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When the Patriots Path Council called to invite Back2Tap to their Jamboree celebrating 100 years of Boy Scouts, I didn’t really know what to expect. Preparing for the “jambo,” I began to wonder whether any boys would visit a table presenting the evils of bottled water when they could be spear throwing, mountain boarding, bullwhip cracking, or watching an army tank run over a car.
In spite of having about 175 cool activities to choose from, a couple hundred of the 4300 scouts and leaders did find time to spend at the Back2Tap table this past Saturday. Every single boy and leader listened intently, asked questions, and seemed genuinely excited about our campaign for getting back to drinking tap water and using reusable bottles. This was definitely the best crowd I’ve ever worked with as an exhibitor. I also learned a lot – from the challenges of having private well water to the best type of carabiner.
Interestingly, even these outdoorsy community-minded folks who had reusable bottles clipped to their belts weren’t familiar with the astounding facts about bottled water waste. Many of them told us that if people knew about the:
• 140 million disposable bottles going to landfills everyday,
• 700 years it takes for plastic to decompose,
• 4 ounces of oil it takes to make each disposable bottle,
• 1000 times greater cost of bottled water, and
• more stringent regulatory oversight of tap water compared to bottled water,
they would be persuaded to drink tap water from reusable bottles instead of bottled water. Most people just don’t know about the hidden costs of their consumer choices. To illustrate these impacts, we had a sequencing activity where scouts put the 18 steps in the Life Cycle of a Disposable Plastic Water Bottle in order (see photo). Impacts on the environment were obvious at many steps in the Life Cycle. Before leaving, they were also able to take our Bottled Water IQ Test to see how much they had learned.
Obviously, there is a lot more work to do getting these facts and concepts out to people. Most of the scouts and scout leaders left our exhibit table eager to spread the Back2Tap message with the rest of their troop and with their communities. This is exactly the type of help the Back2Tap movement needs because it is not a message that large multi-national corporations with large advertising budgets is going to sponsor. It will take community leaders like scouts, teachers, PTO members, municipal volunteers, and green activists spreading the word, community by community. To find out how to help foster the Back2Tap movement, visit our community page.
Congratulations to the Patriots Path Council and the participating scout troops for organizing such an exciting and inspiring event. It was an honor to meet and talk with so many of you – thank you for sharing your opinions and suggestions with Back2Tap.
By chance, I recieved two articles reporting on bottled water bans in schools today – one about a Catholic school board in Canada and another about universities in the United States. The breadth of this bottled water backlash was impressive: both religious and secular, national and international, collegiate and primary/secondary, and coastal and heartland: Algonquin and Lakeshore Catholic School District in Ontario, Canada, Washington University, Brandeis University, Evergreen State College in Washington, and the University of Arkansas.
This does not appear to be a regional fad that is going to fade. Increasingly, educational institutions are joining municipalities in rejection of bottled water and the extreme wastefulness and disconnection from nature that it symbolizes. Dramatic comments posted in opposition to these bans show how polarizing the issue can be and have sparked the following insights from my year of dedication to this pursuit.
Bottled water may not be the gravest problem in our midst and banning it may not be the best approach, but getting people back to drinking tap water is an important positive step toward sustainable living. It is essential for our survival on this planet to start questioning and changing our wasteful habits — drinking bottled water is just one small example of where we have gone wrong. It is an important but easy step people can take on the path to reducing their eco-footprints, but hardly the last. Once a person reduces their consumption of bottled water, they are likely to re-consider many of the other disposable convenience items they consume daily.
Most importantly, when we drink tap water, we are connnected with our environment. Suddenly, we are concerned about where our tap water comes from and what’s in it. We realize that we have to take care of our watershed because we are dependant on it. We tend to think we can live disconnected from nature or by conquering nature, but ultimately we can’t. Let’s get Back2Tap so that we consume fewer resources, reduce our waste and care for our watersheds.
The trustees of the London School Board are considering banning bottled water from vending machines in their school district. During their deliberations, they raised valid points about the importance of offering and implementing solutions before “banning” bottled water. First, they need to ensure that there are enough working water fountains or water coolers. In the wake of the bottled water epidemic, many fountains have not been properly maintained. The students need to be educated so they understand that switching to another drink in a single serving disposable plastic bottle is not a suitable alternative for the planet or for their health. Lastly, reusable bottles should be made available to the students to make it easy for them to bring tap water or other drinks from home and to refill their bottles with tap water at school.
This Back2Tap movement is a win-win for the planet and for people’s wallets. To read more about how one company is encouraging schools across the United States to get Back2Tap and to raise money in the process, visit http://www.back2tap.com/.
As frugal as I am, I do not refill disposable plastic bottles. On rare occasions when I found myself stuck buying a bottle of water, I used to save the empty plastic bottle and reuse it. Not anymore. When I was researching reusable bottles last fall, I came across a Canadian study that had tested water bottles in a school and found that 13% had bacteria levels exceeding drinking water guidelines by the end of the school day. Worse than that, approximately 9% were found to have fecal coliforms. Ugh! Apparently, the children hadn’t washed their hands well before opening and closing the bottles. Even if hands are clean, there are bacteria in your mouth that will get into your drink. After sitting at room temperature all day on their desks, the bacteria had multiplied and the bottled water wasn’t too clean.
With all these germs, it is important to be able to get a bottle clean before reusing it. Disposable plastic bottles are made out of polyethylene terephthalate, PET or PETE for short. There will be a #1 in the plastic resin code triangle on the bottom. They are manufactured for a single use – the plastic is very thin and easily damaged so they are not designed to withstand washing or multiple uses. Getting them clean is also difficult because the top opening is very narrow. They never really get dry.
So recycle that disposable plastic bottle if you have to use one, or better yet, get yourself a reusable bottle like a stainless steel bottle with a wide-opening for easy cleaning!
The facts about bottled water usage and waste are staggering. In 2006, Americans drank an average of 167 bottles of water each for a total of 50 billion bottles or $15 billion spent. Of that total, only 23% was recycled. Roughly 38 billion disposable plastic water bottles end up in U.S. landfills each year – 100 million every day! That’s enough, laid end to end, to reach China and back each day.
It’s not just that they are filling up our landfills – it’s also the waste of resources. The amount of oil we use to produce water bottles, 17 million barrels, could fuel over 1,000,000 cars for an entire year. Picture a disposable water bottle 1/4 full with petroleum. That is how much oil it takes to make and distribute a single plastic bottle of water. One bottle also requires at least three bottles of water to make and distribute and generates about 120 grams of greenhouse gases – enough to fill 12 balloons.
Can we really afford to continue wasting our limited resources this way? There is an easy solution – drink tap water from a reusable bottle!
