Quilt Show is going green

Capping bottled water means savings

The move of the Quilt Show and other Sisters events and organizations to cut back on the use of bottled water reflects a widespread and growing concern about the environmental and financial costs of getting our drinking water out of disposable plastic containers.

The Pacific Institute (www.pacinst.org) estimates that for every liter of bottled water produced, as many as two are used in the production process, so each liter of water consumed "costs" three liters. In other words, a bottled water drinker is in effect pouring two liters down the drain for every liter he or she drinks.

In 2006, almost a million tons of plastic water bottles were produced for the U.S. bottled water market, creating nearly three million tons of carbon dioxide - a known greenhouse gas - and requiring about 17 million barrels of oil - enough to fuel one million automobiles for a year.

This doesn't include the energy required (or CO2 emissions produced) to fill the bottles, get them to market or dispose of them after they've been emptied.

According to the Pacific Institute, the total amount of energy embedded in the use of bottled water can be as high as the equivalent of filling a plastic bottle one quarter full with oil.

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) reports that Oregonians in 2005 bought nearly 200 million bottles of water, and an estimated 125 million of those bottles (62 percent) went into the trash.

The cost to the consumer is high as well: If you live in the City of Sisters and use 10,000 gallons of water or less a month, you pay about four one hundredths of a cent per liter. That means if you went to the local grocery outlet and bought a flat of their store-brand water (24 1-liter bottles), you could refill one of those bottles around 767 times for the cost of that (individual) bottle.

You'd also save a lot of fuel cost, because those store-brand bottles of water were shipped almost 900 miles, from an industrial park just outside Los Angeles, California. Take home a six-pack of (Pepsi-Cola-owned) Aquafina, and you could refill one of those bottles about 1,370 times for the same cost.

But before you refill those store-bought bottles, bear in mind that they're approved by the Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for only a single use, while bottles such as bike bottles and the like are designed for repeated use and washing.

You wouldn't be missing anything by refilling your Aquafina bottles at home: Many news stories last year reported that Pepsi-Cola would be changing the labels on the bottles to reflect the fact that Aquafina is really nothing more than tap water.

Dasani, owned by Coca-Cola, also comes from a public water supply, as do several other popular brands. Bottled water is by and large very safe, but according to many sources, no more safe or healthful than that available from quality municipal water systems (of which Sisters is one).

In fact, municipal water systems in the United States are subject to more oversight than are the bottlers of store-bought water (water bottlers are generally self-regulated, and their product is infrequently inspected). If bottled-water isn't transported across state or international borders, the FDA has no authority to inspect or regulate it.

The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that because bottled water is stored for longer periods of time and at higher temperatures than fresh tap water, chemicals can leach out of the containers and contaminate the water. In addition, any micro-organisms that may have been in the water when it was bottled (or in the container before it was filled) have a better chance of reproducing, causing further contamination.

With summer almost upon us, there will be a lot of water consumed in Central Oregon, and a lot of empty bottles piling up in municipal trash cans, recycling cans, landfills and transfer stations.

It's worth considering alternatives such as using your own water containers when going out, and stopping into a restaurant to see if they'll refill your bottle (don't forget to grab a burger or a shake while you're there).