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.

‘Waste not, want not’ was a common refrain from Helvi, a friend of my parents when I was young. Apparently, she had what is commonly referred to as ‘Elephant Man’s’ disease, but I don’t remember that. They said she rarely left the house because of people’s reaction to her, but I was young and had no expectations of her physically. I only remember her saying, ‘Waste not, want not.’ and slapping my hand when I fingered the cookies looking for the best one.

She was right, of course. Waste not, want not. She taught me an important lesson. This week is Waste Reduction Week and a good time to reflect on Helvi’s wisdom. So I challenge you to slow down this week and think about what you are using, what you are buying, what you are discarding.

Challenge yourself to use less: less electricity, less water, less paper, and much less packaging and disposable goods.

Each time you reach for your wallet think, “Do I really need this? Could I do without? Could I use something else? Is there a more sustainable option? Will this be in a landfill in the next six months, six weeks, six days?

When you put your foot on the pedal to open the garbage can, question why you are tossing this item into an already overburden landfill. Can you find another use for it? Can you give it away? Can you recycle it?

Every day this week, Ethical Consumer will help you with this challenge by suggesting ways to be less wasteful. We’d love to hear what you are doing to be less wasteful as well.

Did you know that the David Suzuki Foundation has recently started a book club? If you are interested in reading and discussing books that relate to our environment, here’s your chance. To get in on the action, you can sign up at http://www.davidsuzuki.org/BookClub/ The first book on the list is his very own, The Sacred Balance: Rediscovering Our Place in Nature.

You can also get in on the action on the book club’s Facebook page.

This comes at an opportune time. Firstly, David Suzuki recently won the honourary Right Livelihood Award for his “for his lifetime advocacy of the socially responsible use of science, and for his massive contribution to raising awareness about the perils of climate change and building public support for policies to address it”. They call him one of the “most brilliant scientists… of his generation.”

Further, in December world leaders are meeting in Copenhagen for a UN climate summit. The David Suzuki Foundation has been working to make a difference by encouraging people to give world leaders a wake up call that we want change. Today there was a news conference attended by Tim Flannery an Dale Marshall. They both believe Canada should take a positive role and lead the fight. I agree.

It seems like everywhere you look, there’s plastic. Plastic bottles, plastic toys, plastic bags – there’s even a garbage patch of plastic bottles twice the size of Texas floating in the north Pacific Ocean (if that’s not a sign that we suck, I don’t know what is). It lines the shelves of all of our grocery stores, pharmacies, and big box operations. We seem to be obsessed with it, which strikes me as odd in a world trying to go green. I see many companies claiming to be eco-friendly or environmental with plastic packaging. This claim is a little hard to swallow. How does something that sits in a landfill for eons get an eco-friendly label?

• Plastic is a huge health concern. It leeches into products and exposes our bodies to hormone-disrupting chemicals like bisphenol-A (BPA) and phthalates, which may lead to breast cancer, prostate cancer and sexual development issues in babies.
• Contrary to popular belief and the “feel goods” we get when we throw a plastic bottle in the ol’ blue box, plastic does not get recycled – it gets downcycled, meaning it gets turned into a different product such as fabric or flooring. The demand for these secondary products is lower than our use of plastics so the majority (76%) of these bottles end up in the landfill after all – for hundreds to thousands of years.
• Plastic comes from petroleum, a dwindling non-renewable resource that has caused enormous amounts of conflict and environmental degradation all over the world.
• Plastic is polluting our oceans and destroying marine life by choking and trapping them. It is estimated that 100 million marine mammals and turtles in the north Pacific Ocean are killed every year by plastic – not to mention the plastic bottle island from hell.
• Plastic pollutes in every way imaginable, from depleting the ozone layer to changing DNA structure in cows. It’s evil.

The bottom line is that plastic is NOT eco-friendly – in fact it’s the opposite, it’s an eco-enemy (I just made that word up). Beware of greenwashers and the plastic industry convincing you otherwise. Do what you can to avoid it by toting reusable shopping bags, choosing products packaged in glass, drinking from stainless steel containers, and buying wooden toys (they look way better in your house anyway).  Also, if you catch anyone drinking bottled water, you should beat them.

Resources: sierraclub.org, greenpeace.org, ecologycenter.org, earth911.com

Jessica Burman is the owner of Canadian organic skin care company, Cocoon Apothecary (www.cocoonapothecary.com). She is an animal-loving, tree-hugging flower sniffer. She rants about the beauty industry in her blog Beauty Revolution (www.beautyrevolution.wordpress.com).

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.

Christmas has come and gone and just about now, those batteries from all the new toys, phones, and music players have died and been recharged or disposed of and replaced. In 2004, Canadians purchased around 450 million batteries and disposed of about 348 million batteries. That number is growing.

Many of the batteries we dispose of contain heavy metals that pose a threat to our environment if not dealt with properly, yet 60% of Canadians still put dead batteries in the garbage. Only about 25% of us dispose of batteries properly. The rest of us tuck them away somewhere in our homes, either because we don’t know what to do with them and probably have it on the bottom of a to do list that found its way into paper recycling bin eons ago.

There are three types of batteries to dispose of

• Non-rechargeable batteries also called alkaline batteries are the least dangerous of the three and many provinces do not have provincial programs set up for them. However, you can still find retailers and private companies that do have programs set up.  The only national retail program that I know of is the Future Shop/Best Buy program so if you happen to shop there, you can drop off your non-rechargeable batteries. I called them to ask for more information but just got the run around so what happens next is a mystery.
• Rechargeable batteries contain toxic substances such as nickel cadmium (Ni-Cd), nickel metal hydride (Ni-MH), lithium ion (Li-ion) and small sealed lead (Pb). Canada has a program that has been running since 1994, Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation (RBRC).  Canadian Tire takes rechargeable batteries and old cell phones nationally so if you are looking to dispose of old batteries, that’s one place. If not, go to http://www.rbrc.org/ and enter your postal code to get a list of place to return your used rechargeable batteries. Either way they head down to the States, where the materials are separated and reclaimed.
• Automotive batteries are often recycled when you get your car battery changed and the good news is that about 90% of car batteries in Canada are recycled which means that the 8 to 12 kg of lead in each battery does not leach into our soil and waterways. If you do need to dispose of one, call your local Canadian Tire and ask as some stores accept old car batteries.

97% of Canadians recycle where roadside pick up is available. That’s excellent! But roadside recycling is only part of the solution. What about recyclables that do not get picked up roadside? Over the next few weeks, I will look at four items that are recyclable but that aren’t picked up curbside: medications, batteries, Information Technology waste and paint.  More Canadians could be recycling these items and probably would be if they had the right information.

Expired and unused medications find their way into our medication basket at our home and once in awhile I go through the basket and clean it out. This year, when my mother’s medication regiment changed, the pharmacist handed me a bag of old medications and vitamins. I asked the pharmacist if they could dispose of them safely and she said I should find someone who might want them. Huh?

O.K. so maybe the vitamins. Fine. I’ll see what I can do. Well, I started asking around and everyone just looked at me as though I was growing a couple of extra heads. No one who knew and trusted me needed them and no one who needed them knew and trusted me. I didn’t blame them. So where should I take all these old meds and why?

Recent studies have shown that pharmaceuticals and personal care products disposed of incorrectly find their way into our waterways and are causing hormonal disruption in many aquatic animals. The boy fish don’t want to be able to procreate all by themselves. Eventually, we will be drinking those hormone disruptors and as the levels increase so will their effect on humans.

What do you do with your old meds? Here’s a multiple-choice questionnaire for you. When disposing of old medications I
a.    Flush them with the goldfish
b.    Dump them in the garbage
c.    Bury them in the backyard
d.    Keep them cuz I don’t know what else to do
e.    Take them to the local disposal facility.

It turns out that in Canada almost half of us disposed of them correctly. Another  39% dumped them in the garbage, flushed them down the drain or buried them in  the backyard. No kidding, people bury old meds in the backyard. The remainder keeps them. Maybe they just don’t know what to do with them.

Choice e. is easier than you think. You could ask at your local pharmacy, not that it worked out for me the first time, as they should know what the procedure is in your province. In many provinces, the pharmacy is the drop location for old meds. If that doesn’t work then go to Medications Return and click on ‘Provincial Programs,’ choose your province and then your city and you will find out where to drop them off near you.

I don’t know how every province disposes of the medications, but I do know that in British Columbia they are incinerated at extremely high temperatures to neutralize the waste.  For more information about the BC program check out the Capital Regional District.

Another alternative would be for Canadians to come off the meds, but that’s another post. Maybe one day.

Global warming has emerged as the most important issue of our generation and the topic of “the environment” is hot these days- no pun intended. The question is: how do we best run our businesses in this context? We as businesspeople are becoming conscious of our ability to take an active role in solving our societies environmental crisis. At the same time, studies show that people will choose an eco-friendly or green option if given the opportunity. Increasingly, consumers are “voting with their dollars” to support green businesses that are reducing their carbon footprint and reducing the amount of carbon dioxide they produce.

Given this reality, it makes business sense for each of us to make our companies as eco-friendly as possible. Given the economic context of running a business, this shift towards low carbon use must be balanced with sound financial judgment; we must chose options that reduce our carbon footprint and also maintain profitability.

In this context, choosing green web hosting is a good business investment. In terms of pricing, green web hosting rates are reasonable. Solar Energy Host offers individual plans starting at only $9.95 per month ($119.40 per year.) For larger businesses, managed dedicated servers are also available. This compares to about $6.99/month for hosting that uses non-eco friendly energy sources. Conventional hosting seems cheaper. However, when the marketing benefits to your company of using green web hosting are taken into account, an option such as Solar Energy Host is actually more cost effective than conventional hosting.

The key to maximizing the benefit of green web hosting to your company is in publicizing it properly and using it as a marketing tool. Green web hosting conveys a key marketing message; “Trust us, we are doing the right thing, just like you are.” However, consumers are increasingly aware and critical, they are looking for proof. They want to know that the businesses they support are not engaged in “green washing.” This is why it is critical that companies go further and explain to their customers just what makes their web hosting “green.” This in turn will increase the customer’s trust and loyalty. Using an option such as Solar Energy Host allows companies to promote their web hosting as the “greenest” because they power their servers directly with solar panels. This reduces the carbon footprint of the Internet. This contrasts sharply with other “green” hosting companies that simply buy Carbon Credits while they continue to use “dirty” energy.

How this information is communicated depends on the nature of your company and target market. For example, it can be displayed on a special page of your website and/or links and logos can be displayed at the bottom of each page of the site to signify that your company is using the greenest hosting option possible. Your companies “green web presence” can also be promoted in other marketing material. In such a way your efforts to green your businesses can also improve your sales and leads and, ultimately, your bottom line.

According to Statistics Canada, 45% of us are environmentally active.  What does that mean? A report released in December measured participation rates for six environmental actions and then categorized us accordingly. For example, those who practiced 4 to 6 behaviours were considered active, 2 to 4 behaviours were moderately active and 0 to 1 behaviour were considered less active.

The behaviours themselves, along with the percentage of Canadians who partook, included

• composting (30%)
• use of reduced volume toilets (37%)
• lowering temperatures (54%)
• use of low-flow showerheads (56%)
• use of compact flurescent light bulbs (CFL) (59%)
• recycling (97%)

Recycling was the most common behaviour as 97% of Canadians with access to recycling participate. Recycling isn’t the easiest item in the list. It takes a bit of effort to determine what is recycleable, sort through items, clean out recyclables, get them into the different containers and then take the extra boxes/bags to the curb.  Unlike the one time activity of installing a low-flow showerhead which only 56% of Canadians have done so far.

I wonder what makes the difference? Is it the level of education we have received around recycling? Is it the willingness to spend time rather than money on making a difference? A low-flow shower head might put you back $15.00. Maybe not cost.  Maybe it is the fear of residual shampoo in our hair.

Here’s what the study came up with.  The three factors that most affect environmental behaviours are

• home ownership
• income level
• education level

The most active Canadians owned their own homes, which makes sense since renters can’t really replace toilets and don’t have the level of control over their environments that home owners have. Most renters live in shared spaces such as apartment buildings and must follow the rules as laid out by landlords, whereas the majority of home owners live in single dwelling homes they fully control. Homeowners were 3x more likely to be very active than renters.

The level of participation also increased with income. The more disposable income we have, the easier it is to replace toilets and so on. However, this was not as strong an indicator as homeownership was. Who is driving all those gas guzzling SUVs out there?

Education, the final indicator, was also not as strong as homeownership. 50% of households in which at least one member was a university graduate were very active, compared to 34% of households in which no one had completed high school were considered very active.

Finally, the province with the highest rate of participation was P.E.I where nearly two thirds of all households practiced four or more environmental behaviours. I think I’ll try to be more like those living in P.E.I. Kudos.

How do I measure up in this study? I participate in 4 our of 6 behaviours with composting and reduced volume toilet being my archilles heel. I am going to do a bit of research on each of these behaviours to see what each one takes to implement.  Stay tuned.