British environmentalist David de Rothschild is planning to sail the Pacific on a boat made of 12,500 drinks bottles.

Mr de Rothschild, 31, the youngest son of renowned financier Sir Evelyn de Rothschild and part of the de Rothschild banking dynasty, will sail his 60-foot catamaran Plastiki from San Francisco to Australia in March.

Mr de Rothschild, a keen explorer and renewable energy campaigner, will use the voyage as a bold publicity stunt to drawn attention to the waste that plastic creates and how little it is recycled.

An active environmentalist, Mr de Rothschild founded Adventure Ecology in 2005, an eco-charity intended to raise awareness of the plight of the environment.

He plans to sail down toward Mexico and across the Pacific, stopping off at the island of Kiritimati, formerly known as Christmas Island.

The twin hulls of the boat are made from 12, 500 soft drink and water bottles, filled with dry ice.

Mr de Rothschild spent months collecting empty drinks bottles while building the boat in San Francisco, before it first set sail for a test run in early December 2009.

He will sail along with fellow Brit Jo Royle, who will be the ship’s captain, and six other crew members.

Source [thejc.com]

A Fashion Trend Meets a Watery Grave – take some to time to read this interesting Wall Street Journal opinion article about the demise of “fancy water” by Eric Felton.  

“For a little while, carrying a bottle of water was the very symbol of fashionable health-consciousness. But fashions change: Now bottled water is the eco-equivalent of last year’s frock. And so none other than the Environmental Working Group was on Capitol Hill last month mounting a full-throated campaign against the stuff. The thrust was that, hey, if you run tap water through a filter, it isn’t really so bad after all—and quite the bargain too!”

The Reno Waste Management team is taking steps to ban the bottle by encouraging employees and the local Reno community to use ban one-time-use plastic bottles and use more eco-friendly reusable bottles like those from Nalgene.

Americans grab 60-million bottles of water per day. But now, instead of just asking you to recycle those plastic water bottles, Waste Management is saying maybe you shouldn’t use them at all. “If you really want to do something good for the environment it is to get one of those plastic bottles you can reuse,” said Justin Caporusso a spokesman for Waste Management.

That’s also the message behind the Washoe County Health Department’s newest campaign, “I refill.” Instead of buying a bottle of water, they want you to invest in a refillable bottle for water. “We want people to stop using so many single use plastic water bottles,” said Tracie Douglas of the District Health Department.

Considering 8 of 10 plastic bottles aren’t recycled, you’d decrease the amount sent to the landfill and that’s good for the environment.

Considering a gallon of bottled water could cost up to $10 you’d also decrease the amount you spend and that’s also good for you wallet.

And considering most plastic bottles contain a chemical called BPA (known to cause diabetes and liver disease) you’d decrease your exposure and that’s good for your health.” There are tons of different chemicals used when you make a plastic bottle, but that particular one does leech into whatever particular beverage you’re drinking,” said Douglas

Money used to promote reusing actually comes from the recycle fee you pay every time you buy a new tire. It’s a campaign, meant to keep the environment rolling in the right direction.

[via KTVN TV]

On May 28, 2009 the Central Okanagan Regional District Board became the 50th municipality (and the 33rd in 2009) to implement restrictions on bottled water. The Canadian board noted the bottled water continues to cause numerous environment problems.

This is another big win for Canada and the Ban the Bottle movement!

A college in Canada is taking steps to ban the bottle and stay hydrated using a new product called Hydration Station.

The water-dispensing device is a unique system/filling station for re-usable bottles. The College is the first facility in Canada to have a working unit. The hydration station is manufactured by the Haws Corporation and is sold in Canada through Dobbin Sales.

The hydration station processes tap water into pure water using state-of-the-art filtration technologies, which can be substituted whenever a specification calls for a drinking fountain. Before water reaches the nozzle, it runs through an NSF-certified filter to remove sediment, chlorine taste and odour. The system provides a hygienic, safe source for refilling personal re-usable bottles says Phil Kelly, Dobbin Sales.

Georgian College’s commitment to environmental sustainability has been underscored by the recent installation of a hydration station at the Barrie Campus as a pilot project.

“The hydration station provides an excellent alternative to plastic water bottles,” he said. “The fact that Georgian College is the first facility in Canada to adopt this technology says a great deal about its dedication to a ‘green’ community.”

The hydration station fulfills the College’s environmental sustainable directive, says Dianne Corrigan, Environmental Sustainability Co-ordinator.

“Georgian’s Physical Resources department and the Environmental Sustainability Committee are continually looking for ways to embed environmental sustainability into the College’s day-to-day operations,” she said. “The hydration station is the perfect answer to our mandate, which includes finding ways to diminish our environmental impact and incorporate ‘green’ living into corporate culture.”

The hydration station was acquired by Physical Resources in response to a request to reduce the use of plastic bottles on campus. The unit, which is located on the third floor of the C Building at the Barrie Campus across from Room C315, was generously donated to the College by the Haws Corporation. There is a potential for more than 30 units College-wide when fully implemented.

For more information on environmental sustainability initiatives at Georgian College, visit http://www.georgianc.on.ca/environment/.

[via Georgian News]

A recent article on Newsday.com noted that many states are beginning to cut back on bottled water and help the environment by reducing waste.

The New York City Council called for an end to bottled water purchases for city offices and city-sponsored events last June, and numerous restaurants and cultural venues have followed suit.

“Bottled water is wasteful and requires large amounts of energy to bottle and transport,” NY Gov. David Paterson said. More than 450 million gallons of oil per year are used to transport water from bottling plants to stores, and plastic water bottle manufacturing uses 17 million barrels of oil, he said.

Four billion pounds of water bottles end up in landfills or incinerators in New York annually, Paterson said. That number should decline when the state’s new 5-cent deposit on water bottles takes effect June 1.

“Taxpayers have spent billions of dollars to ensure that we have clean drinking water supplies,” Paterson said. “If we are going to make such significant investments, we should reap the benefits and use that water.”

Statehouses target bottled water to reduce waste [via Newsday.com]

Washington University has recently launched a ban on plastic water bottle sales amid environmental concerns.  Faculty, students, and staff on the Danforth, North, and West campuses are no longer able to find bottled water in vending machines or campus eateries.

Because of concerns about the environmental impact of bottled water, the University has ended sales of the product, and administrative offices will no longer offer bottled water at events and meetings. Instead, faculty, staff, students, and guests are encouraged to drink tap water and use reusable water containers.

“Plastic bottled water represents significant energy and waste issues,” said Matt Malten, assistant vice chancellor for sustainability. “It requires tremendous amounts of energy in production, packaging, transportation and recycling. National statistics show that the rate plastic bottles are recycled is low and getting lower, as more end up in landfills,” Malten said. “Members of the Washington University community all have access to healthy water from a tap, and drinking tap water eliminates the generation of solid waste and energy usage to produce bottled water.”

The tap water in St. Louis was rated as best in the country by the U.S. Mayor’s Conference in 2007.  Henry S. Webber, executive vice chancellor for administration, has requested that the deans of each of the University’s schools stop offering bottled water at their school’s events. Tap water is readily available on the Danforth, North, and West campuses, said Liz Kramer, a fellow in the Office of the Executive Vice Chancellor for Administration. Nearly all buildings on campus feature multiple drinking fountains, and cold-water containers are located in Holmes Lounge and Whispers Cafe in Olin Library. Kramer is in the process of mapping the locations of additional fountains on the Danforth Campus.

Reducing the use of bottled water on campus is just one of many steps WUSTL is taking to reduce its impact on the environment. And it’s a step, said Deborah Howard, special assistant to the executive vice chancellor for administration, that the administration couldn’t implement without the support of others on campus — especially Washington University Dining Services and students, who led their own campaign to promote the use of tap water on campus.

Last October, during Campus Sustainability Week, students hosted water taste tests to show that there is little taste difference between bottled water and tap water. Students also sold reusable water bottles at the Danforth University Center.

WUSTL is the first university to ban the sale and use of bottled water in its administrative offices, dining services and vending machines, Kramer said. Even with the changes, faculty, staff, and students still will be allowed to bring their own bottled water to campus.

[via The Record]

Starting May 16, bottled water will no longer be sold on the Belmont University, a school in Nashville Tennessee.

The announcement came on Monday at the beginning of Earth Week.  Belmont officials said they are trying to cut down on waste and decided bottled water is not practical for people or the environment.”We’re going to drink out of water fountains, get cups of water, what we did before we had (bottles) so readily available,” said Dr. Judy Skeen of Belmont University’s Environmental Initiative.

Purifying filters will be added to any water fountains on campus that did not already have them.

[via WSMV Nashville]