As omnipresent as it is today, it may be difficult to remember that bottled water was a novelty just 10-20 years ago. It was once a trendy accessory or punch line for pampered celebrities – “she demanded 10 bottles of Perrier to wash her hair with.” Now, thanks to a turn towards healthy lifestyles and aggressive marketing, bottled water has become as common and widely available as, well, tap water.

Credit: Suat Eman

With the threat of privatisation and landfills overflowing with empty plastic bottles, The Canadian Federation of Students, Polaris Institute and The Sierra Youth Coalition have teamed up to spearhead Canada’s first Bottled Water Free Day on March 11th. You are invited to take the pledge to “not drink bottled water where public water is available” and to “ditch the bottle and turn on the tap!” If you are still not convinced, here are some of the scarier facts you may not know about the bottled water industry:

o In terms of environmental impact, consider the following: for every bottle you drink, TWO bottles are used to produce it.

o According to the Pacific Institute, 17 million barrels of oil were used to produce the 31.2 billion litres of bottled water consumed in the United States.

o Between the shipping of raw materials to plants and the finished product to shelves, the industry is a HUGE contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. Imagine what it takes to ship Fiji Water from Fiji or San Pellegrino from Italy…

o The energy cost of producing a plastic bottle is equal to filling ¼ of that bottle with crude oil.

o Bottled water and plastic resource companies have spent MILLIONS to fight against deposit return programs. These programs would require them to assume some of the recycling costs and of course, lessen the demand for their products.

o 10-15% of the price of a bottle of water goes to advertising costs.

o What the advertisers fail to mention in these ads is that in terms of quality, NOTHING about bottled water is different from tap water – except its cost.

o In fact, marketing campaigns have been so effective that they have contributed to a diminished confidence in public water systems and have set the ball rolling for privatisation of water services; consumers would be willing to pay more for “safer” water.

Regulation of the bottled water industry vs. regulation of tap water:

o In Canada, bottled water is considered a food product under the Food and Drugs Act and Regulations. Government oversight that exists for these regulations has not been updated since 1973.

o It is estimated that Canadian bottling plants receive, on average, one inspection every 3 to 5 years.

o There have been 29 recalls of 49 bottled water products since 2000, only five of which were made public; products were recalled due to bacterial or chemical contaminations.

o In Canada, the quality and safety of tap water is the responsibility of municipalities and provinces, though federal guidelines also apply when it comes to quantities of microbiological, chemical and radiological substances allowable in the water.

o The City of Ottawa conducts over 125,000 quality tests per year and the City of Toronto checks its water for bacteria every 4 to 6 hours.

Big business and bottled water:

o Coca Cola (Dasani) and PepsiCo (Aquafina) are two of the four “Big 4” water-bottlers (with Nestle and Danone).

o These companies actively pursue beverage exclusivity contracts in public institutions like universities and public buildings.

o School contacts are often long-term (10 years) and contain stiff conditions like quotas and enormous fees for termination.

o Free water fountains are often removed from schools while cost to operate vending machines can rise up to $175,000 per year (paid by the university).

o In Canada, 25% of bottled water sold is reprocessed tap water; most of it is sold by Coca Cola or PepsiCo.

o The bottled water industry has spent BILLIONS on marketing.

o For Coca Cola and PepsiCo, revenue for bottled water (per unit) is greater than soft drinks.

You’re convinced, now what can you do?

o Visit the site, get informed
o Take the pledge
o Keep the pledge – This isn’t just for one day, it’s a real commitment
o Inform others – Talk about it, tell even just one person or print the free advertising materials available on the website
o Get your school/business/municipality to sign up – So far, 3 universities have made the commitment to ban bottled water, as have cities from 8 provinces and 2 territories
o Also, visit Brita’s “Filter for Good” campaign and pledge to replace bottled water with reusable containers.

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. If that were not enough, privatisation increases the risk of regulation of a resource that is vital to life. And if that doesn’t convince you, I don’t know what will.

I just finished watching Flow and would recommend it to anyone who gets up in the morning, stumbles out of bed and in the first hour uses water: flushes a toilet, makes breakfast, brews a cup of coffee. Try getting up tomorrow morning and not using any water. Grab a bucket, bottle, or anything you can get your hands on, leave your home and go in search of clean potable water. Only when you find a source of water can you come back and wash your face or have a drink. I know I wouldn’t find any clean potable water unless I begged from a neighbour and that would be cheating. 1.1 billion people each day do not have access to clean potable water.

For centuries animals - including humans - have come to the river or local watering hole to access water. Water is our collective life blood. Today most of that water around the world is polluted. Polluted by large corporate interests. This has lead to the need to find new solutions to water distribution. The large corporations like to invest billions in dams and pipes and then pass that cost on to people, often those who make less than $1 a day.

They don’t understand why the people continue to go to the river rather than pay for the service. As Basil Bolt, Managing Director of Invensys Metering Systems was quoted as saying, “You’ve actually changed the thinking of the culture of the people to understand that they should pay. We shouldn’t have to force them to pay; they should want to pay.”

I have no answers but I do have a few questions to ponder on the topic. So if I understand correctly Mr. Bolt believes that after centuries of access to water, people should now accept the loss of clean water and they should be happy to pay for a resource that has been a community shared resource without cost for centuries. Mr. Bolt says it is so, but I just don’t get his logic.

I’d like Mr. Bolt to explain where a woman earning less than $1 a day who can’t cover basic health, shelter, food and education for her and her children will find the extra money to now pay for water.

Maybe Mr. Bolt could explain how non-humans, such as zebras, lions and elephants will find the work they need to pay for the water they need now that their water supply has either dried up due to corporate greed or is contaminated and is contributing to their slow demise. And once the zebra has the money, where should it go to buy the appropriate token to access the water?

Corporate culture and ideas are simplistic and based on revenue rather than longevity and wellness of the entire planet.  Clean potable water is a right and should not be treated as a commodity. It has been a public resource for millennium and that should not change. We should be investing in old traditions that have allowed communities to secure water in the past. There are many old technologies to rely on. We should support small solutions developed by each community based on their needs and collective wisdom, instead of large scale multimillion dollar projects that often cause more harm than good.

The PlayPump is one of my favourite solutions for communities seeking outside guidance. Water and play, often combined, are two of my favourite childhood memories.

Earth Hour 2009 takes place tonight, March 28th, at 8:30 p.m. whatever your local time zone. According to Wikipedia, over 2100 cities in 82 countries around the world are committed to the event, a substantial increase from last year’s 35 participating countries.

So what exactly is Earth Hour? It is an initiative from WWF intended to raise awareness of the consequences of climate change worldwide. It is easy enough to participate: simply turn off all non-essential lights and appliances for one hour. The views from space during this hour as it travels around the world is quite breathtaking! The more people participating, the more dramatic the results.

What are you planning to do for Earth Hour? Tonight, we are attending a friend’s potluck dinner and will most likely go for an evening walk afterwards. We are trying to figure out the best vantage point in East Van to watch the lights going out across Vancouver - it is actually quite exciting! Anything that brings us together in a common plight and spreads awareness of a very pressing issue gets the thumbs up from me. Fill me in on what your plans are, EC would love to know!

Gil Yaron, the “ecopreneur” behind earth-friendly online office supply shop Frogfile, shares some information about how businesses can make greener choices when it comes to paper, the ubiquitous office resource.

Offices are notorious for heavy paper consumption; the average office worker goes through a whopping 10,000 sheets of it in a single year. It is important for companies to make it known to their employees, and vice versa, that paper is not just an ever-present fixture, it’s a commodity that happens to be highly resource-intensive. Using paper more wisely, however, is only half the battle.

When asked about the easiest ways businesses can cut down on their paper consumption, Gil advises not printing reports, emails or other documents unless necessary and to incentivize staff or departments based on reduced consumption through contests or benefits.

Where socially responsible paper products available to Canadians are concerned, Gil tells EC, “There is no issue about ethical sourcing when it comes to papers manufactured in Canada and the US as far as I am aware, other than possibly unionization. Key criteria for consideration is source of fibre, percentage of post-consumer recycled content, processed chlorine-free or totally chlorine-free bleaching, location of mill in proximity to customer, certifications and third party verification of claims made regarding the paper, method of shipping the paper to market.”

Shipping remains a major contributor to the carbon footprint of various industries and is still an area that requires some serious innovation. Gil suggests that companies delivering paper can use biodiesel to reduce GHG emissions while businesses can consolidate their ordering to reduce the amount of deliveries being made. Frogfile has a number of programs in place to encourage customers to do this.

Where will Frogfile be in five years? Gil says, “I really have no idea. I imagine that when the market rebounds we will continue on an upward trajectory with great public interest in eco products generally. Many think we will remain a niche player, but I can only hope that our offerings will become mainstream.”

So do we!

Check out EC’s brand-spankin’-new EC Buying Guide: Paper to learn more about earth-conscious choices.