Kraanwater 10.000 keer beter dan bronwater
Zo lief bedoeld. Een flesje dat na een paar maanden helemaal vergaan is. Omdat het uit mais is gemaakt. En dan gaat de winst nog wel naar een goed doel: WaterAid. Die slaat er putten mee, in arme landen. Zodat vrouwen geen halve dagtochten meer hoeven te ondernemen, om een kan water op te halen. Ook nog een mooi design. Zonde, zonde, zonde.
Tegen de overweldigende research van Earth Policy Institute is weinig opgewassen. Zeker niet in Groot-Brittannië, dat een immens afvalprobleem heeft. Elke Brit gooit om de zeven weken zijn eigen gewicht aan afval weg. Ze weten niet meer waar ze het moeten laten, de plastic rotzooi. Die paar flesjes van een onbekend bronwatertje uit Wales zetten geen zoden aan de dijk.
Wereldwijd drinken wij inmiddels 154 miljard liter bronwater per jaar. Dat is 57 procent meer dan vijf jaar geleden. Italianen drinken per persoon het meeste bronwater ter wereld: 184 liter, oftewel meer dan twee glazen per dag. Met deze gekkigheid spoelen wij onze grondstoffen door het putje, volgens de onderzoekers.
. In contrast to tap water, which is distributed through an energy-efficient infrastructure, transporting bottled water long distances involves burning massive quantities of fossil fuels.
. Fossil fuels are also used in the packaging of water. The most commonly used plastic for making water bottles is polyethylene terephthalate (PET), which is derived from crude oil. Making bottles to meet Americans' demand for bottled water requires more than 1.5 million barrels of oil annually, enough to fuel some 100,000 U.S. cars for a year. Worldwide, some 2.7 million tons of plastic are used to bottle water each year.
. After the water has been consumed, the plastic bottle must be disposed of. According to the Container Recycling Institute, 86 percent of plastic water bottles used in the United States become garbage or litter. Incinerating used bottles produces toxic byproducts such as chlorine gas and ash containing heavy metals. Buried water bottles can take up to 1,000 years to biodegrade. Almost 40 percent of the PET bottles that were deposited for recycling in the United States in 2004 were actually exported, sometimes to as far away as China—adding to the resources used by this product.
. 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. In a number of places, including Europe and the United States, there are more regulations governing the quality of tap water than bottled water. U.S. water quality standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency for tap water, for instance, are more stringent than the Food and Drug Administration's standards for bottled water.
P+ Webtip 1: Onderzoek bronwater
P+ Webtip: Afbreekbaar water
Tegen de overweldigende research van Earth Policy Institute is weinig opgewassen. Zeker niet in Groot-Brittannië, dat een immens afvalprobleem heeft. Elke Brit gooit om de zeven weken zijn eigen gewicht aan afval weg. Ze weten niet meer waar ze het moeten laten, de plastic rotzooi. Die paar flesjes van een onbekend bronwatertje uit Wales zetten geen zoden aan de dijk.
Wereldwijd drinken wij inmiddels 154 miljard liter bronwater per jaar. Dat is 57 procent meer dan vijf jaar geleden. Italianen drinken per persoon het meeste bronwater ter wereld: 184 liter, oftewel meer dan twee glazen per dag. Met deze gekkigheid spoelen wij onze grondstoffen door het putje, volgens de onderzoekers.
. In contrast to tap water, which is distributed through an energy-efficient infrastructure, transporting bottled water long distances involves burning massive quantities of fossil fuels.
. Fossil fuels are also used in the packaging of water. The most commonly used plastic for making water bottles is polyethylene terephthalate (PET), which is derived from crude oil. Making bottles to meet Americans' demand for bottled water requires more than 1.5 million barrels of oil annually, enough to fuel some 100,000 U.S. cars for a year. Worldwide, some 2.7 million tons of plastic are used to bottle water each year.
. After the water has been consumed, the plastic bottle must be disposed of. According to the Container Recycling Institute, 86 percent of plastic water bottles used in the United States become garbage or litter. Incinerating used bottles produces toxic byproducts such as chlorine gas and ash containing heavy metals. Buried water bottles can take up to 1,000 years to biodegrade. Almost 40 percent of the PET bottles that were deposited for recycling in the United States in 2004 were actually exported, sometimes to as far away as China—adding to the resources used by this product.
. 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. In a number of places, including Europe and the United States, there are more regulations governing the quality of tap water than bottled water. U.S. water quality standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency for tap water, for instance, are more stringent than the Food and Drug Administration's standards for bottled water.
P+ Webtip 1: Onderzoek bronwater
P+ Webtip: Afbreekbaar water