Written by Samantha Holschbach
First of all, in reference to “banning the plastic,” please don’t worry: I’m not about to coerce you into throwing away your credit cards as though they’re malevolent possessions deserving of fire. Rather, I’m alluding to the banning of my pet peeve — plastic disposable water bottles, a topic touched upon last week — for the sake of your health and the environment.
Other plastic household items in your dorm room, too, may be worthy of a makeover.
Regarding water, the notion that bottled water is the wholesome, healthy choice has been mistakenly tapped into many of our heads. According to Victoria Kaplan, senior organizer of the Food and Water Watch, “The bottled water industry spends millions of dollars a year to convince us that their product is somehow safer or healthier than tap water, when in fact that’s just not true.” On the contrary, National Geographic’s Green Guide for Everyday Living cites a 1999 study in which quarterly tested tapped water might be healthier than its annually tested bottled water counterpart. Additionally, the typical plastic water bottle is composed of #1 polyethylene terephthalate (PET or PETE), which is safe when used only once. However, it’s quite common to refill disposable water bottles, a process that leaves consumers more susceptible to leached carcinogenic chemicals like DEHA or benzyl butyl phthalate (BBP), which may disrupt hormones. Thus, tap water is just as safe, if not safer, than bottled water.
Tap water also wins when it comes to the environment, despite bottled water companies that promote green activities. Indeed, one example of a bottled water masquerading as “green” is FIJI Water, which impressively touts its eco-friendly qualities on its Web site under the catch phrase “every drop is green.” While FIJI Water is striving to reduce its carbon footprint via fuel-efficient travel routes, less packaging and its support of recycling programs, the fact is plastic bottles—period—contribute to municipal waste, and only 23 percent of plastics actually get recycled, according to www.goodhuman.com. As for the plastics that aren’t recycled, 500 years or more are required for them to degrade in a landfill. The Good Human Website specifically deemed FIJI Water a “Greenwash of the Week” in November 2008 for its green image but not-so-green qualities. Of these qualities, some of the more atrocious include the fact that plastic needs to be shipped to Fiji (5,500 miles from Los Angeles) and then shipped elsewhere full of water, an energy-draining process; and secondly, the fact that one-third of the Fiji people are in need of clean water amid this company’s money-making. Despite appearances, then, bottled water is inherently wasteful and even more so when we consider that it often takes seven times the amount of water within a bottle to produce the very bottle, according to the Good Human Website.
As a result, purchasing a heavy-duty reusable water bottle is a wise investment. In addition to the metal water bottles available at Hastings, a number of reasonably priced choices exist at www.nalgene-outdoor.com, www.rei.com and kleankanteen.com.
Regarding plastic-ware for storing food, the same thought processes behind bottled water apply. Since plastics exist virtually forever and few are actually recycled, some thought must be given to purchasing quality plastic containers, especially containers that contain the fewest health risks. According to the ‘resin identification code,’ a 1 to 7 range in which each number denotes a different type of plastic, the safest bets are #2, #4, and #5, which do not leach chemicals into your food and are recyclable. To find the resin type of your containers, look on the bottom of your containers to find this number within a recycling triangle. If your containers exhibit #3, #6 or #7, use them sparingly or ban their use entirely, as some of these contain chemicals linked to cancer, obesity, heart disease and more. Regarding the greenest methods of storing food, safe reusable plastic containers trump plastic wrap. Finally, according to the oft-touted “every little bit counts,” even bypassing a straw when drinking a soda or buying minimally packaged food items over heavily layered items makes a difference.
As I write, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a mass of plastic pollution that was originally the size of Texas, is growing monstrously in the North Pacific Ocean, endangering wildlife that ingest the plastic particles. Attesting largely to consumerism, this colossal hulk of trash ought to stimulate widespread action against plastics, lest our oceans become a universal cesspool of filth. Considering the looming effects of global warming, the depletion of natural resources and countless other threats, we need not harm ourselves by feeding this massive conglomeration of junk, too.
