If you insist that bottled water is better than tap, even after you watch this, send me your money and I’ll mail you back my special “Mountain Spring” bottled water.

Would you like that with or without malaria? Watch this creative way some New Yorkers raised money for the UNICEF Tap Project.

Derek goes “Inside the Bottle” and exposes the billion dollar fib we’re been made to swallow. To learn more visit: www.bottledwaterfreeday.ca

If you drink bottled water, you might be concerned with the composition of the plastic bottle that the water comes in. The Straight Dope has a great article you should read: What’s up with compostable plastics?

An excerpt from the article:

So what’s compostable plastic good for? It’s made from a renewable resource, namely corn, but that doesn’t necessarily make it environmentally friendly. Writing in Scientific American in 2000, Tillman Gerngross and Steven Slater pointed out that manufacturing PLA required more fossil fuels than it takes to make most plastics, canceling out the environmental benefit.

They weren’t completely down on the stuff, though, and pointed out two benefits you might not suspect. First, much of the energy needed to turn corn into plastic could be obtained by burning the stalks and leaves, known as stover, which are normally discarded. Second, they argue, we don’t reallywant PLA to biodegrade — just the opposite. The big push these days is on figuring out ways to sequester carbon so it doesn’t enter the atmosphere as CO2, one of the major greenhouse gases. What better way to do that than grow corn, which sucks CO2 out of the atmosphere, then use the corn to make plastic, which can be buried underground after use?

Don’t get me wrong; I’m not saying this is accepted scientific advice. But it’s not out of the question that years from now the environmentally responsible thing may be to use all the plant-derived plastic packaging you can and then throw the stuff away.

If you are really concerned, you’ll give up drinking bottled water. Then you won’t have to worry about the origin and future of the plastic bottle.

Thanks to The Wanderer for the pointer to The Straight Dope.

Did you ever stay in a hotel that places cards in your room that encourage you to reuse the towels and sheets during your stay? It gives you a warm, fuzzy feeling that your stay is helping the environment. You are saving water! When I walk around such a hotel and see an extraordinary number of lights on—and kept on all night—I wonder whether the hotel is really all that committed to saving the environment. Or is the hotel just trying to attract green customers?

In the 1980’s the term greenwashing was invented to refer to the practice of hotels that promoted linen reuse but did not also have other strategies for recycling. Green is good. Don’t get me wrong. But it is deceptive to spend more money promoting products as green than actually making sure the company is green or that the product itself is green.

That’s one of the reasons why I posted Is Bottled Water Green? some time back. Focusing on whether the bottle itself is better than some other bottle totally misses the point that bottling water is not an environmentally friendly practice to begin with.

Do you have any examples of greenwashing?

More than 70 municipalities, 6 school boards, and several campuses no long provide or sell bottled water in Canada. The Canadian Federation of Students, the Polaris Institute, and the Sierra Youth Coalition are sponsoring a Bottled Water Free Day on March 11, 2010. You don’t have to be Canadian to pledge to give up bottled water.

They say:

“The bottled water industry is less regulated than municipal water systems, consumes more energy and releases more harmful toxins into the environment than tap water.”

Their website provides many facts that you might want to check out, like this one:

“For soft drink giants PepsiCo and Coca-Cola, revenues from bottled water per unit outstrip soft drinks.”

Tap water costs 0.002 per gallon. If you filter it, the cost is about 0.25 gallon. Bottle water is about $10.66 gallon. Cost wise, giving it up is a no-brainer. If you are worried about drinking your tap water, test it. If it needs filtration, buy the proper filter.

You can get complete details on how to test your water and get the correct filter by reading Take Back the Tap Guide to Home Tap Water Filtration.

The City of Minneapolis produced 5 amusing videos to get the point across that the City of Lakes has great tap water. This is one of them. You can check out the rest on Tap Minneapolis. Then take the pledge and convert to tap water. Your story will appear on their website. What’s even better is that you’ll save a lot of money and help the environment.

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That’s the first sentence on the back label of Green Planet water. Where are bottles ending up? I took these photos a few weeks ago, when I was hiking in the rainforest of Panama, near Gamboa.

How many reusable water bottles do you find on the ground? I’ve never found any. People tend to hang onto those. Bottled water promotes carelessness. No message on any bottle will change that.

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Yes, these look like they are soda bottles. The issue is the same for soda (colored, sweetened tap water) as it is for plain bottled water and carbonated bottled water.

No.

Yet the marketeers of bottled water companies are working hard to convince you that drinking it actually helps the environment. Save your money and don’t fall for it.

Green Planet is one of the more recent bottled water vendors on the market. I’ll analyze the hype on the bottle:

Green Planet: The environmentally friendly bottle.
Digital Rabbit: It burns great because it was made from plants, not oil. They still have to use up energy to fabricate the bottle, make the inks, and so on. The most environmentally friendly container is a reusable one, like a glass.

Green Planet: Quench your thirst and your desire to help the environment.
Digital Rabbit: You can just as easily quench your thirst by turning on your own tap. Then take the money your were going to spend on the bottled water and donate it to a true environmental cause.

Green Planet: Pure Handcrafted Water.
Digital Rabbit: What does that mean? Did someone take hydrogen and mix it with oxygen? I think not. This is pure B.S. I described my water system a few days ago. There is nothing to “handcrafted water.” Turn on the pump, extract the water from the ground. It probably doesn’t even need treatment.

Green Planet: By choosing our water you’re helping reduce global warming, carbon emissions and our dependency on oil.
Digital Rabbit: Pure B.S. You are actually contributing to global climate change and increasing dependency on oil. The bottle takes energy to manufacture. The bottled water takes gasoline to transport. (Water is heavy, too.) Manufacturing and transportation emit carbon.

My advice. Drink tap water.