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Water Bottles Go High Tech

2011-05-04T16:08:00Z

Water bottles are just a vessel for holding water, right? No matter if they are made out of PET, Glass, Stainless Steel, etc., they are not supposed to talk with us.

Heard of Smartwater? Now you will here about smart bottles. A company named Hydrocoach has introduced a high tech bottle that tells you how much water you should drink, then digitally monitors your progress all day long.
The bottle prompts you to keep sipping until your personal goal is reached!

I think that is pretty cool because drinking enough water is essential for digestion, circulation, and regulating body temperature, as well as assist with weight loss. Believe it or not, there are many people who suffer from symtems of dehydration and dont know it until it is too late. So drink up!

Taking It To The Streets

2010-10-04T20:08:00Z

I came across this NY Times article and thought it would make a good companion article to my blog about street vendors selling bottled water in Washington DC during the July 4th holiday week-end.

Water Vendors Profit From the Heat

By SAM DOLNICK

With the sun pounding down on Church Avenue in central Brooklyn, Johanna Washington dipped her fingers into an ice-cold cooler and shook her head as a man in a blue T-shirt approached, water bottles in hand.

He and his dripping shopping cart marked the fourth competitor to set up shop at her intersection on Thursday afternoon, and she was not pleased to find herself part of a chorus chanting the same song: “Cold water, cold water.”

A 59-year-old woman with dark blue eyes and bright pink toenails, Ms. Washington has spent most days of this likely-to-be-New-York’s-hottest month behind a cooler strapped to a shopping cart at Flatbush and Church Avenues, hoping to hydrate the masses, one bottle, and one dollar, at a time.

Her pitch, often delivered beneath a wide-brimmed straw hat that rests atop a cascade of gray dreadlocks, is simple. Her water can be bought without having to break stride. (It also comes with a “Thank you, dear” in a lilting Caribbean accent.)

As July’s historic heat wave has done its best to suffocate New York, the dollar-water brigade has popped up in sun-drenched parks and, amid honking intersections, is the latest small-scale entrepreneur to dot the city. They are the hot-weather counterparts to the umbrella vendors who materialize outside subway stations at every drizzle. And though the city considers it against the law to sell water without a license, many sidewalk peddlers are doing record business.

Ms. Washington, who has been selling water for five summers, said she usually picked up three cases of Poland Spring for a total of $16.62 from the local Pioneer supermarket. She arrives on her corner about 2 p.m. and generally stays until 8. If she sells all 72 bottles, as she has several times this month, that is about $55 in her pocket, or about $9 an hour. She does this two to four days a week, depending partly on the weather, between her other odd jobs, like baby-sitting and flower arranging.

Ms. Washington said she found the hot weather as draining as anyone else, but each morning she wakes up hoping for a scorcher. “If somebody has a snowplow, wouldn’t they like to see snow?” she asked. “I don’t like hot weather, but it is my business.”

She has had to make some sacrifices for the work. She has no air-conditioner at home because the overburdened freezers that chill her bottles keep her electricity bill high enough. After an afternoon on the corner, evenings are spent soaking her aching feet in a warm bath.

“I can’t sit when I’m selling,” she said. “I always have to be moving and talking.”

Ms. Washington, who lives a few blocks away, chats up neighbors and makes friends with customers. The other day, she wore a flower pin on her pink tank top that the daughter of one thirsty patron had stuck to her shirt. On less humid days, she has found, people turn to sweets — soda, juice, ices. But on the stickiest days, bountiful this summer, she is very popular.

“I’m good at selling,” she said with a shrug and a sly smile. Case in point: “Poland Spring reminds me of water I used to drink from the river in Trinidad as a child. It’s very natural.”

Before water, Ms. Washington sold hair accessories, grilled corn and Caribbean snacks from the sidewalk. Those each involved more work and higher overhead. But this summer of swelter has brought increased competition on the dollar-water circuit.

“I have to beat the iron while it’s hot,” Ms. Washington said. “I have to sell water right now.”

Study Highlights Advantages of Recycled PET Bottles

2010-08-24T17:13:00Z

The American National Association for PET Container Resources recently concluded a study that has found that recycled PET saves energy and generates less greenhouse gas. The report also concludes that incorporating recycled PET resin from plastic bottles into new containers reduces the environmental footprint of that package significantly.

Bottled Water companies are beginning to offer water bottles made from recycled bottled water bottles. At Bottled Water Store.com, private label bottled water can be found packed in new RPET recycled plastic bottles. These products have proven to be highly popular already in the short time since they have been introduced.

Novel Way To Re-Use Plastic Water Bottles

2010-07-15T13:03:00Z

I am a big fan of recycling and reusing plastic bottles. Especially bottled water bottles. Recycling plastic has been going on for a long time but recently I learned of two novel ways used plastic bottles are being turned into new products. Well, the first one isn't exactly about turning water bottles into something different. It's about turning a water bottle, or bottles, into water bottles. A California company that specializes in private label bottled water now produces water bottles made from recycled water bottles. The product is called RPET and is 100% recycled plastic water bottles. You can see and learn more about these at Bottled Water Store.com.

And for for something completely different. I read about this in a recent issue of Time magazine. Nine World Cup soccer teams wore uniforms made from recycled plastic bottles. Nike, Coke and Reebok are leading this new fashion trend. And, according to the article author Joel Stein, the uniforms are especially soft and very comfortable. And Nike says that the uniforms are lighter, sturdier, and breathier than and other Nike uniform shirt that has come before. And they are made solely out of plastic! Coca-Cola's shirts are made of half plastic and half cotton are are may be even softer than Nike.

In the future, look for of these shirts and uniforms on sale at boutique stores and at Wal-mart. Also, Reebok will soon be collecting bottles from NFL and NHL games and turning them into shirts to sell to fans.

America's Birthday Celebrated with Party's, Fireworks and Bottled Water

2010-07-09T15:40:00Z

July 4th is a great American holiday and the milestone event of summer months. America's birthday is jubilant and exciting with barbecue, picnics, party's and fireworks. And lets not forget Bottled Water.

July 4th really kicks off the summer vacation season which is, especially this year, extremely hot. I just returned from a few days vacation in Washington DC where my family and I toured all of the great capital government buildings and monuments. We also watched the National July 4th parade. The temparature was 100+ degrees! Was it ever hot. There must have been a million people in DC last week end. The streets were packed and everyone was dealing as best they could with the heat. Thankfully, there were bottled water vendors everywhere. Really, everywhere. Apparently the July 4th holiday is a great opportunity for street vendors and people who might not normally sell things on the street, to sell bottled water. You could see them everywhere hauling coolers and cases of bottled water to "hot" spots on the capital streets. Very often they had their children in tow. For some vendors this was a family affair and an opportunity not to miss.

From time to time I couldn't help but think that the July 4th parade and the entire week-end might not have possible without bottled water. The only way to survive last week end was to stay hydrated. I have blogged many times on the insanity of considering a ban on bottled water. This was proof right before my eyes of how right I am. Bottled Water is a product and service that everyone wants. The city also impressed me with the way that they collected the empties. They had people walking through the crowds with large plastic bags collecting the empties and staging them in designated areas so that the could be picked up later by trucks.

My hat is off to DC. They endorsed a way for citizens to produce some income. They made sure that their visitors were properly hydrated and they efficiently cleaned the streets and recycled the bottles.

Introducing Environmentally Friendly Water Bottled Labels

2010-04-14T14:37:00Z

The past year has seen bottled water companies announcing various ways to reduce the carbon footprint of bottled water bottles. We now have "Environmentally Friendly" bio-degradable bottles, bottles with reduced volumes of plastic material, and recycled plastic bottles.

Now the latest development comes from a South African company, Stora Enso. The new product, called NeoSet, is a full wet strength paper label that contains "post-consumer-waste" (recycled) (PCW) fiber.

NeoSet is a one-side coated wet strength label containing a high percentage of PCW-fibers. It meets all the requirements of label papers specifically used for the production of labels for water and soft drink bottles. NeoSet is produced at Stora Enso's Uetersen Mill in Germany.

"With NeoSet we respond to the growing interest from brand owners in packaging solutions with further improved ecological efficiency characteristics," says Eckhard Kallies, VP for Packaging Papers. "We improve the environmental profile by replacing a high percentage of virgin fiber with post-consumer-waste content.

US bottled water industry has small environmental footprint

2010-03-15T18:58:00Z

This information is very well worthwhile to report. The Bottled Water Industry in my opinion has never been a major contributor to global warming yet the manufacturers are trying very hard to reduce their footprint even more.

The International Bottled Water Association (IBWA) recently commissioned a Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) study to determine the environmental footprint of the US bottled water industry. The results indicate that bottled water has a very small environmental footprint.

The study found:

Measurement based on British Thermal Units (BTUs) indicates that the energy consumed to produce small-pack bottled water containers (from 8oz to 2.5 gallons) amounted to only 0.067% of the total energy use in the US in 2007. Home and Office Delivery (HOD) bottled water (reusable bottles from 2.5 to 5 gallons) energy consumption only amounted to 0.003% of the total energy used in the US in 2007.
The small-pack and HOD bottled water industries’ combined greenhouse gas/CO2 emissions amounted to only 0.08% of total US greenhouse gas emissions.
Bottled water packaging discards accounted for only 0.64% of the 169m tonnes of total US Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) discards in 2007.
The process and transportation BTU energy use for the bottled water industry was only 0.07% of total US BTU primary energy consumption.
Greenhouse gas emissions per half-gallon of single-serve bottled water came to 426.4g CO2 equivalent, which is 75% less CO2 eq per half-gallon than orange juice.
Small-pack bottled water generates 46% less CO2 eq when compared to soft drinks also packaged in PET plastic.

Franklin Associates, a division of ERG, produced the LCI and prepared a report that quantified the energy requirements, solid waste generation and greenhouse gas emissions for the production, packaging, transport and end-of-life management for bottled water consumed in the US in 2007.

According to a 2008 Beverage Marketing Corporation report, total consumption of bottled water in the US in 2007 was 8.8bn gallons.

The environmentally aware actions of many bottled water companies – such as the use of more recycled PET (rPET) in their bottle production, increasing recycling rates, and enhanced lightweighting – have positively impacted the environmental footprint of the industry.

Another recent study confirms the bottled water industry’s very small environmental footprint. On 2 March 2010, Nestlé Waters North America, an IBWA member, released peer-reviewed findings on its environmental footprint in a study conducted by Quantis International.

Key findings from the study include:

Water is the least environmentally ‘impactful’ beverage option.
Tap water has lightest footprint, followed by tap water consumed in reusable bottles (if used more than 10 times), and then by bottled water.
Bottled water is the most environmentally responsible packaged drink choice.
Sports drinks, enhanced waters and soda produce nearly 50% more carbon dioxide emissions per serving than bottled water.
Juice, beer and milk produce nearly three times as many carbon dioxide emissions per serving than bottled water.
Milk, coffee, beer, wine and juice together comprise 28% of a consumer’s total beverage consumption, but represent 58% of climate change impact.

Source: International Bottled Water Association

More Info: Bottled Water Store.com

Planet Green - The Environmenatlly Friendy Bottled Water

2010-03-03T22:28:00Z

The newest entry into the world of "Green" bottled water products is "Planet Green". What makes it green is it's bottle. It is made entirely of

plant material, including corn. The bottle is 100% biodegradable, as long as it is returned to the manufacturer for special composting.

The water itself is highly purified using a process very similar to Smartwater. Filtration, deionization, reverse osmosis, vapor distillation and ozonation. Then minerals are added for taste. I wonder if Planet Green makes you as smart as Smartwater does?

The bottlers want you to be real smart and stop buying water packaged in petroleum based plastic bottles. They say that by drinking their water you will help reduce global warming, carbon emissions and our dependency on oil.

Green Planet is now available on-line at bottledwaterstore.com .

Custom Label Bottled Water Review

2010-01-15T15:58:00Z

Custom label bottled water is a very popular form of advertising. Many companies, large and small find that custom label bottled water is an inexpensive way to advertise their company and their products. The average cost of a custom labels bottle of water is approximately $0.40. Compare this to other advertising specialty products and you will see that the cost is actually quite low. A distinct advantage is that in additional to incorporating a company logo, which is all that is allowed on many ad specialty items like pens, letter openers, tape measures, bottle labels can have all kinds of text messages. Astute marketer can include on their labels telephone numbers, addresses, web sites, promotional messages and much more.

But customizing bottled water is not just for business. Churches and other faith based groups utilize their own private labeled bottled water to announce services and spread the word of the lord. Other non-profit groups such as baseball leagues, soccer leagues, cheer leading organizations, schools, use this ad medium for fund raising. And civic groups such as towns and cities customize bottled water labels with messages to promote causes of interest.

Custom label bottled water is a cost efficient means for marketing and promotion.

Fact: Drinking "Smartwater" Does Make You Smart

2009-12-16T16:46:00Z

New bottled water products are launched all the time. There are probably two dozen a year. Sadly, or luckily,depending on the product, most of these fail or disappear within months. But there is one product became highly successful but has won the hearts and minds of the American bottled water consumer. That product is Glaceau "Smartwater".

Smartwater was launched approximately 5 years ago along with Glaceau's other successful product line of Vitamin waters. But Smartwater is the purified water product with added electrolytes (calcium and magnesium additives) that promises to make you smart if you drink it. How can you go wrong with a promise like that. And thousands over the years have accepted the challenge.

The original bottles included a "Genius" meter printed on the side of the bottle. The more you drank the smarter you became and when the bottle was empty the meter indicated that you reached genius level. Very cute. Very creative.

Smartwater continues to be a huge selling product for the Coca Cola company which purchased the product line from Energy Brands in 2007. Smartwater can be found in many retail stores and also on-line at Bottled Water Store.com<a href="http://www.bottledwaterstore.com/smartwater.htm"></a>. Smartwater is the best selling product at Bottled Water Store.com. Customers like to have cases delivered to their door at home or work and often purchased Smartwater as gifts.

Maintaining Well Run Municipal Drinking Water Systems

2009-11-11T15:58:00Z

Bottled water is the only source of competition for municipal water treatment services. Sometimes it's price is criticized as too high because it is vastly more expensive per liter than municipal drinking water. But the price is often attacked as too low because it does not include the environmental cost of the plastic containers. Ideally, bottled beverages and goods of all kinds should include the environmental costs of the products. It is nonsensical to ban plastic water bottles but not to ban plastic bottles of Coke or Pepsi. For that matter, consider all of the products we all purchase consistantly and packaged in plastic that after use goes directly into the trash.

Bottled water and municipal water is highly regulated yet the quality of municipal as well as rural drinking water is not consistent across the country. The potential result of banning bottled water would be to eliminate choice for consumers.

Bottled Water To The Recsue - Again

2009-10-09T14:21:00Z

Hardly a week goes by that I don't get an Email or a comment to a blog from someone who is anti bottled water. It is of course perfectly respectable to have an opinion pro or con about anything but what usually happens is that, in the end, the writer is just pushing a product of some sort. These are usually water filters, RO systems, tap water etc. Please don't misunderstand stand me, these are wonderful products and I am involved with all of them, more than you would think. So it is that when the writer recommends the end of bottled water for much overplayed reasons, I cant help but become dismayed. That is because not one of the substitutions for bottled water has ever saved lives in an emergency, such as a hurricane or flood.

A town in Palm Beach County Florida has what is being referred to as a "cancer cluster" because of an unusually high incidence of and deaths from various forms of brain cancer. All of the homes in this community get their water from private wells. These wells have been tested to determine if the water is the cause of the problems. For the most part the wells tested negative for most potential cancer causing cataminates. A small sampling of the wells did have elevated levels of radium or radioactive alpha particles. Much of our water throught out the country contains various levels if radium-226 or 228 but typically in amounts well below EPA standards. The radium in the ground water is being investigated as a potential source of the health problem.

On Thursday the community received a visit from one of Americas most famous consumer advocate and anti-pollution crusader Erin Brockovitch. Remember the oscar winning movie starring Julia Roberts?

Ms Brockovitch's advise to the residents of this village in turmoil was to remain calm and to try not to panic while the she and the state agencies work to determine the cause of the problem. She advised everyone at the meeting to take short showers and "Drink Bottled Water".

For more about how important bottled water is for our society, check out another story about bottled water saving lives, just this week, at www.bottledwaterstories.blogspot.com.

The Beverage Guidance System

2009-09-24T16:00:00Z

The Beverage Guidance System was developed by a panel of experts headed by Dr. Barry Popkin at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Over the past several decades, levels of overweight and obesity have increased across all population groups in the United States. Concurrently, an increased daily intake of 150–300 kcal (for different age-sex groups) has occurred, with approximately 50% of the increased calories coming from the consumption of calorically sweetened beverages. The panel ranked beverages from the lowest to the highest value based on caloric and nutrient contents and related health benefits and risks. Drinking water was ranked as the preferred beverage to fulfill daily water needs and was followed in decreasing value by tea and coffee, low-fat (1.5% or 1%) and skim (nonfat) milk and soy beverages, noncalorically sweetened beverages, beverages with some nutritional benefits (fruit and vegetable juices, whole milk, alcohol, and sports drinks), and calorically sweetened, nutrient-poor beverages. The Panel recommends that the consumption of beverages with no or few calories should take precedence over the consumption of beverages with more calories.

In an effort to help Americans make better decisions, the beverages are assigned categories from level 1 to level 6. Popkin recommends beverages in levels 1 through 3 while beverages in levels 4 though 6 should be consumed in great moderation.

Water of course, is the best hydration fluid and is level 1. The entire report can be downloaded from bottledwaterstore.com by clicking on this link: http://www.bottledwaterstore.com/bevguidesys.pdf

One Municipality Above the Rest

2009-08-21T12:56:00Z

The past year has seen cities and various other municipalities across the US and worldwide initiate or support initiatives to ban the sale of bottled water. The claimed motivation is to reduce the amount of plastic bottles that end up in landfills. I believe that this thinking is misguided considering that there are a plethora of bottles, both plastic and glass that also end up in landfills. I can talk a lot more about that. In fact I will in another blog.

For now I wish to congratulate the folks at Flagler County FL for their intelligence and thoughtfulness demonstrated by their new recycling initiative. The county is trying to educate their populace about recycling bottled water bottles. One way in which they are getting the message out is distributing their own bottled water with their message right on the label. Here is the label with their message:

Maybe it is because Flagler County is in Florida, a state that recognizes the value and importance that bottled water provides. Besides the convenience and portable hydration provided by bottled water in this hot weather state, bottled water has saved lives during many hurricane situations. When disaster strikes, anywhere in the world, do relief agencies truck in water from municipal water treatment plants and then fill glass bottles for disaster victims? We all know that bottled water is one of the primary relief supplies.

Hats off to Flagler County. Good luck with your recycling campaign.

More Disinformation in the Media About Water

2009-07-10T19:32:00Z

It seems that every six months or so, another delusive study about bottle water is released. What is worse is that the mass media loves to broadcast and print the disinformation. The result is that thousands of intelligent citizens are treated liked idiots.

The latest report to make my blood boil was released this week. The Government Accountability Office and the Environmental Working Group(who are they?)claim that consumers know less about the water they buyin bottles then the water that comes out of the tap. They say this is because bottles do not contain the same information that municipal water producers must disclose. Well, here is my first argument.

Does anyone know what their tap water contains? Do you know what the tapwater your served in the restaurant contains? I don't remember a waiter ever offering me a water analysis when I'm in a restaurant. Maybe itwas on the bottom of the glass!

The reality is that once a year municipalities are required to provide each customer with a water analysis. Most people would not understand them. Most people likelyt hrow them away, I speculate. The labels on bottled water contain some information including the source of the water and some mineral content.They are too small to contain the whole 22 page water analysis. But mandatory on every bottle is a contact telephone number to call to request this information.

The Bottled Water industry is highly regulated and most reputable bottled water companies adhere to FDA regulations. Most are members of the IBWA, International Bottled Water Association which requires that their members adhere to their strict rules.

Because I defend the bottled water industry, as well ascitizens rights to choose what ever beverage they please, you might think that I do not approve of tap water. Contrarily, I think the major municipal water utilities do a good job treating our water supplies andprovide a safe product. A major problem that seems to be always overlooked by those that decry bottled water and recommend tap is thatpeople do recognize that tap water has problems and is just not as convenient to obtain when away from home. The chief problem,particularly where I live in Florida, is the taste. The water contains chlorine necessary for sanitation but unfortunately departs a bad tasteand odor. Many restaurants serve water with lemon for that reason. If you filter it with a carbon filter the water tastes very good. Yea fortap water. Unfortunately, most of use do not carry our filtration equipment with us when we travel to work, the park the gym etc. Mucheasier to buy a bottle of water.

Bottled water companies process water much the same way municipalities do. The difference is that one is a government entity and the other is for profit. If the for profit screws up they can be out of business. If the government entity screwsup, we all boil water for a week but they keep on going. So we trust Nestle, Coke, Pepsi, Evian, Poland Spring and the many other well known brands to do the right thing.

When I watch video of government meetings I rarely see anything but bottled water on the table. When the GAO presented their report before a sub-committee of congress, I wonder what was on the table in front of every attendee, tap or bottled water?

Claims Agains Bottled Water Unfounded

2009-05-13T16:13:00Z

One claim is that bottled water is no different than tap water. Well, it is different in a lot of ways. One being it is in a bottle so the delivery system is completely different, which makes it a convenient option for people who are on the go. The package also ensures that it is sanitary. It is different than tap water, which travels through pipes and has other issues.

Environmentalists have said that bottled water is simply bottled tap water, but in reality 75% of bottled water is from springs and natural sources. The rest of it, if it is bottled from municipal sources, is treated and has to meet certain standards and regulations beyond what the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) regulations are for tap water. The standards for bottled water are different—they basically meet EPA regulations plus packaging regulations, which are just as stringent, if not more.

Another claim is that bottled water is unduly wasteful, more wasteful than other products, but there is really no evidence for that. It is not a huge portion of solid waste, and putting taxes and bans on it is not going to have much of an impact on the amount of waste that goes into a landfill. Bottled water containers are recyclable and the part of the story that is not being told is that the 5-gal containers are recycled at nearly a 100% rate. They are used 30 to 50 times over, so they are an environmentally friendly product from that perspective.

There are also a lot of claims about the chemicals in the products, but a lot of times the chemicals referred to do not even appear in the bottles. BPA is not found in single-serving containers. It is found in the 5-gal containers, but at such a low level that it is inconsequential. There has never been a public health issue cited from [chemicals in bottled water containers], it’s just speculative and way overblown.

Just a Few Reasons Why We Love Bottled Water

2009-04-15T21:36:26Z

Bottled Water, the fasted growing beverage category of the last 20 years is under attack. After being hailed as a natural healthy alternative to soft drinks and other sugary beverages, it is being maligned from environmentalists and those that seek favor in a "Green" sort of way. But all this shall soon pass.

Why? Because bottled water fulfills our need to be mobile and hydrated. Or, if in a meeting, have a source of sealed safe water to quench our thirst. There are many ways bottled water serves as a convenience in our daily lives. One common way that comes to mind is the bottle of water in our car. Or maybe when taking the baby or dog or both for a long walk. On the way to work out or play a sport and forgot to bring your bottle from home, buy a bottle of water.

Do you coach kid sports? Do you fill 15 bottles in your kitchen sink or bring do you fill a 3 gallon jug, buy and bring them to the field for the kids? A case of bottled water costs less than $5 and fits in a cooler. Easy. Also sealed and safe.

Don't get the idea that I don't believe in bottling tap water, because I do. And I have been doing it for years. But that is because my tap water is filtered and dechlorinated and tastes great. Like bottled water. But most people do not have filters on their tap water and when tap water is not cold it often tastes bad as a result of the chlorine and organic content that is normally present.

Bottled water provides many other conveniences so I think that once the assault is over it will emerge as healthy and desirable as ever. Bottled Water is here to stay.
Purchase or learn more about bottled water.

Redesigned Bottles for a Green Environment

2009-03-04T13:41:00Z

Bottled water companies continue toward their goal of reducing the impact of plastic bottles on the environment. One way bottlers are making a contribution is by reducing the amount of PET content in each bottle. Brand owners are steadily taking advantage of an average 2-gram material savings on bottle and the cap achieved through moving to light weight closures and reducing wall thickness. Further work is being done involving the shape of bottles along with the development of ultra might weight bottles such as Sidels "No Bottle" and Krones ultra light weight alternative.

This month Evian revealed its carbon footprint as part of Evian's new sustainable development initiative. It's 1 liter bottled water equals 198 grams (.436 pounds) of CO2. That's the equivalent of less than one mile driven in the family car. One liter of Evian consumed is less than .5 percent of a typical persons daily footprint.

An alternative to PET may be bottles made from plants. The increase in global input prices, energy prices and increased environmental concern has renewed interest inbio-polymers such as PLA,PHA and PGA. As costs increase these renewable pack types approach price parity and rapid technological advances in terms of clarity and rigidity has led to brand manufacturers taking increased interest in these alternatives.

Another new alternative is Reverte oxo-biodegradable (oxo-bio) PET plastic preforms and bottles introduced by Norland Intl. and Planet Green Bottle Corp. These bottles break down naturally and in most cases turn to CO2 and moisture within 5 to 10 years. Reverte has been formulated for a two year shelf life and the degradation process is triggered by UV light, heat and moisture. Plastic bottles containing the Reverte technology will degrade in landfills, ditches, rivers and oceans.

City of Chicago Levies Tax on Bottled Water

2009-02-05T14:55:00Z

I first learned of the tax several months ago when I received a letter from Tammy Steels, Executive Director of the Urban Sustainability Authority, based in Chicago.The Urban Sustainability Authority is a 5013c non-profit organization dedicated to environment and health.
The letter was sent to inform me that, effective July 1, 2008, the city had issued a special access tax on the sale of bottled water. The tax adds $1.20 to a case of bottled water purchased in Chicago. Urban Sustainability, www.urbansustain.org, is fighting to reverse this "misleading and unhealthy" tax. The group has created PROJECT H2GO as a way of saying no to Chicago's tax "on this planet's healthiest beverage".

It is assumed thast the tax was created to reduce the amount of plastic bottles in landfills. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, cardboard and yard waste are the top trash in landfills, not plastic bottles.

There are great many reason why water, essential to life on this planet, is not taxed in most of the world, except Chicago. I believe they are very obvious and that water in any form should not be taxed. What do you think? I'd also like to know how the Urban Sustainability Authority is progressing with PROJECT H2GO.

We are Water! All Things Are Water!

2009-01-19T16:03:00Z

More than perhaps any other element of life on earth, water makes possible the existence of all living organisms. When two hydrogen atoms fasten to one oxygen atom, they create an asymmetrically shaped molecule. The hydrogen atoms are drawn together slightly on one side of the oxygen atom, creating a positive charge on one side of the water molecule and a negative charge on the other. The opposite charges create an effect similar to a magnetic attraction that bonds water molecules to neighboring water molecules and to other substances. This remarkable chemical circumstance knits together the fabric of life.

The aggregate accumulation of water molecules is a substance that flows at normal temperatures. Most other fluids i.e. milk and blood are water-based. They are made of non-liquids suspended in water.

Without the motion and the distribution system that moving water provides, the elements of life would never connect, their commingling under sunlight would not produce the complicated carbon compounds that lead eventually to cells, cells would not be able to gather as the moist organized and specialized cell colonies we call tissue, their aggregation would have no exchanging processes, no supply systems of food and breath, the eye would not see, the brain would not compute, the muscle would not move.

By and large, the characteristics of the water molecule that make it life-giving are freakish properties. They are, more often than not, exceptions to basic chemical rules.

Almost every other substance becomes heavier, smaller, and denser as it changes from a liquid to a solid. But water expands and grows lighter, so that ice floats. If that does not seem remarkable, it should. If water acted like other substances, its solid form, ice, would sink. The floor of the sea and the bottoms of lakes would accumulate ice. Gradually, winter after winter, the ice would lock up more and more water until there would be none running free on the planet. There would be no life on earth.

More substances can be dissolved by water than by any other material. The water molecule, with its magnet like opposite charges, is able to carry other substances suspended within itself, making it a nearly universal solvent.

Water is able to climb of its own accord, a feat that results in capillary action in soils and in plants. Without this characteristic, water would not travel from the deepest root tip to the highest leaf. There would be no internal flow of nutrients in complicated organisms, and thus no complicated organisms. The trick occurs because the attraction of water molecules to themselves and to other molecules is so strong that they are drawn upward from one foreign molecule to another, always pulling along the adjacent water molecules. The climb is halted only by gravity.

Great amounts of heat can be absorbed by water, making seas, rivers, lakes, and clouds vast energy storage banks. The release of stored heat from the ocean, for example, moderates climates, making coastal winters milder than those only a few miles inland.

Human blood, excluding the cells and proteins, has the same general composition as seawater.

Through a fortunate accident, Planet Earth is the right distance from the sun to make the existence of life-giving water possible. Closer to the sun the heat is so intense that water would be vaporized; farther away, water would be permanently frozen. Only Mars, of the other planets in the solar system, is in the narrow temperature band in which water can exist in all three states. But only Earth is blanketed by a living, water-built biosphere, in which the lifesource itself seems to issue from water's evaporation, precipitation, runoff, seepage, transpiration from plants, respiration from animals, melting, freezing, and flowing. Earth, as far as we know, is the only water planet.

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