It just doesn't make sense. On so many levels. Not the least of which is the phenomena is a clear prelude to corporate ownership of potable water. Now that's a horrifying prospect. Today's Daily Kos features a wonderful and comprehensive piece by MCJoan, one of the Internet's clearest voices. Her piece, which starts out with a thorough review of Sam Bozzo's new film: Blue Gold: World Water Wars, is point-on as usual. So read it. You won't be disappointed.In this space I'm focusing on just one aspect of her piece, which I'm reproducing below. It addresses a particular, personal irritation: Plastic water bottles. I confess to drinking my share of San Pelagrino, from glass. What is so inscrutable is the willingness of the masses to fork-out hard-earned cash for "processed" city water. Consider:
The energy used each year making the bottles needed to meet the demand for bottled water in the United States is equivalent to more than 17 million barrels of oil. That's enough to fuel over 1 million cars for a year.
• If water and soft drink bottlers had used 10% recycled materials in their plastic bottles in 2004, they would have saved the equivalent of 72 million gallons of gasoline. If they had used 25%, they would have saved enough energy to electrify more than 680,000 homes for a year.
• In 2003, the California Department of Conservation estimated that roughly three million water bottles are trashed every day in that state. At this rate, by 2013 the amount of unrecycled bottles will be enough to create a two-lane highway that stretches the state's entire coast.
• In 2004 the recycling rate for all beverage containers was 33.5 percent. If it reached 80 percent, the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions would be the equivalent of removing 2.4 million cars from the road for a year.
• That bottle that takes just three minutes to drink can take up to a thousand years to biodegrade.
Sources: Earth Policy Institute, As You Sow, Container Recycling Institute.
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