USA Water Filter Blog

In honor of Earth Day, Be Truly You is launching a new line of eco-friendly glass water bottles, the Metro Bottle. The new bottle provides consumers with three opportunities to address environmental issues prevalent today – by choosing a reusable bottle made from glass instead of plastic, by purchasing a product made in the United States, and by providing a child with safe water for 40 days through the UNICEF Tap Project.

The first bottle in the company’s Metro Bottle line features a water-tap design inviting consumers to “fall in love with their tap… all over again” and reduce their bottled water usage. Be Truly You encourages the use of tap water as an alternative to water from disposable plastic bottles based on recent headlines and mounting evidence of plastic’s negative environmental impact:

85-90% of these plastic water bottles end up in landfills, where each takes up to 1000 years to decompose.[1]

Bottled water takes 2000 times the amount of energy to produce than tap water.[2]

About 40% of bottled water comes from municipal drinking water but costs 1000 times more.[3]

http://pr-usa.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=373864&Itemid=34

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THE simmering heat of summer may have something to do with it, but Filipinos’ increased consumption of liquid in plastic bottles also made them the biggest contributor of such waste, a local waste and pollution watchdog said.

The EcoWaste Coalition, citing a report of the Ocean Conservancy’s “Marine Debris Index,” said the Philippines registered the highest number of littered beverage plastic bottles in Southeast Asia, based on marine debris collected during the International Coastal Cleanup Day in 2008.

The Philippines accounted for 20,238 pieces, followed by Singapore at 4,932, Thailand 3,216,Malaysia 2,046, Indonesia 681, and Vietnam 5.

And as city folk brace themselves for the seasonal “Semana Santa” pilgrimage or leisure trip, the group reminded pilgrims to “think outside the bottle” and give up the bottled water habit.

Per-capita consumption of bottled water in the Philippines, according to The World’s Water 2006-2007 Data,  rose from 16.3 liters per person in 1999 to 17.1 liters in 2004 as calculated by the Beverage Marketing Corp.

“To turn the tide against bottled water, Filipino consumers further need to assert their right to drink healthy and safe water straight from the tap and insist that bottled water is no sustainable solution to our thirst for water,” the EcoWaste Coalition said.

http://businessmirror.com.ph/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=23739:rp-registers-highest-number-of-waste-plastic-bottles&catid=33:economy&Itemid=60

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Once again, we are returning to one of my favorite subjects to talk about – plastic! Tonight is the long awaited showing of a very powerful movie, “Tapped.” The movie is quite impactful, as it examines the environmental and social issues behind the bottled water industry.

By now, most of you “Ask Eartha” followers should know nothing gets me more fired up than single-use plastic bags and water bottles. It seems silly to buy bottled water in Summit County. We have very tasty tapped water! It is the reason I was shocked to hear Annie Leonard say: “… people in the U.S. buy more than half a billion bottles of water every week.”

According to Pacific Institute (www.pacinst.org), the energy costs of bottled water including the manufacture of the plastic, the bottling, and the distribution, is up to 2,000 times more than tap water. Let’s take a look at those energy costs a little more closely:

http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20100429/NEWS/100429797/1078&ParentProfile=1055

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Americans have grown suspicious of tap water quality, yet it’s doubtful many could name a single contaminant they imagine spewing from their faucets. Blind faith once placed in the public water supply is being transferred to bottled water, even though the average citizen probably knows equally little about pollutants that might lurk there, too.

Thanks to the nonprofit organization Environmental Working Group (EWG) for creating the largest-ever national drinking water-quality database, most everyone now can read about the levels and health risks of specific pollutants found in their tap water. Unfortunately, the news is not great.

EWG’s database covers 48,000 communities in 45 states and catalogues millions of water quality tests performed by water utilities between 2005 and 2009. Among the nation’s most populous cities, Pensacola, Florida, Riverside, California and Las Vegas, Nevada were rated the worst for water quality, testing positive for between 33 and 39 different contaminants over five years. Arlington, Texas, Providence, Rhode Island and Fort Worth, Texas ranked best with just four to seven pollutants each. The national average was eight pollutants.

Altogether, 316 different pollutants were detected in U.S. water utilities. Forty-nine of these were measured in one place or another at levels exceeding federally set health guidelines, thereby contaminating the drinking water of over 50 million Americans. Agricultural pollutants, industrial chemicals from factory discharges, and urban storm water runoff were major contributors as were, ironically, chemical residues from water treatment plants.

http://www.emagazine.com/view/?5128

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(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – Congressman Jim Oberstar (MN) introduced new legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives last week to restore critical Clean Water Act protections for streams, lakes, wetlands, and other important waters. The America’s Commitment to Clean Water Act (H.R. 5088) would reverse two Supreme Court decisions that jeopardize these waters. The bill will help sustain the healthy habitats, robust fish and wildlife populations, and economic benefits that rely on America’s healthy waterways and wetlands. Over the past decade, the U.S. Supreme Court issued two decisions – Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County (SWANCC) v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (2001) and Rapanos v. United States (2006) – that strike at the heart of the Clean Water Act, which Congress passed into law in 1972 to restore and maintain our nation’s water quality. H.R. 5088 would achieve the core goal of restoring critical Clean Water Act protections while being more tailored and specific than legislation introduced in previous Congresses.

http://www.salem-news.com/articles/april282010/clean-water.php

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After a dirty winter of salt and sand on our motor vehicles, many of us are eagerly awaiting for spring, the season we can once again wash our car in the driveway. Before you break out your hose and sponge, please consider the long-term impact your actions have on the environment.

If you follow the stream of soapy water down the street, you will notice that the trail ends at your neighbourhood storm drain. Just because your soapy water is out of sight, it should not be out of mind.

Let’s start with the storm drain itself. To help prevent flooding during rain storms, our streets are lined with metal grates covering storm drains that allow our water to drain from the streets. Everything that enters the storm drains must travel through a network of underground passages. The water and all contaminants that have hitch-hiked a ride will eventually reach our local waterways. Before reaching our lakes and rivers, however, this water is not normally treated at a sewage treatment plant in order to remove pollutants and other hazardous waste. As such, the soapy water that ran down your driveway as you were washing your car went directly into our most treasured habitats. This holds true with everything that is washed away from our streets including motor oil and even windshield washer fluid.

The motor oil you just washed from underneath your car is toxic and does not dissolve in water. Each and every year, Canadians release 4 million litres of used oil (either intentionally or accidentally) into our lakes, rivers and streams. Dangerous chemicals from paints, solvents, faulty septic tanks and even acid from used batteries are also found in our watershed which not only harms our local flora and fauna, but also ultimately impacts our drinking supply.

http://www.orilliapacket.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2549261

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When you pop the cap off of that bottled water in front of you, do you ever wonder where the water actually came from? How about the manufacturing processes involved in its production? Besides the satisfying hydration, do you ever appreciate the men and women who pumped the oil to produce the plastic bottle, packaged the water and finally delivered the package, wrapped so conveniently, to the store for you?

The excesses of the bottled water industry are innumerable.

Worldwide, 2.7 million tons of plastic are used each year to make water bottles, but in the United States, less than twenty percent of these bottles are recycled. The plastic waste that is not recycled often ends up in the middle of the ocean, suffocating birds and disrupting the hormonal balances of fish.

The total estimated energy needed to make, transport and dispose of one bottle of water is equivalent to filling the same bottle one-quarter full with oil. In addition, three liters of water are used in manufacturing a one-liter bottle of water. On top of all this, bottled water can cost up to ten dollars per gallon. That’s compared to less than a penny a gallon for water from the tap.

One International Bottled Water Association expert estimated that almost 40 percent of bottled water originally comes from a city water system.

http://thecollegevoice.org/2010/04/19/exploited-by-the-bottle-looking-beyond-the-economics-and-examining-the-high-cost-of-bottled-water/

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Iceland is the cleanest country in the world. This may be hard to believe right now, what with the clouds of volcanic ash grounding flights across northern Europe, but according to researchers at Yale and Columbia universities, the Nordic island ranks first out of 163 countries on their Environmental Performance Index.

Researchers ranked countries based on 25 indicators, including water and air quality, greenhouse gas emissions and the impact of the environment on the health of the population. (For more detail on the methodology, click here.) A score of 100 is excellent. Sierra Leone ranks at the bottom of the list with a score of 32. The U.S. ranks in the middle of the pack with 63.5. Iceland took top honors with a score of 93.5 thanks to ample clean water, lots of protected nature areas, good national health care and a plenitude of usually clean geothermal power.

http://www.canoe.ca/Travel/Forbes/2010/04/27/13734691-forbes.html

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The 40th Earth Day Thursday is a good time for Tampa Bay to step back and appreciate the bigger environmental picture. More subdivisions, shopping centers and roads cram our formerly rural areas. Watering restrictions have become a way of life. The attraction of waterfront living has put our coastal ecosystems under increasing pressure. But over the long run the region also has made many gains.

As the Times‘ Craig Pittman reported this week, air and water pollution have dropped significantly since the 1970s. The reduction in ozone levels has improved air quality. The region dumps about half as much nitrogen into Tampa Bay as it did in the 1970s. The area also has developed new drinking water sources to cut its reliance on groundwater pumping.

None of these achievements were cheap or came about by accident. Thanks to a concerted effort by environmentalists and regulators, the federal, state and local governments all imposed new measures to better protect the environment. Tampa opened a new treatment facility and quit dumping untreated sewage into the bay. New protections for air, water and wildlife at least blunted the worst effects of the population boom.

http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/editorials/on-earth-day-recall-progress-on-environment/1088867

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The average person disposes of 168 bottles a year, meaning on average, KU students and faculty contribute more than 5 million bottles to landfills each year. That’s a lot of needless waste. And two women are on a mission to change it.

As part of a nationwide tour called “Get Off the (H2O) Bottle,” director of the award-winning film “Tapped” will visit Lawrence to raise awareness about the environmental problems associated with plastic water bottles. The first 100 students to show up at the event can exchange a plastic water bottle for a free Klean Kanteen stainless steel bottle. The bottle swap starts at 2 p.m. and will be followed at 3 by a showing of the film.

Corporate Accountability International KU, Environs, KU Recycling and the Center for Sustainability are sponsoring the event.

“We are stopping at places that expressed an interest for us to come,” said Stephanie Soechtig, director of the film. “Campuses are a particularly great place to stop. That’s the generation that will do something. They are more motivated and still believe they can do something.”

The 33-day tour started in San Diego, on World Water Day and will end in Greenwich, Conn., April 23. Soechtig and Sarah Olson, the film’s producer, and their dog, Fellini, are driving across the country to get their message out and fill up their truck with plastic bottles.

Every bottle exchanged is tossed into the back. As of Friday, the truck was carrying 700 bottles; it can hold up to 15,000. Along with collecting bottles, Soechtig and Olson are gathering pledges from people to stop drinking bottled water and conserve. Soechtig said they had 300 pledges on their web site, more than 1,000 on Facebook and endless pages from the road — in all more than 2,000.

http://www.kansan.com/news/2010/apr/05/bottles-bottles-everywhere/

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