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We Have a Drinking Problem - All of Us
Recycled plastic bottles at the San Francisco Recycling Center
Whether you thirst for Fiji or crave Poland Springs, sip Arrowhead or bathe in Evian, you are killing the planet. Yes you. The New York Times reported yesterday on the latest middle-class-guilt-related national craze: the bottled water boycott.
Our dependence on bottled water, even as a healthful alternative to sugar-filled sodas and energy drinks, some say is a major problem. According to the Times, like so much else these days, it all comes back to the oil. Yesterday's article cites the millions of barrels it takes to produce, transport, and refrigerate all of those charming little plastic bottles, only 23% of which are recycled, by the way. Add that to the recent scandals outing major brands as nothing more than slickly packaged tap water, and you get a pretty good case for the stuff that comes out of your faucet.
This scrutiny and the revelations it brings are doubtless a good thing. We are as a nation becoming, finally, more conscious about our use of energy, and the ways in which that consumption can be reduced by, as our host would say, ‘everyday people'. Just as similar attention has been recently focused on the importance of eating locally grown food when possible, to cut down on the energy used in transporting it, refilling a bottle instead of buying a new one seems pretty easy, and as good a place to start as any.
The multi-billion dollar bottled water industry need not panic yet, however. Trendy, multicolored Lexan plastic bottles, no longer strictly the province of the hemp and Birkenstocks set, and hyped as an easy alternative to buying bottled water, have been shown in lab tests to disrupt chromosomes and cause cancer. These concerns notwithstanding, refillable containers by definition require refilling and chilling, and aren't anywhere near as easy and available as a bottle of water in a cooler. For the moment, at least, until public water fountains become as numerous and alluring as vending machines, bottled water still has convenience on its side.