Hi again,
Long time no blog but have been busy at work. Yes, work. After last year's sojourn it has been a huge shock to be back at the chalkface teaching a subject I've never tackled before - Design and technology to all ages 6 to 18!
Right, I'll be placing some highlights of birding this year on here soon. Holidays in Turkey at Easter and Greece in the summer, as well as a couple of twitching trips - dipped the 'robin' but saw the 'dove'; if you catch my drift.
Right, just a quickie before lunch.
Found this on the 'net - and bottled water is more environmentally unfriendly than I thought :-
Tap Water Is Cleaner Than Bottled Water (And Other Shocking Facts)
by Beth Buczynski
September 29, 2011
Today, as I stood in line at the grocery store, watching the woman in front of me haul a huge case of bottled water up to the conveyor belt, I felt that familiar twinge…a combination of frustration and confusion.
All I could think about was those 24 unnecessary bottles ending up in the landfill. And the unnecessary oil it took to make the bottles. And the unnecessary mess that was made while extracting the oil.
“Why, why, WHY?” I wondered. Why would you pay for bottled water every week when perfectly good water flows out of every faucet in your house?!
And then it dawned on me. The answer was right there on the packaging. “Purified water.” One of the biggest reasons people buy and drink bottled water is because they think it’s cleaner than tap water.
But 40 percent of all bottled water in the U.S. is actually taken from municipal water sources. Bottled water companies are literally bottling up the same water that comes out of your faucet, jacking up the price, and laughing all the way to the bank.
Also disturbing is the fact that far less testing is done on bottled water than on tap water. It turns out that unlike tap water, bottled water isn’t tested for e. coli. And it can be distributed even if it doesn’t meet the quality standards of tap water. Unlike tap water, bottled water isn’t required to produce quality reports or even provide it’s source.
Feeling that anger and confusion yet?
Have a look at this link for further details.
http://www.care2.com/causes/tap-water-is-cleaner-than-bottled-water-and-other-shocking-facts.html
All the best everyone, Have a great Autumn.
Gary
Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/tap-water-is-cleaner-than-bottled-water-and-other-shocking-facts.html#ixzz1ZQwMHDz5
Welcome back Gary!
ReplyDeleteIn general I agree with your comments about bottled water (even though I drink the sparkling version myself). Here are a couple of observations.
While UK tap water is probably tested to within an inch of its potability that isn't so in all countries. I wouldn't drink tap water in Africa or most of Asia.
There are some interesting traditions at play in some places. For example in Quebec people have a tradition of getting their drinking water from 'la source' so when the move to a city, where the spring is too far away, the next best thing is to buy bottles of liquid from someone elses 'source'.
The final point is from closer to home in Sydney Australia. A few years back there was a huge outcry about bacteria in the city reticulated supply. It subsequently emerged that the bacteria had been there when James Cook sailed through the Heads. However a company had only just developed a test for it and made a great fuss to promote their test (and the fees there-for).
Martin