Vaporware galore...and water....
The Vaporware awards for 2005 was released today and some familiar grumblings were on the list including:
10) High-def Tivo
8) Blu-ray/HD-DVD
6) Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
5) Starcraft Ghost
4) Windows Vista/IE 7
2) Phantom game service
and #1 is...drum roll please...Duke Nukem Forever.
It was recently revealed that last year $100 billion was spent on bottled water. While if Americans would spend $15 billion more on water and sewage combined we could have water with the supposed quality contained within those little polyethylene terephthalate bottles. But what is the hidden cost behind that you may ask? Making the bottles at the quantities wanted by Americans requires crude oil from which the plastic is derived. How much crude oil? Over
1.5 million barrels a year. YES, more than 1,500,000 barrels of crude oil A YEAR. How can you break that down...that would be enough to fuel some 100,000 U.S. cars for A YEAR!! Worldwide, 2.7 MILLION tons of plastic is used to bottle water.
On top of those facts, after the water is consumed those bottles must be disposed of. What do you do with your plastic bottles? Oh, you throw them in the garbage. How typical. Thats 2.7 MILLION tons of trash being produced worldwide. So, how much actually makes it to the garbage dump? Well, 86% of the plastic bottles used in the United States becomes garbage or litter on the side of the road. Incinerating used bottles produces toxic byproducts such as chlorine gas and ash containing heavy metals tied to a host of human and animal health problems. Buried water bottles can take up to 1,000 years to biodegrade. In addition, of the bottles deposited for recycling in 2004, the US exported roughly 40 percent to destinations as far away as China which means that even more fossil fuels were burned in the process.
Furthermore, 'Bottled water is not guaranteed to be any healthier than tap water. In fact, roughly 40 percent of bottled water begins as tap water; often the only difference is added minerals that have no marked health benefit,'' Earth Policy Institute (EPI) said. It added, ''It even advises people who drink bottled mineral water to change brands frequently because the added minerals are helpful in small amounts but may be dangerous in higher doses.'' So, what does 'mineral water' mean, well minerals are all around us. Rocks are made of minerals, jewels are made of minerals and so forth. It just means that its water with 'stuff' and no indication of what that 'stuff' is. According to the study, ''in a number of places, including Europe and the United States, there are more regulations governing the quality of tap water than bottled water.''
What do you think about that?
~Kisea
10) High-def Tivo
8) Blu-ray/HD-DVD
6) Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
5) Starcraft Ghost
4) Windows Vista/IE 7
2) Phantom game service
and #1 is...drum roll please...Duke Nukem Forever.
It was recently revealed that last year $100 billion was spent on bottled water. While if Americans would spend $15 billion more on water and sewage combined we could have water with the supposed quality contained within those little polyethylene terephthalate bottles. But what is the hidden cost behind that you may ask? Making the bottles at the quantities wanted by Americans requires crude oil from which the plastic is derived. How much crude oil? Over
1.5 million barrels a year. YES, more than 1,500,000 barrels of crude oil A YEAR. How can you break that down...that would be enough to fuel some 100,000 U.S. cars for A YEAR!! Worldwide, 2.7 MILLION tons of plastic is used to bottle water.
On top of those facts, after the water is consumed those bottles must be disposed of. What do you do with your plastic bottles? Oh, you throw them in the garbage. How typical. Thats 2.7 MILLION tons of trash being produced worldwide. So, how much actually makes it to the garbage dump? Well, 86% of the plastic bottles used in the United States becomes garbage or litter on the side of the road. Incinerating used bottles produces toxic byproducts such as chlorine gas and ash containing heavy metals tied to a host of human and animal health problems. Buried water bottles can take up to 1,000 years to biodegrade. In addition, of the bottles deposited for recycling in 2004, the US exported roughly 40 percent to destinations as far away as China which means that even more fossil fuels were burned in the process.
Furthermore, 'Bottled water is not guaranteed to be any healthier than tap water. In fact, roughly 40 percent of bottled water begins as tap water; often the only difference is added minerals that have no marked health benefit,'' Earth Policy Institute (EPI) said. It added, ''It even advises people who drink bottled mineral water to change brands frequently because the added minerals are helpful in small amounts but may be dangerous in higher doses.'' So, what does 'mineral water' mean, well minerals are all around us. Rocks are made of minerals, jewels are made of minerals and so forth. It just means that its water with 'stuff' and no indication of what that 'stuff' is. According to the study, ''in a number of places, including Europe and the United States, there are more regulations governing the quality of tap water than bottled water.''
What do you think about that?
~Kisea
posted by Brian Wright at 4:11 PM
3 Comments:
That, my friend, is why I buy about one bottle of water a year and then refill it over and over from the tap. And I'm pretty sure that if you trhow a britta filter on there it's just as good or better than the original bottled water. Though, I don't reccomend FL tap water...that stuff is nasty.
Exactly, I use a Brita jug water filter that i keep in the fridge and the water is wonderful.
I just take it from the tap. I can't tell a differnece from it and "spring" water.
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