Learn More About How Plastic Bottles Affect The Environment.

U.S. Cities                  Source: Earth Policy Institute        Close Window
U.S. Conference of Mayors (multiple cities)	At June 2007 meeting of organization representing over 1,100 U.S. cities, Mayors Newsom (San Francisco), Anderson (Salt Lake City), and Rybak (Minneapolis) sponsored a passing resolution underlining the importance of using municipal water and calling for studies into environmental impacts of bottled water.
Davis, CA	An October 2007 City Council decision banned the purchase or sale of single-use water bottles for city operations and events as part of a plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Emeryville, CA	One of the first cities to endorse Corporate Accountability International's "Think Outside the Bottle" campaign. Discontinued purchase of large bottled water for economic reasons.
Los Angeles, CA	Mayor Thomas Bradley issued the first order restricting the use of city funds for purchasing bottled water in January 1987.
San Francisco, CA	In June 2007, Mayor Gavin Newsom signed an Executive Directive prohibiting city money from being spent on single-serving bottled water as of July 2007.
San Jose, CA	Mayor Chuck Reed and several city council members have endorsed a pending ban on purchase of individually packaged bottled water with city funds.
Santa Barbara, CA	City purchases of bottled water were banned in April 2007.
Chicago, IL	tax of five cents on each bottle of water sold in the city was passed by city council in November 2007 to discourage consumption and landfill waste.
Urbana, IL	Considering cancelling bottled water contracts for city buildings.
Louisville, KY	Since 1997 the city has distributed more than 1.8 million refillable "Pure Tap" bottles to residents.
Boston, MA	Conducting audit to determine city spending on bottled water. Has signed the "Think Outside the Bottle" pledge.
Ann Arbor, MI	Buying or serving commercially bottled water at City Council functions banned as of May 2007.
Minneapolis, MN	Mayor R.T. Rybak has endorsed the "Think Outside the Bottle" campaign and promotes municipal tap water over bottled water. He has requested that all city departments assess and reduce their use of bottled water.
St. Louis, MO	Mayor Francis Slay plans to ban bottled water purchases for city employees with access to tap water by early 2008.
New York, NY	City's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and Department of Environmental Protection are sponsoring a $700,000 campaign to promote tap water over bottled water.
Salt Lake City, UT	In October 2006 Mayor Rocky Anderson sent letter to cabinet members requesting that city departments voluntarily no longer offer bottled water at meetings, and he is urging the city's restaurants to cease serving bottled water.
Charlottesville, VA	In August 2007 Mayor David Brown proposed eliminating "city purchase of bottled water for meetings, city events, and vending machines."
Vancouver, WA	As of August 2007 city councilmembers will no longer use bottled water as part of a sustainability initiative.
Wauwatosa, WI	Considering cancelling bottled water contracts for city buildings.

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Source: bundyontap.com.au

The small Australian town of Bundanoon just set a new standard for sustainability by voting to do what no community has ever done before: ban bottled water! The measure was founded over concerns about the tremendous amount of resources used to extract, package, and transport bottled water, and it passed nearly unanimously in a town hall meeting. Will this be the beginning of a trend?

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Source: http://www.gao.gov

(1) evaluated the extent to which FDA regulates and ensures the quality and safety of bottled water;
(2) evaluated the extent to which federal and state authorities regulate the accuracy of labels and claims regarding the purity and source of bottled water; and
(3) identified the environmental and other impacts of bottled water.

(1) FDA’s bottled water standard of quality regulations generally mirror the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) national primary drinking water regulations, as required by the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, although the case of DEHP (an organic compound used in the manufacture of polyvinyl chloride plastics) is a notable exception. Specifically, FDA deferred action on DEHP in a final rule published in 1996 and has yet to either adopt a standard or publish a reason for not doing so. GAO also found that FDA’s regulation of bottled water, particularly when compared with EPA’s regulationof tap water, reveal key differences in the agencies’ statutory authorities. Of particular note, FDA does not have the specific statutory authority to require bottlers to use certified laboratories for water quality tests or to report test results, even if violations of the standards are found. Among GAO’s other findings, the state requirements to safeguard bottled water often exceed FDA’s, but still are often less comprehensive than state requirements to safeguard tap water.

(2)FDA and state bottled water labeling requirements are similar to labeling requirements for other foods, but the information provided to consumers is less than what EPA requires of public water systems under the Safe Drinking Water Act. Like other foods, bottled water labels must list ingredients and nutritional information and are subject to the same prohibitions against misbranding. In 2000, FDA concluded that it was feasible for the bottled water industry to provide the same types of information to consumers that public water systems must provide. The agency was not required to conduct rulemaking to require that manufacturers provide such information to consumers, however, and it has not done so. Nevertheless, GAO’s work suggests that consumers may benefit from such additional information. For example, when GAO asked cognizant officials in a survey of the 50 states and the District of Columbia, whether their consumers had misconceptions about bottled water, many replied that consumers often believe that bottled water is safer or healthier than tap water. GAO found that information comparable to what public water systems are required to provide to consumers of tap water was available for only a small percentage of the 83 bottled water labels it reviewed, companies it contacted, or company Web sites it reviewed.

(3)Among the environmental impacts of bottled water are the effects on U.S. municipal landfill capacity and U.S. energy demands. Regarding impacts on landfill capacity, GAO found that about three-quarters of the water bottles produced in the United States in 2006 were discarded and not recycled, on the basis of figures compiled by an industry trade association and an environmental nonprofit organization. Discarded water bottles, however, represented less than 1 percent of total municipal waste that EPA reported entered U.S. landfills in 2006. Regarding the impact on U.S. energy demands, a recent peer-reviewed article found that the production and consumption of bottled water comprises a small share of total U.S. energy demand but is much more energy-intensive than the production of public drinking water.

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Source: earth911.com

Plastic Recycling Facts

• According to the Beverage Marketing Corp, the average American consumed 1.6 gallons of bottled water in 1976. In 2006 that number jumped to 28.3 gallons.
• Today, 80 percent of Americans have access to a plastics recycling program.
  
• More than 2.3 billion pounds of plastic bottles were recycled in 2007. Although the amount of plastic bottles recycled in the U.S. has grown every year since 1990, the actual recycling rate remains steady at around 24 percent.
  
• In 2007, more than 325 million pounds of wide-mouth plastic containers were recovered for recycling. (This included deli containers, yogurt cups, etc.)
  
• In recent years, the number of U.S. plastics recycling business has nearly tripled. More than 1,600 businesses are involved in recycling post-consumer plastics.
  
• Plastics in the U.S. are made primarily (70 percent) from domestic natural gas.
  
• Plastic bags and product wraps (known collectively as “plastic film”) are commonly recycled at the many collection programs offered through major grocery stores.
  
• Recycling one ton of plastic saves 7.4 cubic yards of landfill space.
  
• During Keep America Beautiful’s 2008 Great American Cleanup, volunteers recovered and recycled 189,000,000 PET (plastic) bottles that had been littered along highways, waterways and parks.

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Study on Toxins and the Food Chain

Project Kaisei It has been estimated that the composition of marine litter globally now consists of 60-80% plastic polymers and in some areas it elevates to numbers as high as 90 – 95% (1, 2). Marine biologists, ocean lovers, and water sports enthusiasts Andrea Neal, Ph.D. (Ocean Futures Society) and Joel Paschal (Sea of Change and Algalita), have joined Project Kaisei to help further our understanding of the scope and impact that plastic marine pollution has on our oceanic environments. With the amount of plastic pollution in our environment continuing to increase, we are not only concerned about the quantity of this prevalent pollutant but the biological impacts that these synthetic organic polymers may have on aquatic species as well as ourselves. We know that Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) like PCB’s (polychlorinated biphenyl’s), PAH’s (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) and DDT (dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane) are attracted to synthetic polymers which make up the plastic debris at sea, and create a sink for these harmful toxins in aquatic environments.

SEAPLEX From August 2-21, 2009, Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego, with support from the UC Ship Funds and Project Kaisei, is dedicating one of the first scientific missions to explore and analyze the problem of plastic in the North Pacific Gyre. The graduate student-led Scripps Environmental Accumulation of Plastic Expedition (SEAPLEX) aboard the Scripps research vessel New Horizon will explore threats from several angles, with research that includes surveys of plastic distribution, investigations of floating plastic, and assessments of impacts on sea life. Visit SEAPLEX at: http://sio.ucsd.edu/Expeditions/Seaplex/

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Source: earth-policy.org

Excerpts from: December 7, 2007 BOTTLED WATER BOYCOTTS
Back-to-the-Tap Movement Gains Momentum

In contrast to tap water, which is delivered through an energy-efficient infrastructure, bottled water is an incredibly wasteful product. It is usually packaged in single-serving plastic bottles made with fossil fuels. Just manufacturing the 29 billion plastic bottles used for water in the United States each year requires the equivalent of more than 17 million barrels of crude oil.
After being filled, the bottles may travel far. Nearly one quarter of bottled water crosses national borders before reaching consumers, and part of the cachet of certain bottled water brands is their remote origin. Adding in the Pacific Institute’s estimates for the energy used for pumping and processing, transportation, and refrigeration, brings the annual fossil fuel footprint of bottled water consumption in the United States to over 50 million barrels of oil equivalent—enough to run 3 million cars for one year. If everyone drank as much bottled water as Americans do, the world would need the equivalent of more than 1 billion barrels of oil to produce close to 650 billion individual bottles
Slowing sales may be the wave of the future as the bottle boycott movement picks up speed. With more than 1 billion people around the globe still lacking access to a safe and reliable source of water, the $100 billion the world spends on bottled water every year could certainly be put to better use creating and maintaining safe public water infrastructure everywhere.

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Fiji water has received the most press, but similar numbers should hold true for water imported from Europe, New Zealand and so forth.

Fiji Water     Source: Triplepundit

• Requires 6.74 kg of water to produce each 1 liter bottle of water
• Releases 256g og Green House Gasses per bottle
• Consumes 81g of fossil fuel to make and transport the bottles.

Fijians without clean water after floods (January 2009). Source MSNBC.
Nothing in FijiWater's press releases stating that they are providing water. Did find that Fiji Water has a foundation www.fijiwaterfoundation.org. This site has just the home page.

FijiGreen.com was started as the company "goes green". It's not as profitable as selling high priced* water, but what is greener that not shipping water around the world?

* Buy water at Fiji.com and pay $37.50 for 24 1/5liter bottles or $3.125/liter. U.S. was complaining about $4/gal gasoline, but think nothing of paying almost $12/gal for water?
Tap water in the U.S. runs on average $2.81/1000 gallons (.0028 cents/gallon).

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