Veggy Malta tried out H2Only which is purified drinking water that is sold and distributed in re-fillable water containers. Most of us today are more conscious about the environment but do we just talk or act? Lets see if changing your water supplier can have an impact on our real environment.
Lets make the maths for the Cassar family. The Cassars are a family of four. Two working parents and two kids at school. Now we know that every person should consume 2 litres of water a day, yet lets be conservative and say that each member only drinks 1 litre a day.
4 Cassars * 2 litre/day = 4 litres
Let’s assume that the Cassars are buying six packs of 2 litre bottles.
4 litres / 2 litres per bottle = 2 plastic bottles
Every week this means:
2 plastic bottles per day * 7 days = 14 plastic bottles per week
In a year this means:
14 plastic bottles per week * 52 weeks = 728 plastic bottles
Now if we push that figure from 1 litre per day to the required 2 litres per day, including the water we consume in teas and coffees, the the Cassar family would be generating 1456 plastic bottles of waste every year. If you had to put those next to each other that would make over 50 m2 of waste plastic. Now that’s a lot of waste which can be easily avoided. The main difference here is that with a re-fillable water bottle you are not using the bottle and throwing it away or at best sending it for recycling. It’s going back to the factory and being used again. So whilst it’s good that you throw your used plastic bottle for recycling, the best thing you can do is to reduce. This is why the first of the three R start is reduce, them come reuse and recycle.
That also means that you have carried back home with your shopping over 240 packets of water in a year. When instead you could have it delivered to you at home. Enjoy carrying all those packets?
How much does H2Only cost?
A 12 litre bottle of H2Only costs €2.80, whilst the 19 litre costs €4.30. This is inclusive of delivery. You can order everything online going on their website.
5 comments
Nice and dramatic explanation and a simple action that can help us reduce our plastic waste. Possibly a plastic tax on non-returnable containers like this should be introduced.
Incredible how easy it is for us to reduce or plastic waste and footprint and yeh how difficult it is!
“4 Borgs * 2 litre/day = 4 litres“
What’s a Borg? George Borg? CyBorg? Also, 4×2 equals 8, not 4…
The article especially misses to explain how the H2Oonly and other 5gallon waters available in Malta are produced. While it saves a lot of plastic bottles, mineral- or springwater doesn’t need a lot of energy to be produced (as it’s naturally there). The purified water sold in Malta is not springwater, and the producers are not revealing the sources. If it is Maltese tap water, then it comes most like from reverse osmosis, which needs A LOT of energy (which again is produced burning oil or gas in Malta, that has to be brought here with ships that burn crude oil and emit a huge amount of toxins). If it is bottled elsewhere, again it has to be produced first, or is tapped from natural groundwater, which produces other problems (as „purified“ or „table water“ doesn’t come from springs) and then brought to Malta.
I am all for eliminating those awful plastic bottles, but when you only produce new issues, it’s only a half hearted solution….
Hi Vogon,
Thanks for highlighting the mistake between Borg and Cassar .. 🙂 arranged that. I understand your concerns regarding energy and water production. That is a general local issue given that the natural (rain)water supply was never intended for half a million people. That though is a constant for whatever local water you consume, whether it is drink tap water or bottled water. I prefer the refillable bottles versus the single use plastic bottles for obvious reasons. I actually remember a time when we had water in glass bottles (just as we had soft-drinks in glass bottles).
It’s great that you can not only see a problem at one level but a different levels. I agree with you that we don’t solve all the problem .. but we decrease. If we all try to decrease the problem on a daily basis I believe we would be in a different situation. The problem is that many don’t try. Some expect governments to do their work. And the result is that “we” ignored the waste issue for years now we want to burn it away.
Thanks
VM
We are destroying our planet with plastic waste. We an all do more than our little bit by reducing plastic waste, going vegan, and reducing pollution.