Take the Tap Water Movement Pledge: Avoid Bottled Water
By WeBuyItGreen: promoting green living and fair trade
If you have been a regular at the WeBuyItGreen Blog, you may have noticed that I rant quite often about bottled water. The manufacture and transport of bottled water uses enough petroleum to power 3 million cars for a year. Its manufacture alone produces two and a half million tons of carbon dioxide. Americans spend over $15 billion a year on bottled water.
This is low-hanging fruit when it comes to creating a sustainable environment. Imagine the amount of good we could do if we took that $15 billion a year out of bottled water and put it into renewable energy.
As I have mentioned in previous articles, companies that manufacture the stuff are aware of this and have begun trying to greenwash their way out of the problem.
Allow me to be unusually succinct and blunt: Don't buy it.
If you would like more factual information about tap water vs. bottled water, select our tap water movement page. You can also show your support for tap water and opposition to bottled water by taking the tap water pledge sponsored by Corporate Accountability International. By taking the pledge and swearing off bottled water, we can send a message to companies that bottled water is not a good investment in our health or the environment.
If you have been a regular at the WeBuyItGreen Blog, you may have noticed that I rant quite often about bottled water. The manufacture and transport of bottled water uses enough petroleum to power 3 million cars for a year. Its manufacture alone produces two and a half million tons of carbon dioxide. Americans spend over $15 billion a year on bottled water.
This is low-hanging fruit when it comes to creating a sustainable environment. Imagine the amount of good we could do if we took that $15 billion a year out of bottled water and put it into renewable energy.
As I have mentioned in previous articles, companies that manufacture the stuff are aware of this and have begun trying to greenwash their way out of the problem.
Allow me to be unusually succinct and blunt: Don't buy it.
If you would like more factual information about tap water vs. bottled water, select our tap water movement page. You can also show your support for tap water and opposition to bottled water by taking the tap water pledge sponsored by Corporate Accountability International. By taking the pledge and swearing off bottled water, we can send a message to companies that bottled water is not a good investment in our health or the environment.
I didn't know that bottled water wasn't good to purchase. I am going to read your other article.
Best wishes.
Sincerely,
-Liane Schmidt.
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Hi! My name is Cyndi, and I'm an intern for an upcoming movie called "Battle in Seattle." I came across your blog on fair trade, and I've read through many posts and thoroughly enjoy it. Thank you for taking the time to get information about fair trade out! Battle in Seattle is about the 1999 World Trade Organization protests in Seattle. Over 40,000 people gathered in the streets to stop the WTO talks that were supposed to go on. The film discusses these issues by intertwining real documentary footage of the protests with fictional storylines about individual characters. I got to see a screening a few nights ago, and the film is amazing. The protesters were against free trade (primarily), and were fighting for more human rights around the world, fair wages, etc. Fair trade is at the heart of this film. It's starring Charlize Theron, Woody Harrelson, Channing Tatum, Michelle Rodriguez, etc - so it's got an amazing A-list cast, but it's a completely independent film. We're starting a grassroots effort at getting information about both about the film and the causes the film represents to the public, trying to generate support. If you would be interested in talking about the film at all on your site, that would be amazing and so appreciated. I have access to some photos and a lot of reference information for the issues. My email is cyndi.s.waite@gmail.com. I'm so looking forward to hearing from you! Thanks for reading this!
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Good luck getting more people to take the pledge. I agree it sends a very important message, that clean drinking water is a basic human right, and we do not need to create more waste drinking basically bottled tap water.
Dagny
www.onnotextiles.com
organic apparel
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Thanks so much for drawing people's attention to the bottled water scam. I couldn't agree more that we should be demanding clean water and not further degrading the environment by bottling and selling it. Thanks also for the statistic: “More than a quarter of bottled water is just processed tap water, including Pepsi's Aquafina and Coca-Cola's Dasani.”
I support your petition - although as someone who travels often in developing countries, I don't think I can commit to never buying it... until there is a strong political movement - and resources - to cleaning up water globally, I may have to take my chances along with others that the water I purchase is not part of that 25%. In the meantime, when we lead educational trips to visit our producer partners, we try to at least buy water in large containers and constantly refill the bottles we have brought with us.
Thanks again for the post.
Phyllis Robinson
Education and Campaign Manager
Equal Exchange
www.equalexchange.coop
www.smallfarmersbigchange.coop
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Hi,
There isn't any reason why one should drink bottled water at all.
Thanks for the petition link.
Eddy
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I have a question -- I really drink a lot of seltzer water. How else can you get it if you don't buy it already bottled?
I totally agree with the what you are saying - such a waste of resources!
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One of the reasons people choose to drink bottled water instead of tap water is because of the perceived purity of bottled water. But others don’t know that Bottled water contain a certain amount of any bacteria is allowed and natural minerals are removed by filtration.. No disinfectant present to kill bacteria in bottles.. While Tap water, contains essential nutrients for the body such as calcium and iron....
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