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When I was handed a free bottle of water the other day, it turned out to be a fancy invite to a Closed Loop Recycling plant in east London. The 'Bring a Bottle' event later this month promises to show how my free gift can be recycled back into the materials that'll make another bottle or other kind of food packaging. So if it can be recycled, does that mean my bottled water is really that bad for the environment?
Twenty years ago, buying bottled water from a shop was unheard of. Now, millions of people in the UK are buying it right and left, even though our tap water is perfectly safe to drink. The environment minister, Phil Woolas, has even suggested drinking bottled water is morally unacceptable, and our verdict here at SmartPlanet is leaning that way, too.
According to marketing research firm TNS, sales of bottled water have actually been on the decline in the last few years, prompting companies like Fiji Water to brand themselves as 'green' in an effort to boost sales. When Fiji came into the limelight after a BBC Panorama investigation, SmartPlanet grappled with the pros and cons, trying to understand how an industry that uses 1.5 million tonnes of plastic every year could possibly be green.
SmartPlanet users had a lot to say on the subject, too. Sleepy Mary agreed with the environmentalists: "We can argue all day about the greenness of the company [Fiji Water], but I don't see how I can buy bottled water from the other side of the world and still call myself a green consumer," she said.
Meanwhile, Monty 84 argued: "I wouldn't hesitate to buy bottled water from Fiji any more than I would to buy a dvd player from Japan... I could drink regular tap water but Fijian water simply tastes better."
Packaging, plastic and recycling are obviously divisive issues, and now we've got another to add to the list. Does Closed Loop Recycling mean those handy PET and HDPE bottles aren't bad for the environment? Usually, plastic for recycling is shipped to places like China and the raw material shipped back -- so Closed Loop Recycling would certainly save on transport cost and CO2 emissions there. But the fact remains that the original packaging is still being produced and shipped all over the world.
What do you think? Does Closed Loop Recycling make bottled water 'less bad'? Surely some recycling as opposed to no recycling is better, right? What about the oil used to make the bottles in the first place? Leave us your thoughts in the comments below.
10 June 2008 08:44pm
No all of a sudden bottled water is actually beneficial to the environment. Its unbelievable...Wow fantastic...:D
11 June 2008 10:49am
@ anon, I don't think anyone's in doubt that they're not beneficial to the environment. I think the question here is: seeing as they're easily recycled (and this new plant should help that), should we really get that het-up over bottled water as an eco issue? I'd argue carbon emissions from transport, plus UK homes and UK industry are more important to focus on
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