Did you know?
• Nearly $11 Billion worth of bottle water ends in landfills, which may
never be broken down?
• Only 1 of these 5 bottles ends up being recycled? The rest end up in
our landfills or worse yet clogging up our lakes, rivers, and fields.
• 20 Billion single bottles will end up in these landfills
• It can take up to 1,000 years for a bottle to bio-degrade
• It takes 1.5 million barrels of oil (more then what fuels 100,000
cars per year) just to meet the US demand for water. Fill up a water
bottle with 1/3 oil and you can see what was used just to make the
bottle you are holding.
• It costs more money to drink bottle water than to put gas in your car
– up to five times more, because of the energy, packaging and
transportation costs. (Source: Earth Policy Institute)
• We drink over 65 million bottles of water in Toronto alone!
I.A.M. Consulting Services has come up with a DO IT NOW Solution to
help to give some of these bottles a second chance at reaching the
recycling program. In this program of taking recycled bottles and
producing useable goods we have developed a product called the Plant
Water Bottle system.
It is a beautifully decorated bottle with a specially designed slow
release flow tube cap providing a self-watering system for your plants.
It operates on the function of the oxygen which is released in the soil
when the soil dries. When the soil is dry it releases this oxygen which
goes through the uniquely designed cap allowing your plants simply to
take the water when they need it.
These plant water recycling containers are fantastic not only for times
when you are away, but also great for your slower drinking plants. You
don't have to stand their waiting or deal with the over spills from
trying to hurry it along. It's also ideal for those hard to reach
plants and a real time saver for those always needing water, balcony
and patio plants.
Inside each bottle is a little note explaining the problems we are
incurring with plastics today and a recipe for fertilizing your plants.
They even suggest using your veggie water, eggshells, or tea bags by
keeping a pitcher of water, letting it stand for a day or two, and then
filling your water bottle with this fertilizer to feed your plants.
Definitely a unique take of taking a damaging left over waste product
and turning it back into something useful and practical.
How you participate is when the water bottle is tired and ready to go
to the garbage you simply take the cap off and throw the empty bottle
into the recycle bin. You can keep the cap and put it on another
bottle. Now they believe the bottle is where it should have been in the
first place!
I.A.M. is offering the bottles, free, but you do have to pay for the
shipping/handling costs. If you are interested in helping I.A.M.
Consulting Services with their Goal of Recycling,
1,000,000 bottles simply click here.
Another company trying to achieve a better way in dealing with plastic
is Chris Rapp, CEO of Keystone LLC, produces water bottles primarily
made of corn. Maybe we can purchase our water, if we need to, in this
format.
Here is what others are doing to make their impact of change.
Maude Barlow, a Canadian, is campaigning hard to remove the sale of
bottled water in Canada. With a ban approved in London, Ontario, you
can see others are working hard in assisting to one day being water
bottle free. Any ideas for juice, pop or lemonade bottles?
David de Rothschild, is building a plastic boat called the Plastiki, to
sail around the largest garbage build up in the ocean to start to bring
awareness to the real problems we are facing.
Toronto alone recycled 65 million bottles working hard to increase and
develop its recycling programs. You can participate by voicing concerns
about bottle water programs to those heading programs in your community.
In the mean time, what can you actively do to help?
• Find a re-usable drinking container for your water needs. We buy bottled
water for convenience and because of healthy alternatives to
soft drink beverages. Experts recognize most bottled water is simply
tap water in disguise, and in some cases actually contain harmful
chemicals. This is a little known fact as bottled water is unregulated.
• If you do purchase bottled drink – why not make sure the bottle is
biodegradable. It only takes a minute to check.
• If you see a bottle on the ground, in open fields, or simply not
where it should be, why not pick it up and throw it in the recycle bin.
• Make sure your recycled bottles have had the caps removed. For some
reason, still unknown, if the cap is on it ends up in the landfill.
Recycle companies will not pay the labor to remove the cap.
• Re-use your current bottles. Boil water to remove the taste of the
chlorine or use a Brita water filter system.
Together we can make a difference.
