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I don’t understand the focus specifically on water bottles when this comes up, seems like any drink bottle would be just as problematic. I understand we don’t a
by jeklj 8y ago
I don’t understand the focus specifically on water bottles when this comes up, seems like any drink bottle would be just as problematic. I understand we don’t all have pipes that bring Coca-Cola to our homes, but when you’re out and need something to drink that ship has sailed.
- sowbug 8y agoYou are using the word "need" in an unconventional sense.
- jeklj 8y agoAre you sure about that?
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- PhasmaFelis 8y agoNo, they're not. When someone says "I need a drink," reasonable people do not interpret that as "I literally cannot continue without immediate hydration."
- SmellyGeekBoy 8y agoGenerally people do need to drink. Otherwise they die.
- azinman2 8y agoProbably because it’s a relatively new problem. People drink more water than other drinks like Coke, so the impact factor is high. We also have infrastructure to deliver water without bottles (the tap), but we don’t for other drinks.
- freehunter 8y agoRight, I see water as particularly egregious as it's a natural product (literally pumped straight from the ground) and should be accessible in clean form anywhere in the developed world (aka most places where water bottles are commonly bought and thrown away). The solution to dirty water shouldn't be putting clean water in plastic bottles and shipping it around the world, it should be making sure water is clean enough that anywhere you go you can drink the local water without needing to buy a one-time-use plastic bottle. It doesn't help that our solution to dirty water (plastic bottles) is making even clean water unusable (microplastic).
- EGreg 8y agoMaybe we can convince the companies bottlibg water to use glass or steel cans like they do for juice and sugar water.
- azinman2 8y agoThe article talks exactly about this, and it still doesn’t address the fact that waste is still generated when we have better infrastructure for moving clean water.
- bunderbunder 8y agoThe infrastructure to deliver other drinks without bottles is easy and has existed since the 19th century. Just ship the flavoring agents in some sort of syrup form, and mix it with water at the dispensation site. Force-carbonate it onsite, if you like. Compared to bottles, it has the added advantage of being really inexpensive. So much so that, when places like gas stations and convenience stores sell the same beverage in both fountain and bottled forms, the fountain version is typically sold at a steep discount relative to the bottled one.
- leetcrew 8y agoon the other hand, this method has the substantial disadvantage that beverages delivered this way usually taste significantly worse than their bottled counterparts. I suspect "natural" products like fruit juice necessarily suffer from being made into concentrates and reconstituted on demand. I'm not sure why it should be this way with soda, but in my experience soda from a bottle always tastes way better than from a fountain.
- bluntfang 8y ago>beverages delivered this way usually taste significantly worse As someone who prefers fountain soda and avoids bottle sodas due to taste (i believe it is level of carbonation), this is highly subjective and I urge you to look beyond your personal tastes (heh) on this subject.
- sandworm101 8y agoBecause water is fungible, can be produced locally, is piped into homes, and is the most abundant liquid on the planet. Shipping it around in tiny little bottles is phenomenally inefficient. A total waste. There is no reason why we cannot fill reusable water bottles on the go rather than purchase flimsy containers.
- jeklj 8y agoRight but shipping Sprite around is just as wasteful. It’s almost all water.
- astura 8y agoBottled water is the number one selling packaged beverage in America. That's fucking stupid considering clean safe drinking water is abundant and ubiquitous in America.
- jeklj 8y agoI'll buy that it's the top seller, but are the majority of bottled drinks water? Because when I go to a convenience store there is usually one fridge for bottled water and several for all the other stuff (soda, tea, juice, Gatorade etc). I don't think all of that really matters anyway, because the point I'm making is: anything that's bad about a plastic bottle filled with water surely must be just as bad for a plastic bottle filled with water and a little bit of sugar and coloring. Nobody has really addressed this, and I just think it's strange. I'm fine with the idea that we should address this by drinking tap water instead of bottled water. All I'm saying is that surely the same goes for other bottled drinks as well.
- jonahhorowitz 8y agoYes. As the top comment says, we need to switch to fully reusable & easily recyclable (eg not plastic) bottles, but water is the most obvious fucking stupid thing to put in a bottle, so we can start there.
- 8y ago
- TimesOldRoman 8y agoIt's purly cultural, driven by consumerism. Buy a nalgene....we can do better. People should know that they are going to get thirsty at some point.
- Eridrus 8y agoThe "everyone should change their way of life" approach to environmentalism hasn't worked and has been quite divisive, why do people continue to think it is an effective strategy?
- CalRobert 8y agoBecause the alternative is ultimately "Everyone probably won't get to stay alive". Which is a pretty big change in one's way of life. Also, using cans instead of bottles isn't exactly a major shift in most people's life. It's infinitely recyclable (unlike plastic), something nature knows how to deal with (unlike plastic) and often better for the beverage (in the case of beer at the very least).
- Eridrus 8y agoIf you had read the OP I was replying to, you would see they were suggesting everyone should buy and carry a Nalgene water bottle with them at all times, in case they needed water. If you read further down this thread, many commenters in this thread are convinced that we should never package water.
- jogjayr 8y ago"Never" is a strong word. Packaged water is useful when stockpiling for or responding to natural disasters (hurricanes, wildfire, tornadoes, earthquakes), emergency evacuation camps, places where safe, clean water and filters aren't easily accessible or used. Everywhere else, it's really unnecessary.
- biggusdickus 8y agoCans' inside is lined with plastic.
- jellicle 8y agoThere are great numbers of people who drink only water bottled in small plastic disposable bottles in their home. I have a set of relatives that have a garage full of cartons of bottled water (there was a sale). Their tap water is of excellent quality.
- jeklj 8y agoThat is silly! I'm just not sure the solution is to switch to Powerade.
- protonfish 8y agoBut it has electrolytes.
- lostlogin 8y agoA cup works pretty well.
- jeklj 8y agoSure. And that’s as true for juice, tea, and soda as it is for water.
- ryanmercer 8y ago>I don’t understand the focus specifically on water bottles when this comes up, seems like any drink bottle would be just as problematic. I suspect people drink far more bottles of water than soda, simply based on the price of an entire flat of water compared to a 6-pack of 20 ounce sodas.
- Johnny555 8y agoI don’t understand the focus specifically on water bottles when this comes up.... I understand we don’t all have pipes that bring Coca-Cola to our homes It sounds like you do understand the focus on the bottle that's easily replaced by opening a tap or using the water fountain that's found in most public places. Likewise there's a lot of focus on replacing light bulbs with energy efficient alternatives, and less focus on replacing electric space heaters because light bulbs are easily replaced with little impact on the user (and indeed, save money over the long run) and are more common than electric space heaters.
- siruncledrew 8y agoWhat if grocery and convenience stores just served other drinks via fountain machines (like 7-11 for example)?