Before you say, “What’s the big deal?” consider this:

Most Americans, including me, actually consume around four HUNDRED liters of water a day. We don’t think twice when we leave the tap running when we brush our teeth, or take a 20 minute shower, or flush the toilet six or seven times a day. Need to do the laundry? Just throw in a load. Want to water your flowers? Turn on the hose. And never mind the leaky faucet. Save water? What’s that?

Why do we use water in such a willy-nilly way?

Because we can. It’s a simple as that. At least for those of us living in developed countries (U.S., Canada, Europe, I’m talking to you), we have unlimited access to clean water, and at a pretty cheap price. Even in parts of the U.S. where water is scarce, like Los Angeles, San Diego, and Phoenix, water still flows out of the tap. And it’s clean and safe to drink.

Globally, that’s far from the case. Almost a billion people worldwide live on the little bit of water that would fill four large soda bottles, nothing more. That means they go for days without bathing. They wash their clothes in rivers or streams because they can’t “spend” water doing laundry. Flush a toilet? What toilet?

I’ve always been an advocate for using water wisely. After all, it’s a natural resource that we can’t afford to waste or pollute. But the notion that water is truly scarce for hundreds of millions of people was brought home to me this week when I attended the Further with Ford Trends Conference, sponsored by the Ford Motor Company in Dearborn, Michigan.

Ford Trends is an annual event the company organizes to shed light on issues that address the intersection between transportation and the automobile industry and consumers, the environment, and design.

Now, truth be told, I’m not one of these folks who lives for the newest, coolest car design. But I do worry about the impact that cars and trucks have on the planet. So when I come to this conference, and this is the third year I’ve come, it’s because I want to see what a company like Ford is saying and doing about sustainability.

Full disclosure, Ford pays my way. And that continually surprises me, since I generally encourage people NOT to buy or use a car. Burning gasoline generates carbon dioxide, a major cause of climate change, as well as a variety of the air pollutants that cause smog and give people respiratory disease. The folks at Ford know that I promote car sharing, biking, using mass transit, telecommuting, and whatever else people can do to drive less.

Still, they invite me to their Trends event! And I come – first and foremost to see what one of the world’s largest companies is doing to address the environmental impacts its industry creates. I also come because Ford has access to research and information I don’t have but that could make me a more knowledgeable and effective advocate for environmental protection.

This year, Ford held a session called Sustainability Blues to focus on water that totally fit the bill.

Why Save Water?

It seemed like a surprising choice, but it shouldn’t have. On average, it takes 4,000 liters of water to make just one car. And Ford cars are being made and sold all over the world. Lack of clean water threatens production in many places where the company has plants. If Ford and other businesses can’t get clean water, they won’t be able to make their products, simple as that.

There are many reasons why water is scarce. Climate change is creating more arid zones. Extreme weather events are wiping out water systems. Even without these conditions, the world’s water supply would be under siege. In the last century, the global population has tripled and water usage per individual has doubled. That’s an unsustainable equation no matter how you look at it. Women and children suffer most, particularly in developing countries, where moms and kids could spend as much as four hours a day trying to find water and then transport it back to their villages.

At the Sustainability Blues session, a panel of experts drove home the point over and over again.

Christoph Gorder, the founder of charity:water, calls water “one of life’s most basic needs.” He was a missionary kid who grew up in Africa with no running water or electricity. Today, his non-profit helps provide clean water by helping to dig wells in some of the most water-scarce regions of the world. “One in nine people don’t have access to clean, safe drinking water,” he said. “We can make a difference.”

Rob Frederick is the director of corporate responsibility for Brown-Forman, an alcohol beverage company whose brands include Jack Daniel’s, Finlandia, and Southern Comfort. If you love Kentucky bourbon or a smooth glass of whiskey, watch out! Both depend on clean water, which is increasingly hard to find in a state like Kentucky where mountain top removal related to coal mining is polluting streams and lakes with toxic run-off.

Tod Walton, Ford’s Manager for Environmental Quality, is based in Shanghai, where he said water quality is as big an issue as the overall lack of water. “My kids need to use bottled water to brush their teeth,” he noted, because the “drinking” water coming out of the tap isn’t actually safe to drink. He reported on Ford’s efforts to improve manufacturing processes in order to recycle 100% of the water used in some plants and overall, and reduce total global water consumption by 62 percent worldwide.

But what about that 4 liters of water a day I personally pledged to live on? I have George McGraw of Dig Deep to thank for that. Dig Deep is a non-profit organization that believes clean water is a human right and thus works to make it available in communities around the world – including the U.S. Believe it or not, tens of thousands of Americans have no access to safe water, which is why Dig Deep is particularly focused on helping relieve what they call “water poverty” on U.S. Indian reservations and elsewhere.

The group is also passionate about educating people like me about how important water really is. They started the 4 Liter Challenge both to raise awareness and to raise money. The idea is to get as many people as possible to take the challenge, and to have others support them by making tax-deductible donations to Dig Deep.

The challenge doesn’t actually begin until October, so I have plenty of time to prepare. I hope you’ll join me – the more we all know about water, the better!

The post I Just Agreed to Live on 4 Liters of Water a Day. Join Me! Save Water. appeared first on Big Green Purse.

I’ve just returned from a seven-day trip to Beijing, China’s capital, and Xi’an, the country’s cultural heart and soul and home to its famous terra cotta soldiers. In that entire time, I never saw the sun or sky. Nor was I able to drink the water that came out of any tap.

Why? The sky was cloaked in grey smog so thick it obscured the tops of buildings, not to mention the heavens above. The air, while not exactly putrid, smelled dank and dangerous — a result of massive numbers of polluting cars on the road and regional industrial plants that spew contaminants into the air.

I could have worn a surgical mask like many of the city’s permanent residents. Instead, I opted to be a “guinea pig” and see how much the smog would affect me as I went back and forth to various business meetings and tourist destinations.

After just three days in Beijing, I developed a sore throat and itchy eyes, and lost any desire to explore the city’s beautiful parks. I could have easily walked distances of a mile or two. Instead, I took the subway to avoid breathing the outdoor air unnecessarily. Back at my hotel, I kept the windows closed, choosing a stuffy room over a polluted one.

The water coming out of my faucet looked cleaner than the air — but I would have been a fool to drink it. Water treatment anywhere in China is thoroughly inadequate. The country’s drinking water is tainted not just by household waste but from relentless industrial run-off.

Some government figures estimate that over 70 percent of the nation’s rivers have been contaminated by the discharge of heavy metals and other toxins directly into streams and tributaries that feed into China’s waterways. Water treatment facilities remove a smattering of contaminants but never clean up the water to the point where it is drinkable. And this creates another problem.

Independent companies are privatizing the water, purifying and bottling it, and selling it to the public by the tons. What happens to all the empty plastic water bottles? They end up back in the rivers and streams when they’re trashed.

Why is China so polluted?

In short, because it has neither a power federal environmental protection agency nor adequate laws for such an agency to enforce. Yes, the government gives lip service to reducing pollution and protecting public health. But local activists in Beijing told me that given the physical size of the country, a population of more than 1 billion people, and tens of thousands of “renegade” manufacturing facilities, neither air nor water quality will improve significantly until the government makes a real commitment to strengthen and enforce its environmental laws.

This is not to say that air and water in the U.S. are perfect, or even good enough. A recent study by Environment America, using data provided by the American Lung Association, reported that nearly half of all Americans — 48 percent — live in areas plagued by unhealthy smog pollution. A water quality analysis by the Natural Resources Defense Council concluded that 22 million Americans may be drinking water that contains excessive levels of poisonous arsenic, among other chemicals.

Still, the same Environment America study notes that “air quality has improved significantly in the last decade as a result of policies at the state and federal level.” Likewise, the non-profit Environmental Working Group found over 90 percent compliance by water utilities in applying and enforcing standards that exist. Their recommendation: that EPA set even more effective standards so water quality will continue to improve.

We can continue cleaning up our air or water. Or, we can abolish the EPA and look a lot more like China. I suggest Michele Bachmann go to China before she decides.

Follow me on twitter @dianemaceachern.

(NOTE: This article originally appeared at Huffington Post.)

The post Michele Bachmann Wants to Crush EPA. First, She Should Go to China. appeared first on Big Green Purse.

Lori of Groovy Green Livin’ asks “What the heck is fracking?” You won’t like her answer anymore than she did. It’s like a “mini-bomb or earthquake exploding underneath the ground” that leaves behind extremely toxic waste water. “The quantities of fracking fluids used in a single well contain so much benzene and other toxic chemicals that they could potentially contaminate more than the amount of water New York State consumes in a day.  Water is so contaminated with methane and other chemicals from fracking that it can become discolored, bubble and could actually catch on fire at the kitchen tap….The chemicals from fracking can cause chronic illness, loss of sense of smell and taste, animals hair to fall out, severe headaches and cancer.”

Betsy of Eco Novice writes, “the big kicker for me in all of this is that fracking was exempted from the Safe Drinking Water Act in the 2005 energy bill, which means that the entire process is happening with minimal regulation. So a process that potentially threatens drinking water is not subject to the regulation that is supposed to. . . protect our drinking water.”

Lisa of Retro Housewife Goes Green wonders if the increased number of EARTHQUAKES where she lives in Oklahoma are connected to the increasing amount of fracking going on there. What? Earthquakes? Think about that one for a minute. She also wonders whether the value of natural gas is being greenwashed. Sure, it’s an alternative to coal. But is it really any better? Fracking, plus nat gas’ own carbon footprint, make you wonder.

Karen of Best of Mother Earth got educated when she watched the Oscar-nominated film “Gasland,” which tracks the impact that fracking has had on people’s lives and the environment all over the U.S. “I found myself horrified, REALLY angry, and of course immediately frustrated…Once they frack, there is no going back,” she says. “The damage and destruction is done.”

There is some good news in the fracking debate. As Harriet at Climate Mama reports, the New Jersey legislature has banned fracking anywhere and everywhere in the state. Can you get your state to do the same?

Yes, you can! Over at Big Green Purse, you can find links to updates on what’s happening in your state, and sign a petition to get Senators to sign the FRAC Act.

And for more links to great resources and legislative updates, see Jennifer’s post at Care2.

Please. Take action today.

The post Fracking: A Clear and Present Danger appeared first on Big Green Purse.

This time, the chemical in question is a compound called hexavalent chromium, or chromium 6. If it sounds familiar, it may be because you saw the movie “Erin Brockovich,” starring Julia Roberts. In the film, based on a true story, Roberts as Brockovich campaigns to protect residents of a small California town whose drinking water has been contaminated by hexavalent chromium. In real life, Brockovich, a legal aide, helps the town residents win a $333 million lawsuit against Pacific Gas & Electric, the company responsible for the contamination.

But that’s not the end of the tale. It turns out, hexavalent chromium persists in drinking water in dozens of American cities, including Bethesda, San Jose, Ann Arbor, Pittsburgh, Albuquerque, Atlanta, and Salt Lake City (note: If your city is not on the list, it might only mean that the water in your city wasn’t analyzed). The toxic chemical is released when plastics, steel, and paper pulp are manufactured; it’s also discharged by leather-tanning and metal-plating factories. It can pollute water when soil and rock erode as well. It exists in our drinking water for two reasons: because companies can release it into the environment without much legal or financial consequence; and because the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency does not currently impose regulations on municipalities to eliminate chromium 6 in our water — or at least, to reduce it to much safer levels.

You can get more information from the answers to this list of frequently asked questions; you can also read the full report on hexavalent chromium here. But don’t just read the report: take action to protect the water you and your family drink! Here’s how:

1) Don’t buy bottled water. Much bottled water comes straight from the same source as our drinking water. It looks healthier because it sports a fancy label touting how “pure” it is – but unless the label also says the water has been tested and proven to be free of hexavalent chromium and other contaminants, you’ll just be wasting your money. Instead, use your purse power to invest in a reverse osmosis filter (see below).

2) Filter your water at the tap. A reverse osmosis filter uses powerful carbon filters to capture a wide variety of contaminants. Some models sit on your countertop next to the kitchen sink; more expensive, under-the-counter options filter more water over time. Here’s a terrific guide that will help you choose a system for your home. Take a look at these models to get an idea of the choices you have and what they could cost. Keep in mind that the common PUR and Brita filters, which do a pretty good job of filtering out sediment and chlorine, DO NOT capture hexavalent chromium. Whatever system you use, remember to change the filter regularly (you can recycle Brita filters here). And don’t just drink filtered water; cook with it, too.

3) Contact your elected officials. Demand stronger regulations to require companies to contain the toxic chemicals they generate, rather than release them for the rest of us to clean up. And support efforts by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and your local water municipality to eliminate or reduce the presence of these toxins in the water we drink. Start by contacting your member of Congress and ask for hearings on water safety in the U.S.

RELATED POSTS: 

“We’re Drinking the Same Water as Cleopatra. Is it as clean?”

“10 No-Brainer Ways to Use Water Wisely.” 

“Bottled Water Not as Safe as Tap Water, Says GAO.”

The post How to Keep Drinking Water Safe for You and Your Family (Bottled Water is Not the Answer) appeared first on Big Green Purse.

1) Give up bottled water. How many reasons do you need? Toxic plastic is used to contain bottled water. Bottled water generates mountains of trash. Making bottled water and moving it around the globe wastes enormous amounts of energy. Bottled water may not be as safe to drink as tap water.  Here’s the real kicker: bottling water wastes water. Two gallons of water are wasted for every gallon bottled. Stupid, no?

2) Give up the idea that you have to drink water all the time. Where did that notion come from, that somehow, your outfit isn’t complete without a bottle of water by your side? I’ve gotten along just fine drinking from drinking fountains and — believe it or not — going for a couple of hours at a time without drinking water. Try it. You won’t die.

3) Filter your water at home. If you’re concerned about water quality, put a filter on your tap and keep water in your refrigerator or in a closed carafe on your kitchen counter or desk top. You can also buy reusable water bottles that come with their own filter. Cheap, good, and trash-free.

4) Take shorter showers. Get in. Soap up. Get out. I bet you can do it in five minutes; ten, max.

5) Use low-flow shower heads and faucet aerators. They’ll increase the pressure coming out of the tap so you won’t notice you’re actually using a lot less water. Get ’em at your local hardware store. Simple, yes?

6) Get a new toilet.

I recently replaced mine with one that’s Water Sense certified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (you can see the water sense logo on my toilet tank if you look closely!); if I’d had time to wait a week for a special delivery, I could have gotten a dual-flush toilet that’s even more water-efficient. I loved this water-saving toilet I saw in Australia.

7) Replace your lawn. Grass is weird; in fact, it’s not even natural – really, where in Nature does a monoculture (i.e., just one plant) grow completely weed-free? Nowhere. Give it up in favor of other groundcovers that use a lot less water and require far less maintenance.

8) Stop the leaks. Inside or outside, faucets drip if they’re not tightened properly.  If tightening a faucet doesn’t stop the drip, you’ll probably have to remove the knob and replace an old washer. If I can do it, you can.

9) Wash full loads. This goes for the dishwasher as well as the clothes washer. If you’re going to use all that water, make it wash as much as the machine can hold. And by the way, washing dishes by hand uses a lot more water than doing them in the dishwasher. You don’t need to rinse in advance – just wipe off the grime with a damp sponge or cloth.

10) Turn the water off. Duhhh…Why people still let faucets run when they’re brushing their teeth is beyond me. You don’t need to let the shower run for ten minutes before you get in, either. And you don’t need to let the kitchen tap run while you’re just clearing the table or off talking on the phone. If you like the sound of running water, get a small fountain that will circulate the same water over and over. Otherwise, just let it be.

Bonus: Buy less, and buy used. Manufacturing uses an enormous amount of water. H2O is used to grow crops, process materials, mine minerals, and clean finished products. Every time you buy something, you’re buying the water used to make that thing. Every time you throw something away, you’re throwing our the water used to make it, as well. Buy less, and buy used. You’ll save money, and save water, too.

The post 10 No-Brainer Ways to Use Water Wisely. Plus, a Bonus… appeared first on Big Green Purse.

One person of every three on the planet today isn’t nearly so fortunate, according to the International Water Management Institute, because they lack reliable access to fresh water. Even here in the U.S., the federal Government Accountability Office reported in 2003 that “water managers in thirty-six states anticipate water shortages locally, regionally, or statewide within the next ten years.”

The rest of the world looks equally thirsty. By 2025, worries the Water Management Institute, all of Africa and the Middle East, and almost all of South and Central America and Asia, will either be running out of water or unable to afford its cost.

Dirty Water Kills Kids

They’ll also be contending with its safety. “Every day more children die from dirty water than HIV-AIDS, malaria, war, and accidents all put together,” says Maude Barlow, co-author of Blue Gold: The Fight to Stop the Corporate Theft of the World’s Water. According to a 2003 survey by the European Environment Agency, nitrates, toxins, heavy metals and/or harmful microorganisms contaminate ground water in nearly every European country and former Soviet republic.

And What About Cleopatra?

There is no “new water.” We are essentially using the same water Cleopatra used 2,000 years ago. But we’re using a lot more of it:

If today is an average day, you’ll probably use about 90 gallons of water just for today – which amounts to about 107,000 gallons for the year: enough to fill your bathtub almost 3,000 times.

We use water to grow lawns, wash dishes, rinse food, shower and shave, and let the tap run when we brush our teeth. About 14 percent leaks down the drain.

Older toilets waste more clean water in a single flush than many Africans use in an entire day.

Only 1 percent of all the world’s water can be used for drinking.

Nearly 97 percent of the world’s water is salty and otherwise undrinkable. The other 2 percent is locked up in the ice caps and glaciers.

What if You’re Pregnant?

In the U.S., we count on our tap water to be safe, and for the most part it is. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency sets standards for approximately ninety contaminants in drinking water. Outbreaks from microbial contamination — the kind that give you a stomach ache or diarrhea — are rare, given how many people are serviced by the public drinking water system. The bigger issue revolves around chemicals that wastewater treatment facilities weren’t designed to remove. The common fertilizer ingredient nitrate, for example, can seep into drinking water through runoff from lawns, gardens, and agricultural fields, causing “blue baby syndrome” if it depletes a newborn baby’s hemoglobin. Pregnant and nursing women and the elderly should also avoid water that’s high in nitrate content.

Bottled Water is Not the Solution

Bottled water won’t be the solution. Since so much “bottled” water is actually tap water, there’s no guarantee there’ll be enough to go around. And as we’ve discussed here before, bottling water in plastic, throwaway bottles creates a whole host of environmental problems that are better left alone.

All Those Drugs, All Those Weird Fish

Pharmaceuticals — including painkillers, depression medication, and birth control drugs — and endocrine-disrupting chemicals from deodorants, shampoos, body soaps, and lotions are also roiling America’s freshwater supplies. The cumulative effect of trace amounts of these chemicals has the EPA concerned, given their links to behavioral and sexual mutations in fish, amphibians, and birds. Part of the problem is that consumers flush old and unwanted drugs down toilets or drains. Another factor is the sheer volume of pharmaceuticals and personal-care products entering our waterways. In a U.S. Geological Survey/EPA study of 139 streams in 30 states, pharmaceuticals were found in 80 percent of the samples taken.

These aren’t benign elements. According to a 2006 analysis by the U.S. Geological Survey, “previously banned compounds…such as DDT and chlordane, natural and anthropogenic hormones, herbicides, fungicides, industrial chemicals” and other compounds that might act as endocrine disrupters lead to aberrations like both male and female sex organs turning up on the same fish.

Nasty Chemicals in the Water, Learning Disabilities in Kids?

The National Academy of Sciences is worried, too. Its list of “naturally occurring and man-made contaminants in drinking water of concern to all of us” includes arsenic, perchlorate (a component of rocket fuel and fireworks), copper, and methylmercury, the scourge of parents anxious about learning disabilities and developmental disorders in their kids.

What About the Oceans?

The ocean’s misfortune is also our own. Twenty percent of coral reefs and 35 percent of mangroves have been lost since 1980, along with their capacity to buffer coastal communities from storms. With nearly half the world’s cities located within 50 kilometers of a coast, people are more vulnerable than ever before to extreme weather events, like Hurricane Katrina, whose impact on New Orleans is pictured at left. Over half of the synthetic nitrogen ever used to fertilize American farmland has been applied in the last two decades. As much as 50 percent of it has run off, creating dead zones in great aquatic cauldrons like the Gulf of Mexico that make short shrift of those shrimp you like to serve for dinner. Does anyone need a reminder about the impact the oil industry has on global H2O? We’ll be learning about the devastating impact of the recent Gulf Oil Disaster for months and years to come.

Is it Hopeless?

It all depends on what we do next. We know the world’s waters are in peril. We also know there’s no way we can make more water. But we also know what to do to keep it safe. Here’s the big picture:

1) Eliminate the use of all toxic chemicals.

2) Immediately implement the water conservation strategies we’ve already invented.

3) Transition as quickly as possible away from fossil fuels in favor of renewable resources that don’t contribute to climate change or pollute our rivers, lakes, seas, and oceans.

We know what to do.

Will we? The answer is up to us all.

The post We’re Drinking the Same Water as Cleopatra. Is It as Clean? appeared first on Big Green Purse.

Just scan the front pages of this week’s New York Times if you need to be convinced. “Health Ills Abound as Farm Runoff Fouls Wells,” documents instances of children contracting serious ear infections, some requiring surgery, from bathing in polluted water.  “Toxic Waters: Clean Water Laws Are Neglected at a Cost in Suffering” focuses on scabs and rashes being inflicted on children because their tap water contains barium, lead, arsenic and many other toxins that cause cancer and damage the kidneys and nervous system. A Fight Grows Over Labeling on Cleaning Products addresses consumer concerns that the chemicals in common household cleansers are giving people asthma, acne, nervous disorders, and more.

Maybe it’s time fror Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sibelius and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson to put their heads together and realize that America could reduce health care costs significantly if we focused on cleaning up the planet. And get some of those polluters to help foot the bill. The cleaning products industry alone is a $14 billion/yr enterprise.

The post Protecting the Environment is a Health Care Issue appeared first on Big Green Purse.

How, then, does bottled water fit into the equation? Pepsi continues to push bottled water as a greener, cleaner alternative to much cheaper tap water. At my Earth Day presentation, I was amazed to note that virtually everyone who attended brought a bottle of Pepsi’s water with them. Yes, it was in the new “Eco-Fina” bottle, which they say is made using 50% less plastic than their conventional AquaFina bottle. Still, it made me wonder: why are thousands of people in the company drinking bottled water every day when they can get healthy water from the tap?

It’s not like bottled water has been a public relations boon for Pepsi. To the contrary, Eco-Fina bottle or no, Pepsi has taken a lot of heat from green mom bloggers, social justice advocates, and consumer groups who feel that bottled water is an environmental nightmare. Pepsi has made some strides in reducing the environmental impact of the bottle, but still: they’re selling water, a local resource that is becoming more and more scarce, in communities grappling with drought, burgeoning populations and unchecked development.

Is Pepsi likely to abandon selling a product that generates millions and millions of dollars in revenue each year? Not unless there’s a compelling alternative — or competition. So how about this:

Get Pepsi to follow the example of cleaning companies like Arm & Hammer, which sells one empty bottle, plus cartridges of cleaning concentrate the consumer can mix with water at home. Couldn’t Pepsi sell a reuseable bottle that could be refilled at convenience stores and restaurants as well as at home? If Pepsi is mostly interested in selling water, it can market an in-store dispenser so people can fill up their reusable water bottles rather than purchase a new one each time they’re thirsty.

This idea is not only doable – it’s already being done, sort of. Consider 7-11. Every day, millions of people make their own Slurpees at 7-11 with nary a complaint. I haven’t met a person yet who is not capable of putting a cup underneath the Slurpee faucet and filling up. Why not figure out a way for people to bottle their own Eco-Fina water in the same way? True, this strategy wouldn’t put a dent in the proportion of bottles being sold out of vending machines. But it would severely reduce the number of plastic water bottles being sold at 7-11, Stop and Shop, and thousands of other convenience stores.  Restaurants, meanwhile, could serve water in Eco-Fina-labeled pitchers. Since most of the water Pepsi puts in its bottles is tap water, there’s not much difference if it’s served in a branded bottle or a branded carafe.

I’d recommend that Pepsi not drag its heels too long waiting to make a change like this. Otherwise, some entrepreneurs at 7-11 just may take it into their heads to market their own branded refillable bottles, and then sell refills from the tap for the same amount of money they earn for stocking each bottle of Eco-Fina on their shelves (which usually amounts to about half the retail price of the product).

There’s nothing like a little competition to get someone to rethink their approach. 7-11, I hope you’re paying attention. Pepsi, you too.

NOTE: This post is part of this month’s Green Moms Carnival selection on food. Water is regulated by the Food and Drug Administration…though not very well.

The post Can Pepsi Learn From 7-11? appeared first on Big Green Purse.

Marketing hype and inadequate labeling entice consumers to buy bottled water even though it is far more expensive and usually not as healthy as tap water.

Bottled water also takes its toll on the environment. At least 3/4 of the millions of plastic water bottles produced each year are thrown away rather than recycled. Plus, producing bottled water actually uses more water and is far more energy intensive than providing the same amount of water to the public via the tap.

These are among the most damning conclusions reached by the U.S. General Accounting Office upon completion of a thorough comparison of the health, safety and environmental benefits of tap vs. bottled water.

The GAO attributes the dangers in bottled water to the fact that it is regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), whose safety requirements are far less stringent than those of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which regulates tap water. The GAO recommended that the FDA adopt EPA’s requirements within the year.

Consumers should not have to wait a year for plastic water bottles to be safe.

Take action on bottled water now:

* Stop buying bottled water, or any beverage sold in a plastic bottle. Remember the power of the purse: the way you spend your money sends a signal loud and clear to polluters that they will lose market share unless they provide you with safe products and services.

* Shift to healthier, safer reusable bottles. Aluminum and stainless steel bottles are better, as are bottles with filters that are free of the chemicals most throwaway water bottles contain.

* Contact manufacturers and tell them to pull bottled water off the market. Just because a company makes a bottle that uses less plastic doesn’t mean that bottle is a good choice.

Throwaway plastic bottles need to go.

Note: You can find more reusable water bottle options in our store. We earn a tiny commission on our store purchases; all our recommendations are based on our determination that the items suggested offer a cleaner, greener, safer alternative to what you may currently be using. Thanks.

The post Bottled Water is Not as Safe as Tap Water, says GAO appeared first on Big Green Purse.