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Dave
Showing posts with label Water. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Water. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Return to the Gyre
For anyone interested in an update on the North Pacific Gyre, the plastic floating mass of garbage in the middle of the pacific, my friend Lyndsay just returned from a month at sea and had an article in the New York Times today. She told me that Captain Moore, who was back out with her, said that it has grown quite a bit since he was last there.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Some new news from the North Pacific Gyre
http://www.insidebayarea.com/ci_13258216?source=most_emailed
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Sigg contains BPA afterall
There are people out there who say that BPA isn't a problem, and as far as I'm concerned, it's academic in this case. The bottom line to me is that they were not honest about their product with consumers.
I used to carry a Sigg bottle and even talked with some folks at the company back in February of last year. But after some research, I decided that i'd be happier with a stainless steel bottle than an aluminum one with the coating. While Sigg states that they have extensively tested these coatings, my thought has always been "Why take a chance?".
According to the president of the company, Steve Wasik, the bottles in question are pre 2008 and you can figure out if you have one and see a list of FAQ here. In addition, if you want to email Steve himself, he can be reached at steve.wasik.ceo(at)sigg.com.
Supposedly they are accepting returns of BPA bottles but I can't find any info. I'll post it up when I do.
Dave
Update: The Sigg Bottle Return Site is http://mysigg.com/bulletin/exchange_program.html. You ahve to get your bottles in by 10/31 and you are required to pay to ship it to them.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
And A Little Town Shall Lead Them
Did you hear the news? Finally, a government led by the people has stood up and said “no” to plastic water bottles and the environmental degradation they cause. And may I say, it’s about time.
The small town of Bundanoon in New South Wales Australia voted last week to officially ban the sale of plastic water bottles from within the cities limits. The 350 residents who turned out to vote (a record by some accounts) agreed almost unanimously with two residents voting no; a gentlemen worried that the ban would increase soda usage, and another resident who just so happens to be a member of the plastic water bottle industry (shocking, no?).
This is huge. Not because of all the “As Bundanoon goes so goes the world” bumper stickers that everyone has seen all these years. And not because this, as a single act, will impact the water bottle industry all that much. But simply because this small group of people stood up and said, this isn’t ok with us anymore, and we’re not going to put up with it. It’s a huge start and as an indication, the town has been inundated by reporters and tourists seeking more information, and perhaps wanting to be a part of the start of the end.
OK. I just read back on all of that and I’m all over the place, so I’m grabbing a glass of tap water (dear lord, not tap water), taking a few deep breaths and I’ll be back in a minute.
There we go, and my apologies, it’s just that I’ve been waiting for this to happen for a while and am so psyched that it has occurred in a town such a Bundanoon. You see, contrary to what you might think, it’s not a town of Uber Hippies looking to drop out, but of ordinary every day citizens who got upset when a Sydney based beverage company announced plans to tap an underground aquifer, siphon off their water, bottle it, and then potentially sell it back to them down the road.
The great thing is that they didn’t just do this and hope everybody was ok with it. Instead, they looked at the establishments in town that would lose revenue and came up with a solution. Instead of selling bottled water, they’d sell reusable containers that can be filled up around town for free or for a small fee, at filtered stations in certain stores. So essentially, they had everything to gain, and not much to lose.
While Bundanoon is a small example of what needs to be done, we can look at them and realize that we are all in the same boat. Is someone tapping the water you are paying 1000 times more than tap water for and then selling it back to you? Most likely not, but having said that, they are tapping someone’s water somewhere and that makes you responsible. Not only for the plastic and all the problems associated with the bottles, but for depleting someone else’s water source so you can buy something that for a good many of us reading this, comes into our house practically free and clean. Today it’s Fiji, tomorrow it’s Pittsburgh.
As always, I’ll head a few folks off at the pass and point out that I am only speaking to those of us who live in residences that have clean running water. If you are looking at this piece on your computer, chances are better than not that this means you.
So is it going to take a multinational corporation buying up our water rights for us to stand up and say enough? Or should we all stand up now, join in with Bundanoon and just say no. I know where I stand.
Finally, if you think this won’t have an impact, the government of New South Wales has just announced their own plans to stem the sale of plastic water bottles. Let the ripples begin.
“Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the life of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends a tiny ripple of hope, and those ripples, crossing each other from a million different centers of energy, build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.” Senator Robert F. Kennedy
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
In House Sewage Treatment Coming To An Office Near You
From Wired Magazine.
Picture the lobby atrium of a new, green building, one filled with leafy plants and trees. Now imagine that those trees are growing in waste collected from the building's toilets.
If that idea has the whiff of failure about it, well, sniff again. Increasingly, building designers are managing sewage in-house—really in-house. The Port of Portland, for example, is integrating waste management into the lobby of its new headquarters under construction. The Living Machine uses soil and bacteria to filter out pathogens, essentially turning wastewater into nonpotable water. But the signature element of the system is the plant life that grows up and out of it—right into the lobby. "It's going to provide a kind of greenhouse feel," says Greg Sparks, engineering design manager for the port. "It'll soften the hard edges of the typical office building."
Everybody likes trees, but (aesthetics aside) sending poop from the bathroom to the lobby may seem sort of icky. In environmental terms, though, it's a solid choice. Just as photovoltaics can help take a building off the power grid, living machines take strain off the pipes and municipal wastewater facilities on the "sewage grid." They also show that being green means thinking more creatively about our brown and yellow.
1 Wastewater from the entire building flows into a holding tank where solids settle, like in a septic tank. The reclaimed liquid up top gets pumped to the lobby.
2 Garden-like "wetland cells" layered with plants, soil, and rocks collect the water and capture biological compounds and pathogens.
3 On its way out of the garden, the water is further sterilized by ultraviolet light in the pipes. Then it's recycled back into the plumbing system.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
EWG's Bottled Water Study
The Envirnmental Working Group just released a study of major bottled water brands that is worth a look.
Check it out.
Dave
"Unlike tap water, where consumers are provided with test results every year, the bottled water industry does not disclose the results of any contaminant testing that it conducts. Instead, the industry hides behind the claim that bottled water is held to the same safety standards as tap water. But with promotional campaigns saturated with images of mountain springs, and prices 1,900 times the price of tap water, consumers are clearly led to believe that they are buying a product that has been purified to a level beyond the water that comes out of the garden hose.
To the contrary, our tests strongly indicate that the purity of bottled water cannot be trusted. Given the industry's refusal to make available data to support their claims of superiority, consumer confidence in the purity of bottled water is simply not justified."
Monday, May 4, 2009
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Little Victories
I was working on a TV show yesterday and during rehearsal one of the actors pulled a bottle of water out of the fridge and proceeded to hold it during the scene. We started to set up the shot and I went over to the director, a like minded enviro-head who is concerned about the future of the planet. I mentioned to him that since he was in the directors seat, he had the chance to make a difference. He asked what I was talking about and I pointed out that the actress in question could hold a water bottle and perpetuate the myth that this is a viable way to go in upper class america (the societal section this scene was set in) or he could have her have a glass of water instead. I pointed out that by having the water bottle he was being part of something and by not having it he was stepping out of the problem.
In the end, he had them holding coffee cups for other reasons entirely, but the comment got him thinking in that direction and my hope is that he'll take water bottles out of all future scenes before they get to the rehearsal stage.
Of course, an absence of a water bottle won't change the world, but it's one less opportunity to make them "normal" and I applaud him for his decision!
Score one for the good guys.
Dave
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Plastic Water Bottles, Kids Parties, And Being Different
My kids don't drink out of plastic water bottles. That's not to say that they have never done so, or that they never will again. It's just that early in this year, as my awareness grew to the problems at hand, we decided to get them some stainless steel bottles that were small and had cute little designs on them. They took them to school and not only did they like them, but most of their friends liked them so much that they asked their parents for them, and as a result, the water bottles coming into the classroom are much less than they used to be.
While this works most of the time, we generally fill the bottles up and bring them with us and our kids think nothing of drinking clean LA tap water, it's not foolproof. Take last Thursday.
I went to a party with my daughter at one of her friends house. As is usually the case, I had my backpack and had packed her water bottle for her along with some other things like a cool little plastic set of cutlery she likes which she can use when she has cake if she wants to.
We got there and she started running around with her friends and having a good time. She's 4 so we're still at the point where parents stay, so I sat down and started talking to a few of the other folks I knew there. About 5 minutes later, she came over and asked for some water so I pulled out her bottle, handed it to her, she took a big swig and off she went.
Another 5 minutes or so passed and again, she asked for water, but this time, she didn't want her cool bottle. Instead she pointed to the crate of small water bottles that all the other kids were grabbing from.
Now i know what you are thinking, that my heart sank, that i took her home, that i couldn't bring myself to do it. But actually, quite to the contrary, I reached over, grabbed her one, cracked it open, and gave it to her, much to the shock of some of the folks who know me fairly well and what i've been up to.
Don't get me wrong, it bugs me to have her drinking from plastic, health implications not being my only concern, but that said, life is not an all or nothing game. Even at 4 she gets that drinking out of steel is smarter than plastic (and cooler) but at the same time, she wants to be like her friends. At school she has made that happen, at home parties it can be another story.
Why am i writing this. Partly because it pains me to add a plastic water bottle to the basement, but moreso to throw the idea out there that we all need to do the best we can and recognize that an occasional slip up doesn't nullify everything else we are doing. Life is about steps and as long as the overall path leads forward, we're on the right track.
Allright, jumping down off my soapbox. I've got clean up duty down in the basement, and then I need to play subliminal anti plastic cds in my daughters room for a few hours (I kid).
Dave
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Enough With the Plastic Water Bottles Already
Monday, September 15, 2008
Monday, September 1, 2008
Home Water Testing
These are a few links to home water testing kits and labs that are worth checking out. While I personally think we in the US have all been led to believe that our tap water is no good, in some cases, this is the case and caution should be taken. You can get reports on the water quality in the area you live here, but should you be concerned about the water coming into your personal dwelling due to older pipes or some other problem, you can check out some good inexpensive home tests at Discover Testing, a site that Consumer Reports recommends. If you are looking for a full lab test, these are available for a little under $200. Please note that i have not used either of these companies but understand them to be reputable.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Our Synthetic Sea
An amazing movie from 2002 that shows just what's going on with the plastic in the ocean.
Also check out my friends Marcus and Joel who are sailing a raft made of 15,000 plastic bottles and a Cesna plane fuselage across the pacific to bring awareness to the problem right now!
Dave
Monday, June 30, 2008
US Mayors Vote To Ban Tax Payer Purchased Bottled Water
This is a huge step forward as 250 Mayors around the US have agreed to stop buying bottled water for their employees. According to the article in the Herald Tribune, that cities spend about $70 million a year to dispose of plastic water bottles. Wow. It's high time people started waking up to the fact that these things are not economical on any level and basically make no sense.
Dave
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
How's Your Tap Water
Check out this cool site where you can get info on the quality of your tap water here in the US. For another option, the EPA keeps info that you can check out as well. And once you've checked those sites out and realized that you're in fact not a scientist with a massive attention span for boring reports (sorry folks but they are), here's a good guide to how to decipher them for the average person. By the way, if your water report shows trace amounts of something which sounds scary don't totally freak out. There are a lot of things that we eat and drink every day that don't necessarily do us harm so do a little research before you rip out all your taps.
Dave
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Isn't About Time To Give Up On Plastic Water Bottles?
I'm kind of shocked that with all of the info out there, people still continue to use plastic water bottles. I've asked around and the two main reasons I hear are that it's cheap and it's readily available.
Cheap- OK, I may be cheap, but water bottles are not. Let's say that i drink 3 bottles worth of water every day 300 days out of the year. At $1 a bottle (averaging a bit) that's $900 a year out of my pocket. On the flip side, here in Los Angeles, the same amount of water out of my tap will cost me about $1 from the city. So the cheap thing doesn't really add up. A good metal water bottle will run you $15 or so, but will last about 10 years or more, so that won't put it over the top either. Even if you are one of those folks who thinks your tap water is not good, and want a filter for your house, you're still talking about less than $1 a day. Bottom line is that tap water is cheaper.
Readily Available - Here in the US there is excellent drinking water almost everywhere you go. We've got running taps in houses, businesses, public places and at the beach. In fact, there is water many places (your house) that bottles will never be sold at. So the idea that it is easier to grab a plastic bottle than grabbing your aluminum water bottle is truly ridiculous especially since there are so many places to fill them up.
Now let's look at what drinking out of plastic bottles have going against them.
- Most bottled water is not regulated (meaning you don't know what you are drinking) while tap water is.
- Manufacturing and shipping a bottle of water wastes 5 times as much as is in the bottle.
- Single use plastic bottles can leach BPA (Biphesenol a) which is a hormone disruptor in humans.
- While many bottles are recycled (actually downcycled), over 3 million bottles end up in landfills each day in California alone, and many more end up out at sea and in our rivers.
I can go on and on, but seriously, do you really need more of a reason. Buy yourself a re-usable water bottle and say goodbye to single use plastic containers forever.
Dave
Junk Sets Sail For Hawaii
On Sunday my friends Marcus and Joel set sail for Hawaii on their raft made of and named "Junk". The raft came together quite nicely and they set sail (or more accurately were towed out of the harbor) with the full confidence of the crew and crowd of about 300 who came out to wish them well. One of the cool attendees, shown in the video above, was a guy who sailed across the pacific back in the 50s on a homemade raft. Cool stuff.
Dave
Thursday, May 29, 2008
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