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Dear
EarthTalk: I know there’s a big debate
now as to why we need bottled water at all, but is anyone
addressing the incredible waste of plastic bottles by this
industry?
-- Bert B., Dubuque,
Iowa
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Water
bottles are not subject to the bottle bill laws that
have mandated return deposits and kept billions of
plastic soda containers out of the waste stream. The
Container Recycling Institute says that if bottled
water were covered under just the 11 state bottle
bills currently granting five- to 10-cent refunds
on returned soda bottles, the wasting rate could drop
threefold or more nationally.
© Cayusa, courtesy Flickr
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The
plastic waste spawned by the recent astronomical growth
in the bottled water business is significant. Environmentalists
especially decry it because the water from our taps is usually
as good as if not better quality than what’s inside
the bottle (and indeed sometimes bottled water is just tap
water). Further, water bottles are not subject to the bottle
bill laws that have kept billions of soda containers—made
from the exact same petroleum-derived PET plastic packaging—out
of our bursting landfills.
According to
the Container Recycling Institute (CRI), a Washington, DC-based
non-profit committed to increasing the recycling of beverage
containers of all kinds, sales of non-alcohol non-carbonated
drinks—bottled water as well as energy and sports drinks—will
likely surpass soda sales in the U.S. by 2010. More than
seven times as much non-carbonated bottled water is sold
annually in the U.S. than just a decade ago.
The fact that more
Americans are switching over from unhealthy soda to water
is a positive health trend, but reliance on bottled rather
than tap water means that the environment is taking a big
hit. CRI’s analysis shows that Americans have never recycled
as much PET as in recent years. However, the sheer increase
in bottled water sales means that even more of the material
is going un-recycled than ever before. CRI says that if bottled
water were covered under just the 11 state bottle bills currently
granting five- to 10-cent refunds on returned soda bottles,
the PET wasting rate could drop threefold or more nationally.
Besides being
less wasteful, cutting back on the need to manufacture more
plastic bottles from non-recycled (virgin) materials would
also have a noticeable impact on America’s carbon footprint.
CRI estimates that some 18 million barrels of crude oil
equivalent were consumed in 2005 to replace the two million
tons of PET bottles that were wasted instead of recycled.
Some other negative environmental impacts of making more
and more PET from virgin petroleum sources include damage
to wildlife and marine life, air and water pollution, and
greater burdens on already stressed landfills and incinerators.
CRI and others
are working to get policymakers at both state and federal
levels to mandate increased recycling for water bottles.
Oregon is the first state to update its bottle bill—the
first in the nation when it was enacted back in 1971—to
include a five-cent refund on PET water bottles beginning
in January 2009.
And just this
past November, Massachusetts Congressman Ed Markey introduced
a bill on Capitol Hill calling for the creation of a federal
bottle bill mandating a five-cent refund on all beverage
containers—including water bottles. Entitled The Bottle
Recycling Climate Protection Act, the bill is now with the
House Committee on Energy and Commerce for review, and may
come up for a vote this year.
Environmentalists
are not optimistic, however, that such a bill can pass,
given how influential the beverage industry is in protecting
its interests, which include keeping the base price of its
products like bottled water as low as possible, regardless
of the availability of an after-purchase refund.
CONTACTS:
Container
Recycling Institute; The
Bottle Recycling Climate Protection Act.
Dear EarthTalk:
I’ve been hearing a lot about all the recycled
materials being turned into handbags and purses. Are these
bags actually fashionable?
-- Mary-Beth
Johnstone, Cos Cob, CT
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Bags
and purses have become inventive outlets for all kinds
of recycled materials. Pictured here is a purse made
from old license plates by Littlearth Productions.
© Littlearth Productions
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Eco fashion,
especially in the world of bags, purses and carriers, has
proven to be an inventive outlet for all kinds of recycled
materials. And yes, most of these bags—even those made
from such unlikely materials as candy wrappers (by Ecoist)
or carpets (CarpetBags)—not only look good, but would
probably draw looks of admiration from fellow bag aficionados.
The Canadian
website, eco-handbags.ca, carries a large assortment of
creatively adapted materials turned to wearable art from
green handbag companies. There are bags made from old books,
sailboat sails, juice boxes, aluminum cans, plastic bottles,
neckties, cigar boxes, skateboards, candy wrappers, chopsticks,
soda pop tops and bicycle tire inner tubes. And these don’t
look like they’ve been knit together from a trash bin:
They are impeccably sewn one-of-a-kind accessories. The
juice box cooler bag, handmade by a cooperative in the Philippines
for Bazura Bags, is a great all-purpose carry-all, while
the sleek Roadster Handbag made of truck tire inner tubes
by English Retreads makes for a stylish everyday purse.
Ava DeMarco and
her husband Rob Brandegee one day looked at used license
plates and saw handbags. The couple had launched their company,
Littlearth Productions, in 1993 with a mission to match
style with eco-consciousness. At first, license plates were
used as ornaments on recycled rubber bags. Then they became
the bags themselves, twisted into colorful cylindrical purses.
Now Littlearth’s recycled license plate handbags can
be found in more than 1,000 retail outlets and in the clutches
of everyone from Oprah to Chelsea Clinton. “Everything
we make is one of a kind, because all license plates are
unique,” says DeMarco. In one year, Littlearth recycled
more than 15 tons of rubber and 40,000 license plates.
And why not turn
all that old tire rubber into something eminently wearable?
The material is completely durable and effective for everything
from men’s messenger bags to women’s clutches.
“I’ve always been aware of the tire situation,”
says Robin Gilson, president and founder of Vulcana, a company
that makes bags out of recycled car tires. “They collect
water; they are breeding grounds for mosquitoes. I thought:
‘Wouldn’t it be great if you could melt car tires
down and reshape them?’”
After taking
a leave of absence from her job as an attorney in 1995,
Gilson tracked down a company that would take recycled car
tire crumb and mix it with natural rubber to create a material
suitable for stitching into bags. Vulcana launched its product
line in 2001. The company takes 30 to 50 percent of its
material from recycled car tires. The rest is virgin rubber,
mostly from small, family-owned plantations in Malaysia.
Some products are hemp-fused, which means the rubber is
cured directly onto a hemp fabric.
For animal-lovers
the new range of handbags has been especially welcome—whether
they’re made from tires, records, hemp or chopsticks,
these bags are a great alternative to leather and an easy
way to make a fashion statement.
CONTACTS:
Bazura
Bags; Eco
Handbags; Ecoist;
English
Retreads; Littlearth
Productions; Vulcana.
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