A little while ago I was at a Tupperware party - which is all about plastic. I don't have a huge problem with plastic when it's designed for long term use. I've had some of my food storage containers for years and years and they're great. So much food might be wasted without them and its a better way to store leftovers than putting cling film over a bowl or plate. (I'm trying to train Mr C out of that habit!).
But... plastics designed for single or short use applications are a HUGE problem. Picture the pile you are leaving behind you as you go through life throwing away all those sandwich wrappers, toothbrushes, disposable razors, shopping bags, shampoo bottles etc etc and most of all, those rotten soft drink and water bottles.
At the Tupperware party, the sales lady asked if we knew what the '1' on the base of drink bottles meant. Several women thought they had heard that it meant 'single use'. I was quite horrified by this, and wondered if this urban myth was widespread. By that logic, anything marked with a '2' should be used twice, anything with a '4' should be used four times - well you see the problem.
It is true that plastics made from the monomer polyethylene terephthalate (PET) are ideally suited to single uses, such as drink bottles. But the claims that was made that these bottles shouldn't be reused and that the plastic 'dissolves' into the water the more often they are refilled were just rubbish. With that sort of misinformation around, it's no wonder that people feel overwhelmed by the environmental messages they are asked to absorb.
For a start, if plastics dissolved easily in water we wouldn't be able to store liquids in them. There wouldn't be the Great Pacific Garbage Patch either, as the plastics would be dissolved in the ocean, instead of floating in small pieces on it. PET bottles are easily recycled into a whole host of other products, including polar fleece, which is great. However, bottles have to be collected for recycling, and that just doesn't happen with most of them. On the rare occasions I'm in a food court I get quite anxious watching all the recyclables being dumped in with the rubbish. Discarded water bottles make up about 38% of general waste.
PET is also known as polyester and clothing made from that certainly doesn't go anywhere fast. This is one of the two main concerns with using this polymer. While it can be recycled, most of the PET produced (and it's the third most commonly made polymer) just sits in landfill forever, after a very short life of use.
The second problem is related, and it's the sheer amount of oil used to make and transport a single use item, such as a drink bottle. It's just wasteful to use up to seven litres of water
and a litre of crude oil to produce and transport one litre of bottled water. When surveyed, most people prefer the taste of tap water and many can't even tell the difference. Australians are blessed with fantastic tap water and there's only 1% of the environmental impact compared to drinking bottled water.
Soft drink is even worse when you look at the number of kilojoules in a typical bottle. Many of us couldn't eat the number of kilojoules we easily consume in liquid form - we would simply feel too full to keep eating.
Planet Ark reports that one bottle of water has the same impact as driving a car 1 kilometre, more than 65% of the bottles up in landfill and it takes 314,000 barrels of oil a year to make the bottles for the Australian market alone. Not very long ago nobody drank from PET bottles, and yet now Australians spend $500 million a year on the things!
If all the environmental negatives don't make people change their behaviour, then what will? Maybe the answer is hinted at in the claims made by the Tupperware lady. If people think their health is affected by the plastics they use, then maybe they will change. And new evidence is emerging that PET as its commonly used may leach endocrine disruptors such as phthalates and antimony.
The solution, as it so often is, is simple. Buy a stainless steel water bottle in a size that suits you and with a design that delights you. Fill from the tap. Enjoy. If you want to add bubbles, an investment in a Soda Stream will save you a fortune over time, more than repaying your initial investment.
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