Grand Canyon National Park recently announced it will shelve its proposed plans to eliminate the sale and use of bottled water at its park stores. Recent news reveals the park’s director was fearful of consequences related to the ban and its largest beverage vendor, Coca-Cola.

Plastics News has the low-down in a recent article:

A just-released email says the director of the National Park Service feared there would be “consequences” from Coca-Cola Co. if NPS went ahead with a proposed ban on the sale of single-use plastic water bottles at the Grand Canyon.

“While I applaud the intent, there are going to be consequences, since Coke is a major sponsor of our recycling efforts,” NPS director Jon Jarvis wrote in a Nov. 22, 2010 email to the regional director of the Intermountain Region of the NPS. “Let’s talk about this before [the Grand Canyon] pulls the plug.”

Three days earlier, Neil Mulholland, the National Park Foundation’s president and CEO, had sent an email to Jarvis saying he had been receiving “strong negative feedback from the beverage industry” regarding the potential ban.

But a Coke spokeswoman said the company never suggested it would reduce or withdraw its support to NPF if the bottled water ban, which was originally scheduled to go into effect this past Jan. 1, became a reality.

“Absolutely not,” said Susan Stribling, director of communications for Coca-Cola Co. North America, which sells bottled water under the Dasani brand.

The NPS emails were released Dec. 2 by Public Employees for (more…)

Ban the Bottle congratulates the Concordia University administration for taking this important step towards a more sustainable and just campus. A special applause goes to the students who organized the successful TAPthirst campaign that was instrumental in this incredible outcome.

By phasing out the sale of bottled water from vending machines on the Loyola and Sir George Williams campuses and by committing to upgrade drinking fountains to accommodate reusable drink containers, Concordia University is making a serious commitment to responsible environmental practices.

Concordia is the 13th Canadian university, and 4th so far this year, to take this significant action to curb the sale of bottled water in campus buildings. Bottled water free campuses are important for fostering support and confidence in publicly delivered tap water. If young people develop the habit of refilling water bottles for free instead of paying inflated prices for privatized bottled water, Canada’s important public water systems will benefit.

Concordia University’s announcement shows that the campaign to curb the sale of bottled water in Canada’s institutions of higher learning is gaining momentum in the face of unprecedented pressure from the bottled water industry to block and overturn these initiatives.

Congratulations and cheers to the tap!

Source Polaris Institute

Our friends at TapIt Water recently noted that Innovative Water Technologies and GE have teamed up to create one of the most efficient and cost-effective water purification systems available. The Sunspring, as it is named, is a freestanding solar powered water purification system that is perfectly suited for installment in remote locations or in times of natural disasters and emergencies.

Inventor of the Sunspring: Innovative Water Technologies owner Jack Barker utilized GE’s Homespring water filter as the core of the purification unit. The Homespring filter utilizes an ultrafiltration membrane that physically removes pathogens, particulates, and turbidity from the water supply and is capable of processing up to 5,000 gallons of water daily, for up to ten years.

With the capability to be completely operational in as little as three hours after site arrival, the Sunspring’s cost of operation is only $0.0013 per filtered gallon. Additionally, (more…)

The University of Canberra will become the first Australian campus to ban the sale of bottled water.

Assuming it is successful in encouraging students to use refillable bottles, the ban – starting on March 22 – could reduce bottled water sales by 140,000 a year.

Bottled water will be replaced in campus cafes and shops by water vending machines that refill a 600-ML container with chilled water for $1 or sparkling water for $1.50 – cheaper than for sealed bottles.

Refillable plastic and aluminum bottles will be sold on campus. Backed by funding from the ACT government, the university has also installed six new water bubbler and bottle refill stations on the campus. (more…)

The Ban the Bottle Movement is spreading – this time to the Ivy League.

Cornell University last week passed a resolution to phase out bottled water sales on campus. Cornell joins fellow Ivy Leaguers’ Dartmouth, Brown, and Harvard in passing resolutions to ban some bottled water sales on campus.

Resolution 35 was presented by Take Back the Tap � a campus group devoted to the issue � with support from other student organizations and administrators such as Kyu Whang and Kent Hubbell �67.

Although several Student Assembly (S.A.) members voiced concerns about logistics, most agreed with Resolution 35�s sentiment and said they admired the current progress.

Some S.A. members expressed fear that the University may charge students to make up for lost revenue from bottled water sales and the costs of structural changes to tap water systems.

Kristen Loria �11, a member of Take Back the Tap, said that even if the cost per student was as high as $65, buying bottled water would still cost more over time. (more…)

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!”

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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]