My last post was all about waste separation and recycling properly, but after reading some of the entries at My Plastic Free Life I started thinking about the age old plastic bottle debate.
Everything today is wrapped or packaged in plastic, with nothing more obvious than the plastic water bottle.
unnecessary waste or needed water?
Here in Christchurch we are blessed with one of the most pure water supplies of a New Zealand city, and it always made me laugh a little when people bought bottled water, because most New Zealand water brands are filled with Christchurch tap water.
But after reading the many articles on plastic bottle waste, it doesn’t seem so funny anymore. Each New Zealander consumes approximately 31kg of plastic waste a year, so while I was writing about the importance of separating our waste, it turns out we still have a very big problem with minimizing our waste, and in particular our plastic waste.
How is this alright?!
So what are we going to do about it?
There’s a heap of easy steps, and the first one is buy a decent, reusuable water bottle, get into the habit of taking it everywhere so you don’t need to buy that plastic water bottle that will just get thrown into the recycling (or even worse, the rubbish) later!
If you think your up for it, you can even try some of the challenges on My Plastic-Free Life ranging from preparing a meal without plastic, to taking plastic waste tallies… but whatever you do, we should all be trying to be more conscious about our plastic waste… especially when it comes to bottled water. Save some money and try to minimize your consumption, turn it into a challenge and it could be fun!
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