GoldenRod
10 years on LIF!
Member since 11/06 26792 total posts
Name:
Shawn
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Suffolk County hopes to wean residents off bottled water
http://www.newsday.com/business/ny-libott115837830sep11,0,7560647.story
BY OLIVIA WINSLOW | [email protected]
September 11, 2008
The Suffolk County Water Authority wants residents to kick the habit - the bottled water habit, that is.
The authority launched a program yesterday to encourage residents to drink tap water by offering free reusable sport water bottles.
Agency officials said tap water is cheaper than bottled water - for $1.46, roughly the cost of one 20-ounce bottle of water at a deli, you could get 1,000 gallons of Suffolk tap water. Suffolk tap water is of high quality because of rigorous testing, they said, and drinking it is environmentally friendly because that reduces the number of plastic water bottles that end up in landfills.
Against the backdrop of the Town of Babylon Recycling Center in West Babylon, Stephen Jones, chief executive of the authority, said the vast majority of plastic water bottles are not recycled - the recycling rate is estimated to range from about 15 percent to less than 20 percent.
A spokesman for the International Bottled Water Association, an industry trade group based in Alexandria, Va., disputed that, saying plastic water bottles were a very small part of the landfill problem.
"Bottled water containers make up only one-third of 1 percent of the U.S. waste stream," said Tom Lauria.
"There's a whole lot that needs to be recycled to make a difference," he said, adding the industry was stepping up recycling efforts and urging Suffolk to do the same.
Water authority board of directors member Patrick Halpin said, "We want to emphasize to people that our drinking water, which is tested at our nationally recognized lab, is the best drinking water available ... as good or better than any bottled water that they would pay a lot more for."
Authority officials said the water supply's wells are tested more than 200,000 times a year.
Neal Lewis, executive director of the local environmental group Neighborhood Network, praised the authority's program. "This craze of buying water in plastic bottles is really out of control and an enormous waste of resources, particularly oil," said Lewis, who was also at the news conference. He said large amounts of oil are involved in manufacturing the plastic and in transporting the bottles.
As for the authority's reusable, 20-ounce plastic sport bottle, Jones said it is a "good kind of plastic," No. 2, made of high-density polyethylene that won't leach harmful substances. It's also more durable than most disposable plastic bottles, which are easily bent or smashed, said Dennis Kelleher, of the Long Island Water Conference, a group of public water suppliers.
The Suffolk authority has spent $14,000 to buy 10,000 reusable bottles, Jones said. Residents can claim a free bottle at the authority's Customer Service Center at 2045 Rte. 112 in Coram between 9 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Monday-Friday. He said the authority's Web site, scwa.com, will likely have a list of other sites by the end of the week.
Local officials pushed the rewards of tap water.
"Frankly, people are wasting their money buying bottled water," Halpin said. "You can get six gallons of water delivered to your house 24/7, through the public water supply, for one penny."
Babylon Town Supervisor Steven Bellone, who applauded the water authority's move, said the town would join in the public education effort. The town yesterday approved legislation to eliminate bottled water from vending machines in town-owned facilities by the end of the month.
20 ounces of bottled water
1,000 gallons of tap water in Suffolk
SOURCE: SUFFOLK COUNTY WATER AUTHORITY
31.2 billion liters
Estimated amount of bottled water Americans bought in 2006
900,000 tons of plastic
Approximate amount needed for those bottles, most of which were made of polyethylene terephthalate (PET)
17 million barrels of oil
Estimated equivalent needed for producing the bottles, not including the energy needed for transportation.
1/4 bottle Estimated amount of oil per bottle equivalent to the energy used to fill water bottles at the plant, transport them, and cool them in stores and home refrigerators
2.3 billion bottles
Number of single-use plastic water bottles consumed in New York State in 2005
80 percent
Plastic water bottles that were not recycled in 2005
SOURCES: SUFFOLK COUNTY WATER AUTHORITY, THE PACIFIC INSTITUTE AND THE CONTAINER RECYCLING INSTITUTE
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LaurenExp
Waiting patiently for baby sis
Member since 8/06 11613 total posts
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L-Diddy EDD 11/11/11 :)
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Re: Suffolk County hopes to wean residents off bottled water
I would love to be weaned off bottled water, if only my water in my house was reliable. I was wondering why my fish tank was full of nitrates, even when I changed the tank. Seems there were NITRATES IN THE TAP WATER. Nitrates in your water can KILL YOU. Its funny, the Suffolk County Water Authority came to my house at around 1am that day to check our water, said they didn't think they'd find anything, and we tested our water 2 days later and no more nitrates. Not even a phone call from the water district. We did save some of the water from when we tested and found the nitrates and nitrates are still coming up. We had even brought the water to the pet store for them to test, lo and behold nitrates.
I'm glad we don't have nitrates anymore. I have a filter on the refrigerator for the water, but it doesn't remove nitrates. I do use the water in the house, but I test it on a regular basis.
Message edited 9/11/2008 8:30:56 AM.
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