Yeah Aussies! Possible ban on bottled water

[Didi]

Bundanoon is set to become the first town in Australia, and possibly the world, to ban commercially bottled water.

Excellent idea!

Read the article here Bundanoon is set to become the first town in Australia, and possibly the world, to ban commercially bottled water.

[Debbie-cat]

That is a great idea! It is not any harder filling up a refillable container than it is to buy the bottled water. I understand some people don't have access to clean water out of the tap but they could buy it is large containers and fill rather than individual bottles.

[ArmyOfFive4God]

Is there supposed to be a link?

[Didi]

Is there supposed to be a link?

It did not go too well, but if you click on the blue letters in my first post, you should see the article.

Or else cut & paste:
http://www.illawarramercury.com.au/n...n/1561988.aspx

[NikoSan999]

I think that is both good and bad. Understand the recycle part however the down side to that is more businesses going OUT of business and more people out of work. Considering there is more than one brand of bottled water that is more than one business going under and more and more layed off people. Also don't know the bottled water business but is there one business to MAKE the bottles and yet another to run them thru the line and fill them. Making that 2 businesses going under.
Goes back to the saying every action has a reaction. Trickle down effect. I'm not downing recycling. No way, that is the business we are in. We are the middle man and it went to crap in a hand basket last October. Still don't know if we are going to pull thu it with a business. And we are NOT a sit by the road and wait for someone to bring in a Walmart bag of cans. We are decent size. So there are pros and cons. Not everything is as cut and dried if you start thinking about. No more people need to be out of work

[NikoSan999]

Ok, just clicked on the second link. First wouldn't work for me either. This also involves truckers with less loads..less hauls=less money going home.
Excerp from second page.."Peter Stewart, owner of the local newsagency, said he would lose $1600 a year in gross sales but was willing to back the ban."
Even tho he is still willing to back this and can apparently afford to this $1600 is just one place. How many other hundreds will this affect with sales=employee income.
Every action has a reaction and not all are good.

[Didi]

It could also be an opportunity for re-usable bottle producers .
I think a lot more effort and money should be invested in sustainable companies & jobs.

The specific example of Bundanoon shows how ridiculous companies and customers can be: pumping up water in Bundanoon, driving it to Sydney, get it bottled there and then (part of it) comes back to Bundanoon.
That's a bit like Parma ham. Pigs are driven from the Netherlands to Parma (italy) to get slaughtered there and turned into Parma ham and then it's sold (also in the Netherlands) as Parma ham. What is wrong with Italian pigs and what is wrong with Parma ham Dutch style?

[ArmyOfFive4God]

Ok, just clicked on the second link. First wouldn't work for me either.

I don't even show a link in the OP. I moused over all the words too *shrug* Bur google to the rescue!

[NikoSan999]

I don't even show a link in the OP. I moused over all the words too *shrug* Bur google to the rescue!

Try this one Army..http://www.illawarramercury.com.au/n...n/1561988.aspx

[MomToTwoBoys]

I think that this is a great thing! Calgary tried to ban bottled water in their government facilities but they still have contracts with Culligan and Coca-Cola until 2011 or something. Sure, it may have an effect upon those who rely on it (like truckers who transport it, the people that make the bottles, etc.) but people have to look at this from a realistic point of view.

Do you know how much pollution and how large of an impact the transportation, recycling, production, etc has on the carbon footprint? It's massive!

People are going to have to realize that one day, they may outlaw everything that has an impact on the pollution production into the atmosphere because of things like global warming. People can't support the cause of eliminating global warming but continue to support the things that contribute to it.

[Greebo]

Is there a definitive causal link between plastic bottles and global warming?

[ArmyOfFive4God]

While I'm all about waste reduction (we use nalgenes, US made refillable bottles & filtered water, BTW), is it really anyone's business. This is just another example of big brother pushing things when they should be focusing on the real crimes.

[MomToTwoBoys]

Only about 12 percent of "custom" plastic bottles, a category dominated by water, were recycled in 2003, according to industry consultant R.W. Beck, Inc. That's 40 million bottles a day that went into the trash or became litter. In contrast, the recycling rate for plastic soft drink bottles is around 30 percent.

The low water bottle recycling rate also impacts the overall recycling rate of all recyclable plastic containers. That's fallen from 53 percent in 1994 to 19 percent in 2003.

Plastics should be recycled so that less petroleum — a finite commodity — is consumed, Franklin says.

"The environmental impacts are in the drilling of the oil," she adds, noting that burning fossil fuel also releases gases that many scientists tie to global warming.

A second reason for recycling, Franklin says, is the litter factor. While plastic water bottles are not a significant percentage of overall waste, the empties are certainly all around us visually.

Thirdly, she says, is the fact that the domestic plastics recycling industry faces a shortage because so much is being exported to China for recycling there. That shortage has also led to fears that some companies will go bankrupt.

"There is a means to reclaim these bottles and use them to make new bottles and other products at home," Franklin says, "but they (recyclers) simply can't get enough of the containers to do it."

From the link http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5279230/

The carbon footprint of plastic (LDPE or PET, poyethylene) is about 6 kg CO2 per kg of plastic. If you know the weight of your plastic bags, you can multiply it with the number of plastic bag you are using per year. Then you can easily calculate the carbon dioxide emitted by your own usage of plastic bags. See below for some background information.

The production of 1 kg of polyethylene (PET or LDPE), requires the equivalent of 2 kg of oil for energy and raw material (see here). Polyethylene PE ist the most commonly used plastic for plastic bags.
Burning 1 kg of oil creates about 3 kg of carbon dioxide (see e.g. our offline carbon footprint calculator). In other words: Per kg of plastic, about 6 kg carbon dioxide is created during production and incineration.

The above is from http://timeforchange.org/plastic-bag...-CO2-emissions

[NikoSan999]

While I'm all about waste reduction (we use nalgenes, US made refillable bottles & filtered water, BTW), is it really anyone's business. This is just another example of big brother pushing things when they should be focusing on the real crimes.

Thank you Army..agree 100%. While we're bending over and bringing our own vaseline for the banks while they rape and pillage us..While soon we won't be able to put our own homes ( IF we still have them ) up for sale until a government official comes in and declares it is green. Good luck with an older home. You'll never get rid of it. Click the link below. Everything being built will have to have plug ins for electric cars we don't even own or can afford. Read down to the bottom of the first page of this and this is NOT the only article on this.
They are as Army said big brother pushing and pushing when they should be ( I'd better not really say ) be focusing on jobs, not losing them, unemployment, and bankrupct states. I hope Nancy Pelosi's swamp mice bite her in the ass. Please read.
http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2...7082009/477481

[NikoSan999]

Is there a definitive causal link between plastic bottles and global warming?

Greebo, sure you have an opinion on this. Please, also read the article but also fairly sure you have probably been keeping up on this. There are just as many that say they can prove there is little global warming in effect. True? Don't know about that..since the ice age guess it wouldn't be the first. But there is life now and it's going downhill fast. Guess this started out as a simple thread but things like this really get me. Cause and effect..trickle down..all actions have a reaction. No more plastic bottles....few more thousands of jobs lost..for what. Something they have been arguing about for years...is there global warming or not. THEY don't even know. But one thing for sure...sure is alot more money in the assumption that there is than not. Just ask our beloved president. Change...yeah, right. What do you think Greebo? Ready for it.