On Tap: Bottled Water Drains Resources

Let’s face it, in the belly of the recession, with about 14 million of us uemployed, concerns about things like recycling tend to move to the back burner. In a state of economic triage, how can we afford to think about “saving the trees?”

But it’s a false choice, because reducing unnecessary consumption and recycling save both resources and money, while being easier on the planet.

Take bottled water. In the U.S., where we are the top consumers of bottled water in the world, a bottle of water costs somewhere between $0.50 and $2.00. Tap water, depending on where you live, can cost something like $2.00 - $2.50 per CCF, where a CCF (100 cubic feet of water) is equal to 748 gallons. Now that’s thirst quenching.

Is bottled water more highly regulated for safety? No. The FDA keeps an eye on bottled water; the EPA oversees water from the tap. But under the EPA, water utilities must provide consumer confidence reports annually on water quality; whereas the FDA does not require that kind of reporting from bottled water manufacturers.

Also, bottled water is expensive to process, package, transport, and distribute. A study by the Pacific Institute found that in 2006, “producing the bottles for American consumption required the equivalent of more than 17 million barrels of oil, not including the energy for transportation.” Also, it takes water to make water. According to this same study, it took 3 liters of water for every 1 bottled liter produced. And then there’s landfill. Recycling reduces waste and cost - but buying less bottled water in the first place is the real resource-saver.

The bottom line? Studies find that bottled water is often no healthier than water you get from the tap, but it costs 10,000 times more. At the same time, the production and consumption of bottled water increases use of fossil fuels, and raises greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution.

No doubt: It’s hot out. We all need a long, cold drink. But why not serve it up at cost that we can really afford - and a price we want to pay?

Resources and to Learn More:

Pacific Institute Factsheet on Bottled Water

Story of Stuff Video: Bottled Water

Discovery Channel: Bottled Water Carries Hidden Costs

San Francisco Department of Public Health - Bottled Water vs. Tap: Making the Healthy Choice

Special thanks to photographer Maheash Nelanka for sharing an image of water in Creative Commons!

Plastic Bag Gets Boot in Brownsville

A high-pitched scream emanating from a million single use plastic bags could be heard across the Valley on January 5th when Brownsville became the first Texas City to roll out a plastic bag ban. Or did that pain cry come from the executives of Texas’ plastics industry?

If the latter, it may be in large part because plastics turned out to be as lucrative as Mr. McGuire implied when he told Ben in The Graduate to think about the “great future in plastics.”

Soon after 1967, when The Graduate hit U.S. theaters, plastics streamed into American grocery stores. And since their introduction in the 1970s, they have come to dominate the grocery market. As the cost to produce plastic bags fell to a penny per bag, the industry grew, and bag use became ubiquitous at checkout counters. It is said that today between eighty and ninety percent of all grocery bags are plastic.

Your bananas merit a plastic bag and so do your eggs, milk and bread--all before slipping inside another bag. We bag just about everything as if encasing vegetables and fruits in translucent film could protect us and our families from life’s larger, unseen harms.

But the urge to enwrap has ushered in a new era of pollution and waste.

“Plastic - especially plastic bags and PET bottles - is the most pervasive type of marine litter around the world,” according to research by the United Nations Environmental Programme. The finding was followed by a call by the UNEP for a World-Wide Ban on Pointless Thin Film Plastic Bags.

“[Plastic bag] manufacture requires large quantities of petroleum,” reports Newsweek, “And, once discarded, they tend to take flight in a puff of wind, snagging in trees and fences or floating in bodies of water, where they can choke marine life and birds. As litter, a plastic bag's life expectancy is far greater than a human's — 1,000 years or more.”

Adding to this list of concerns, the City of Brownsville asserted that plastic shopping bags…

• “have a significant impact on the environment such as contributing to unsightly litter on the streets, sidewalks, beaches, clogging sewers and drainage systems, and polluting the Resaca waterways”
• “are difficult to recycle and currently contaminate material that is processed through Brownsville composting program”
• “create a burden on the city’s solid waste disposal process"
• “have significant environmental impacts each year, including felling of over 14 million trees, and use of over 12 million barrels of oil for bags in the U.S.; and
• “cause the death of well over 100,000 marine animals."

Based on these problems, Brownsville found that it is “in the best interest of the health, safety, and welfare of the residents of Brownsville to reduce the cost to the city of solid waste disposal, and to protect the environment by banning the use of plastic checkout bags.”

No doubt there are things to iron out with plastic bag bans. Charging customers to buy bags at check out is generally regressive—impacting people the most who have the least. But at least Brownsville and other cities are on a path to sorting this out--and we can help by learning from their experience, passing single use plastic bag bans in our own cities and towns, and sharing what we learn in Texas and other states.

Actions you can take:

1. Use fewer plastic bags and reuse the bags you have. You can recycle used plastic bags by dropping them off at bins located outside HEB stores.

2. Get cloth bags out to everyone. For free. Consider an idea taken up by youth in the Ecoppell Club -- to provide free cloth bags to the residents of Coppell, Texas. Their goal? Eliminate the use of plastic bags not only in Coppell but “in United States and even the world”

3. Support schools, recycling at the same time. You can recycle plastic bags and help schools earn cash through HEB’s Enviro-Bag program.

4. Contact your City Council member to see what plans they have for putting a plastic bag ban on the table.

References:

The Graduate (1967) (video clip)

Marine Litter: A Global Challenge (2009) by the UNEP

Taking Aim at All Those Plastic Bags (NYT article)

Battle of the Bags (newsweek.com)

Copy of the Brownsville Ordinance posted by Plastic Ban Report

Still time to recycle the tree

A lone Christmas tree, rolled onto its side against the median strip, was spotted this morning on I-10, just near Fresno. Maybe it missed this weekend's drop off date but you don't have to.

You can still drop off a tree 8 - 5pm on on January 15th and 16th and while you're there, pick up a little free mulch for the spring garden.

Here's the map of drop off locations and the "411" from Solid Waste Management.

San Anto City Council Says Yes to Recycling for Multi-Family Units

The sky was an especially bright shade of blue that afternoon on December 9th, when San Antonio's City Council voted unanimously to approve the multi-family recycling ordinance that ensures that "residents living in multi-family units have convenient access to recycling programs."

Multi-family recycling, the ordinance asserts, is "a key component of the 10-Year Recycling and Resource Recovery Plan approved by City Council in June 2010 [where] multi-family property units represent approximately 30% of all housing units in San Antonio and generate between 100,000 and 150,000 tons of waste annually."

The plan is to roll out recycling on a schedule that calls upon the biggest complexes to jump in first by July 2011 and to have all complexes--from 3 units to 300 units--on track to recycle by April 2012.

Here is a link to the ordinance with all the concomitant “whereases” and “be it ordaineds (suitable for framing!)

So break out the champagne. Uncork the sparkling cider. Then, save up those bottles for a collection COMING SOON to your apartment, condo or townhouse.

Congratulations to ALL who worked hard on making this happen!

City to Vote today on Apartment Recycling

Get a sitter. Pull out the coat a tie. The City of San Antonio is scheduled to vote today to recycling plan for apartment complexes.

Here's a link to the City Council Agenda:

https://webapps1.sanantonio.gov/agendabuilder/printAgenda.aspx

Place: City Council Meeting, Municipal Plaza Building, City Hall Complex, 114 W. Commerce.

If you can't attend, consider contacting your City Council member today:

http://www.sanantonio.gov/council/

Here is a briefing document, presented by Solid Waste Management

An excerpt:

"Ensuring that San Antonio residents living in multi-family units have convenient access to recycling programs is a key component of the 10-Year Recycling and Resource Recovery Plan approved by City Council in June 2010. Multi-family property units represent approximately 30% of all housing units in San Antonio and generate between 100,000 and 150,000 tons of waste annually. According to the Environmental Protection Agency's estimates, over 50% of household waste is paper, plastic, metals, and glass. These items are generally accepted in a single-stream recycling program."

Here's an article by the San Antonio Express News

Why Moore is not More and Talk on Zero Waste Tomorrow Night

The people who made The Story of Stuff have now produced The Story of Electronics. In it, they note that Moore's law (that digital technology will improve at dramatic if not exponential rates) need not mean More stuff (that electronics must be designed for the lifespan of a fruit fly).

Want to learn more about how to reduce e-waste and take steps on the path toward zero waste? There's a gathering tomorrow night that might be just for you: Why Zero Waste and How to Get There!, convened by the Alamo Sierra Club

Tuesday, November 16, 2010 6:30 PM
Witte Museum, 3801 Broadway, San Antonio TX 78209
210-357-1900

More details:
Join the Alamo Group of the Sierra Club at its monthly general meeting to hear Robin Schneider, Executive Director of Texas Campaign for the Environment and member of Central Texas Zero Waste Alliance, talk about countries, states and cities that are setting goals to significantly reduce waste and create recycling for the 21st century. She will also discuss how the Alamo Area can join with other Central Texas communities to create jobs through sustainable production and consumption.

At the Witte Museum, 3801 Broadway, at 6:30 pm, socializing starts at 6.

Need to catch up on the coverage?

Spread the word. A vote on apartment recycling for the City of San Antonio could reach City Council as early as this winter.

Here's a quick roundup of recent news:

The City of San Antonio is preparing to require apartment complexes to start recycling programs. Story by Texas Public Radio

Vote postponed but still planned for December - Story by San Antonio Express News

Work on ordinance underway - Story by San Antonio Express News