantean! No that one is already taken.. Well I'm going to go smoke a bowl and brain storm on this a while. Best of luck on finding something to put water in besides a plastic bottle. When I think of something I will get back with you Guys.

see the funny thing about bottled water is, it doesn't face strict government regulations like our tap water does. And in most cases your tap water is BETTER for you than bottled water is. HMmm and did some of you people ever take the time to think where your bottled water comes from? it's a proven fact that coca-cola's bottled water Dasani comes mostly from local reservoirs.

Your tap water isn't bad for you and for the most part besides your water bill, its much cheaper than bottled water.

I just read yesterday that bottle water consumption is down 3%. That is due in fact to the economy I suppose and slightly from people becoming more aware.

Glass bottles, in abundance, will one day be trash too. Just like the plastic. DRINK OUT OF YOUR FAUCET.We have an immune system for a reason.

Bring back glass bottles.

the smaller the container, the bigger the markup on water... so if you have to buy it bottled, buy the big gallon jug! And if you have to have your little water containers to take with you... recycle them by refilling from the gallon jug. :) Every little bit helps!

"To solve this, action must be taken from the federal, state, and local governments must protect the quality and integrity of our water resources.
Again investing in the maintenance and renewal of municipal water and sewage treatment plants, storage, and distribution. Our water pipes and sewer lines in the United States were built in the late 1800s, the 1920s.

Old, corroded water lines can break are not only wasting water but also opening avenues for contamination..."
************

just on a side note..these same people who after decades and decades still has not addressed this issue..is going to run our healthcare system

for thos eco friendly universal healthcare people..SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT

I still want to drink water NOT FROM THE TAP..so what is your solution to that????????????????????

"American consumers are drinking more bottled water every year. They collectively spend hundreds or thousands of dollars more per gallon for water in a plastic bottle than they would for the H20 flowing from their taps.
Plastic bottle production in the United States annually requires about 17.6 million barrels of oil, enough to fuel more than one million cars.
About 86 percent of empty plastic water bottles in the United States land in the garbage instead of being recycled. That amounts to about two million tons of plastic bottles piling up in U.S. landfills each year.

To solve this, action must be taken from the federal, state, and local governments must protect the quality and integrity of our water resources.
Again investing in the maintenance and renewal of municipal water and sewage treatment plants, storage, and distribution. Our water pipes and sewer lines in the United States were built in the late 1800s, the 1920s.

Old, corroded water lines can break are not only wasting water but also opening avenues for contamination. Worn out or overburdened sewage systems can overflow into our streams, rivers, lakes, and oceans, creating serious health concerns. The National Research Council recently warned of more water-borne disease outbreaks unless we make "substantial investments" in improving our drinking water and sewage storage and distribution systems.

Every year, Congress debates proposals for funding clean drinking water. A 2007 bill provided $14 billion in federal loan guarantees over four years for water and sewer improvements. While the bill passed the House of Representatives, it has not yet passed the Senate. Unfortunately, even if it were to become law, it would still be insufficient in meeting our nation's water infrastructure needs.

Collectively, our communities fall about $22 billion short annually of what they need to maintain and improve public drinking water and sewage systems. Federal dollars are the only way to address this clean water infrastructure funding gap estimated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Government Accountability Office, and the non-profit Water Infrastructure Network at between $300 and $500 billion over 20 years. Much of the funding gap stems from government cuts to clean water programs."
From sustainabletable.org

Totally agree that plastic water bottles should be done away with. it would save so much space in the landfills. Not everyone recycles . So this would be great if we can accomplish this