No More Bottled Water!

General Discussion
,
41

For clarification as it went out of screenshot:

"No 7 = All other plastics not included in the other categories and mixes of plastics 1 through 6 are labeled with a 7, including compact discs, computer cases, BPA-containing products, and some baby bottles.

PLA (polymer polylactide) is a plastic made from plants (usually corn or sugarcane) that is also labeled with a 7. PLA plastics don’t contain BPA; no safety concerns have been raised about using PLA plastic with food. Right now, it can be difficult to tell the difference between a PLA no. 7 plastic and a BPA-containing no. 7 plastic. Some PLA plastics may also say “PLA” near the recycling symbol. Others may have a leaf symbol near the recycling symbol.

To clear up any confusion, the manufacturers of PLA plastic are working with the American Society for Testing and Materials International, a global group that develops standards, to create a new recycling numbering system that would give PLA plastic its own number.

Do not cook food in no. 7 plastics that aren’t PLA and avoid using non-PLA no. 7 plastics around any type of food. "

42

I have spoken to our recyclers SIRTOM about using the numbering system
for plastic recycling.
Absolutely useless.
Talking to friends they do not understand the numerical system, as they just use what they are told by the pictures on the recycling bins.
It reminds me of the pictures outside restaurants where what you get on your plate often bears little resemblance to what it should be.
SIRTOM told me that grade 1 plastics which have been used for food are not recyclable, when I said were not milk bottles food containers, no reply.
Presdent Macron has told recyclers that they must improve their plastic recycling rate, but not for several years.
It has been an issue of lack of investment.

43

Jane… as far as I can see, the numbers refer to what plastic contains.

I’ve just checked a bottle I reuse regularly for watering pot plants. It is PET1 contained fruit-juice when bought. I now know NOT to use for drinking water. I would not have thought to check it out before reading this thread.

I’ll have to check all my plastic bottles, as I do like to keep drinking water with me on journeys and, even, during long meetings.

Our recycling centre takes all plastic bottles and packaging. What they do with it - is up to them- but they are encouraging everyone to cut down.

44

This link also makes interesting reading -

2 Likes
45

This discussion did get me thinking, and that our recycling bin was overflowing with water bottles.

I have ordered a Brita from Amazon.fr and a couple of cartridges - hopefully it works well, the most important test is how does tea taste - we normally use bottled water for tea which tastes fine, not perfect but better than using normal tap water so it will be interesting to see how tap water via the Brita works.

… and obviously it has to be made with Yorkshire tea and fresh semi-skimmed milk.

1 Like
46

If you want to take drinking water with you when out & about or just in the garden, take a look at the Chillybottle range. I put ice cold water in mine & it stays that way for ages, they say 24hrs, even left in the car on a really hot day it’s still beautifully cold when I want a drink & no plastic! Not the cheapest bottles like this on the market but it really does live up to it’s claims so for me it’s been more than worth buying.

4 Likes
47

Ours is fine.

The water filter obviously helps you and anything is better than bottled water.

48

If nothing else will stop you buying bottles water, perhaps this will…

2 Likes
49
50

Now that’s made my day! We got one free for correctly answering climate change questions at a local event. I had no idea they were that expensive! Not a bad gift at all!

They do keep water cold, but are far too heavy to use for walking. Ours lives in the car and is much appreciated.

1 Like
51

We drink tap water here in France - but there are still many places in the world (I’ve just got back from Kosovo, and will be working in Morocco next month) where it is risky - so the world needs a range of different solutions to the plastic bottle problem…

52

Human physiology has evolved over millions of years to cope with biological and chemical adulterants in the waters that the body needs for health and for life itself.

This preoccupation with water purity in the modern era is IMO neurotic and effete in the extreme, as is the quasi-scientific attention given to food ‘intolerance’ and ‘allergy’.

There are some potential pathogens in the water we drink, but the healthy gut is well able to manage these in a variety of ways, chemical and biological.

One sturdy natural defence against bacterial attack is the ‘normal bacterial flora’ that colonises the health gut. This richly varied garden of naturally acquired germs prevents the overgrowth of harmful ones and their proliferation to cause damage to tissues and thus disease.

The basis of a healthy gut is acquired, basically, from consuming ‘dirt’ from infancy onwards. Once established in the early years of life, the protective ‘germ garden’ in the gut forbids, except in extremely rare instances, the development of gastro-intestinal ‘weeds’ and resultant infections.

Very heavy loads of unaccustomed foreign pathogens can cause an assault on the gut, and an attack of “Delhi-belly”, because the normal flora are unprepared for the virulence and volume of foreign invaders.

Human defences against infection are generally very robust and reliable, like the defences of other animals in nature. Our cats and chickens always prefer to drink from muddy pools and smelly rivulets than from the clean dishes of bottled water left our for them by over-solicitous human.

They are wise and self reliant, we are often out of touch with our own nature, and too squeamish.

One way children naturally build up the gut defences is by picking their noses and consuming their bogeys. A universal habit, not to be forbidden them, except perhaps in front of Aunty Hilda.

4 Likes
53

No arguments with that, but what concerns me about bottled water is the plastic you drink not the bacteria.

54

No arguments with that, either @JaneJones, but my premise is the whole nonsense of drinking bottled water in the first place.

I have hardly ever drunk water from a bottle, maybe when I’m driving long-distance my wife takes a slug of water from a bottle and offers it me, and rarely, I will take a mouthful, but never otherwise.

Feeling thirsty is surely not a need that has to be sated everytime it’s noticed? It’s a crazy, babyish way to live IMO, only recently surfaced in modern times as a major money-spinner.

Never happened before the 1980s in my long recollection.

55

Peter, I know your recollection goes back further than mine does… but I recall Mum packing her basket with bread and cheese + bottles of squash - which we all enjoyed at the beach. That would have been in the 50’s. The bottles were used again and again. Sometimes it was just slightly flavoured water and sometimes it was home-made ginger beer :hugs:

Near our favourite spot, there was a standpipe where we could get water if we wanted it - always in a cup or bottle, never straight into the mouth - the queue was always very long on a hot day.

The rule at mealtimes was - a glass of water after you get halfway through the food, never before.

1 Like
56

is that why it’s called a colon :thinking:

1 Like
57

Lashings and lashings of I presume!

1 Like
58

Ah but @Peter_Goble you seen to be missing the far more important point of water quality is not whether or not it will kill you…-… But does it make a good cup of tea?

Our tap water does not make a good cup of tea from a bottle it is fine. (we are about to try a Brita however to get away from the bottles).

2 Likes
59

You saucy Graham you! You know how to get my etymological juices running. I had to look up colon and colony on Google etymology to scratch that particular itch, so I suggest you do the same…:joy:

60

Mum nurtured a ginger-beer plant in the pantry - those were the days :hugs:

2 Likes