Time to put a cap on bottled water

When 100% Canadian Bottled Water states to be “the real environmentally friendly company” then that is a bold lie to me because the business of bottled water alone is a far cry from environmentally friendly. Here's why: I bought a BPA-free water bottle recently. A little leaflet on the bottle stated that the energy required to manufacture, fill, and transport a chilled disposable bottle of water is equivalent to filling the bottle ¼ full of oil. Bon Appetit! Plastic bottles take up to 1000 years to decompose. In North America an estimated 70 million bottles are dumped in land fills each year, and buying bottle water costs up to 3000 times as much as tap water - the willingness to pay that price (in a developed country) pis stupid to me.  

An article in today's paper refers to a new book called "Bottled and sold" by Peter Gleick. The author underlines that every second in the US 1000 people buy a bottle of water and another 1000 throw an empty bottle away. Terrible, alone the thought of so much plastic used to bottle something that comes tasty right out of the tap, at least in developed countries. I have drunk tap water for many years now, my parents don't like it. Advertisement did the trick for them, they think it's not as good as bottled water but that's not right. They surely would not do what I did - drink water out of rivers in New Zealand and Iceland when hiking and camping. Water should be safe to drink or we "smart" human beings have screwed up once more!  ...  Oh yes, we have screwed up big time again. 

Europe is pretty good at recycling, some countries more than others. In Germany you take your bottles back to the store where you bought them and receive your deposit back. In Edmonton we have to make all the way to the Bottle Depot which not everybody does. I do it and the stroller comes in handy even though others think I'm crazy. Oh no, I'm not, it's for a good cause. But I return milk jugs and the odd wine bottle, never water bottles.

The European Federation of Bottled Water says that the recycling of PET bottles has been rising and has reached 41% in 2008. Sounds disappointing to me! That's still 59% that don't get recycled and possibly end up in landfills. I strongly support the stand that there should not be such a thing as bottled water. But drinking fountains in the city that's a good idea to me. Basel in Switzerland has them.