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The Environment / Re: Should Plastic bottled water be banned?
« on: 06/10/2007 14:57:35 »
This discussion is blooming – great! []
I’m not going to try and get to grips with quotes as I’ll only tie myself into knots so please bear with me (for I’m probably going to do just that anyways…).
Bottled water is no more a waste than drinking cola.
Drinking cola is a total waste if you ask me and with a pH of 2.5 only really good to remove limescale – but then, that’s just opinion (and a bit of fact). Or, as you did another_someone, you can say it’s a matter of taste.
I think though it’s not only a matter of taste but also of conscious choice.
Which rules which – conscious choice over taste or taste over conscious choice, well, I guess that depends on your conscience and awareness.... and a bit on your self control [] []
The whole case for and against Fijian water (you were of course right, not Polynesian water as I first mentioned) - well, the argument that it helps their economy is probably right to a certain extent (though I’d really would like to know just who owns the bottling company as such ventures are usually mostly foreign investment and don’t necessarily benefit the locals) and I don’t want to get into the quite possible scenario of depleting already scarce resources in a fragile environment………but is there not something inherently WRONG in the fact of shipping water half way around the world?
To a country (be it the UK or US) that has more than plenty of local resources the proper exploitation of which also furthers their local economies.
Yes, perhaps it is cool to sport Fijian water, it’s a novelty, it’s ‘exotic’ etc. Being able to affort it (pretty bottle and all) can have a certain ‘empowering’ aspects.
But I ask you at what price does that ‘cool’ come?
My conscience says it’s not cool: the carbon footprint is way to sticky, the overall cost too high vs the benefits (of one single local company vs intl./foreign transporter, distributer/importer/exporter/wholesaler/retailer) Of course you can argue that ALL these companies benefit. They sure do – and you pay an exorbitant price for a bottle of water AND we ALL later end up paying for the environmental impact that all this is causing.
No sorry – no go for me.
Having lead pipes is a bummer though and a serious issue. Do yourself, your family and the next generations that enjoy your property a favour and get them replaced, perhaps install additional filters if you need. I think that would be an overall better choice than the short term solution of bottled water – especially if they come from far flung places.
There is a really good article on the national geographic website about the true costs of bottled water. Have a read.
http://green.nationalgeographic.com/environment/going-green/cost-bottled-water.html
I’m not going to try and get to grips with quotes as I’ll only tie myself into knots so please bear with me (for I’m probably going to do just that anyways…).
Bottled water is no more a waste than drinking cola.
Drinking cola is a total waste if you ask me and with a pH of 2.5 only really good to remove limescale – but then, that’s just opinion (and a bit of fact). Or, as you did another_someone, you can say it’s a matter of taste.
I think though it’s not only a matter of taste but also of conscious choice.
Which rules which – conscious choice over taste or taste over conscious choice, well, I guess that depends on your conscience and awareness.... and a bit on your self control [] []
The whole case for and against Fijian water (you were of course right, not Polynesian water as I first mentioned) - well, the argument that it helps their economy is probably right to a certain extent (though I’d really would like to know just who owns the bottling company as such ventures are usually mostly foreign investment and don’t necessarily benefit the locals) and I don’t want to get into the quite possible scenario of depleting already scarce resources in a fragile environment………but is there not something inherently WRONG in the fact of shipping water half way around the world?
To a country (be it the UK or US) that has more than plenty of local resources the proper exploitation of which also furthers their local economies.
Yes, perhaps it is cool to sport Fijian water, it’s a novelty, it’s ‘exotic’ etc. Being able to affort it (pretty bottle and all) can have a certain ‘empowering’ aspects.
But I ask you at what price does that ‘cool’ come?
My conscience says it’s not cool: the carbon footprint is way to sticky, the overall cost too high vs the benefits (of one single local company vs intl./foreign transporter, distributer/importer/exporter/wholesaler/retailer) Of course you can argue that ALL these companies benefit. They sure do – and you pay an exorbitant price for a bottle of water AND we ALL later end up paying for the environmental impact that all this is causing.
No sorry – no go for me.
Having lead pipes is a bummer though and a serious issue. Do yourself, your family and the next generations that enjoy your property a favour and get them replaced, perhaps install additional filters if you need. I think that would be an overall better choice than the short term solution of bottled water – especially if they come from far flung places.
There is a really good article on the national geographic website about the true costs of bottled water. Have a read.
http://green.nationalgeographic.com/environment/going-green/cost-bottled-water.html