Australian Content Blog

Take a plastic water bottle to your own peril; the wave of widespread opinion is forming against you. From big rating documentaries, to books and campaigns, the biggest debate in town is the horror that is bottled water and the waste that the industry creates.

The production, transportation and disposal of water in petrochemical plastic bottles consumes big amounts of water along with energy, and creates ridiculous quantities of greenhouse gases and waste.

Director of the hot new documentary ‘Tapped: get off the bottle’ Stephanie Soechtig claims “1500 water bottles end up in landfill every second – that’s 30 million water bottles a day! We wanted to show people just how much waste is generated by bottled water.” The team behind Tapped are pushing the documentary with an across-America roadshow, taking money from citizens to reduce their water bottle waste and exchanging their used plastic water bottle for a reusable stainless steel bottle. Download Tapped from Amazon or iTunes.

A short film ‘The Story of Bottled Water’ was released on World Water Day in March. From the pen of Annie Leonard of the famous ‘The Story of Stuff’, this animated film delves into the methodology that is behind conning Americans into purchasing more than five hundred million bottles of water a week, instead of a few cents cost for tapwater. See this new documentary on You Tube.

In her book ‘Bottlemania’, writer Elizabeth Royte explores one of the greatest marketing coups of the twentieth century and provides a sudden environmental alarm. She investigates the situations we must at some point answer to. Who appropriates our water? What happens when a bottled-water business stakes a claim on your town’s water source? Is the water coming out of the tap entirely safe? What really is the environmental footprint of making, transportation and disposal of a plastic water bottle?

Politicians from all around the world are beginning to understand that they must take responsibility – particularly when the places in which they serve are major consumers of bottled water. How often do we view a politician at a conference sipping from a water bottle. They might use a water glass in Parliament House.

Leslie Samuelrich of Corporate Accountability International, said “Cities and states are spending hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars on bottled water, and that’s not to mention what’s spent to deal with all the plastic bottles that are thrown out.”

In July 2009, the NSW rural town of Bundanoon became the first place of Australia to prohibited the sale of bottled water. Some 60 places in the American states and some in Canada and the UK have at this point banned the expenditure of taxpayer holdings on bottled water.

It is doubtless that these problems will be discussed in World Water Week 2010 from September 5 to 11 in Stockholm, Sweden, the annual meeting for the environment’s most current water-related issues.

Article written by Tracey Bailey, founder of Biome Eco Stores.

You are doing the right thing for the planet by filling up at home and carrying a reusable water bottle and you’ve chosen a safe, non-toxic bottle-but if it’s not kept clean then it may not be healthy.

Whether your drink bottle is a stainless steel bottle, SIGG bottle or a BPA free plastic water bottle, it is important to stop mould and other deposits forming in the bottle.

Wash your drink bottles with warm, soapy water at the end of every day and let the bottle air dry upside down with the top off every day where possible.

Should any mineral deposits or lime scale form inside, fill your clean water bottle with Distilled White Vinegar and let it soak for 24 hours. Then rinse with warm water mixed with one tablespoon of bicarbonate of soda (baking soda), rinse out and let dry. Spots inside the bottle that look like “corrosion” are most likely a mineral deposit.

Fill your bottle with filtered water wherever possible. It tastes so much better, but also because water contains different minerals in every area this may affect what happens inside your bottle.

Do not allow liquids such as fruit juice to ferment inside the bottle.

With all reusable water bottles you can also try SIGG cleaning tablets and a specially-designed SIGG bottle cleaning brush, or simply a baby bottle brush. Only ever use a soft brush on aluminium bottles with lining like SIGG so as not to damage the lining. Stainless steel water bottles like Klean Kanteen and Nathan can handle a hard brush.

While all bottles are technically dishwasher-safe, it is recommended to not put them in a dishwasher. Most dishwasher powders are caustic, so they will eat into the metal of your bottle and damage the exterior pattern. Bottle tops should also not be put in the dishwasher because extreme heat expands and deteriorates the plastic.

Never freeze metal bottles as metal can split even with only a little water inside. Water does not always expand in a predictable direction! Freezing plastic water bottles is also not advisable because it may cause the plastic to breakdown and toxins to leach. It is fine to place your bottle in the refrigerator.

Tips on cleaning your water bottle brought to you by Biome Eco Stores Australia.