Tag Archives: Bottled Water


Is Bottled Water Really Better For Your Health?

Posted on by
Reply

It’s probably accepted by most people nowadays that we need to drink plenty of water to stay healthy, avoid dehydration and to operate efficiently. The amount of water you require will vary according to your body mass and size, the ambient conditions you find yourself in and the level of physical activity in which you are engaged. However, most medical authorities currently suggest that you should typically be drinking between six and eight large glasses of water on a daily basis.

This perfectly sound medical advice has been one factor used in the advertising campaigns of bottled water suppliers to very effectively market their product. The market for bottled water is relatively new – but it is huge. Consumer demand for bottled water more than doubled between 1997 and 2005, and over 200 billion bottles of water are sold worldwide per annum.

That’s a lot of empty bottles being discarded. Some – a little less than 25% according to current statistics – are recycled. The rest go to landfill. The environmental consequences are significant. If all of those empty bottles were aligned end to end, they would span a distance covered long enough to get to the moon and back – 56 times!

The amount of carbon emissions involved, both in the production of the bottles and the transportation of the finished product, is also worthy of consideration. It’s an amazing fact that the production of the bottles uses three times as much water as the bottles contain when they are shipped.

Bottled water is, simply put, an environmental disaster. Of course, it’s just possible that you may be more concerned with your own health than that of the planet’s – which might be understandable in some cases. The flaw inthis logical process is that there is no evidence that bottled water is any better for your health than plain old tap water.

Tap water in North America and Europe is perfectly safe to drink and is subject to stringent checks. Some bottled water has been found to contain traces of uranium and estrogen chemicals. Some chemicals found in bottled water are due to “leeching” from the plastic (PET) bottles. It has also been found that many bottled waters contain, in addition to other minerals, salt – which is bad for your blood pressure.

The only reason you might conceivably be tempted to use bottled water would be the taste. However, in blind taste tests the majority of people are unable to distinguish between tap water and bottled water. Of course, if you live in a hard water area, or if you really don’t like the taste of your tap water (possibly due to chlorine added by the water authority to kill bacteria) you may wish to review your alternatives.

You could consider using a home filtration system – which will be better for the environment, better for your health and very much cheaper than bottled water. You can install whole house filtration systems, under sink filters or even just use something as simple as a Brita filter jug. All of these solutions will remove contaminants, enhance taste and reduce water hardness in a manner which is environmentally friendly.

Nine Tips for Being Green

Posted on by
Reply

“Green living”  seems to be hot buzz words these days. It seems likeeveryone isattempting to “go green” in different ways – even if it is justbuying Energy Star appliances,recycling trash, or making use of re-useable grocery bags at the store.  There are also many critics  around  that just don’t want to spend time  to “go green” and it could be it’s because they have the wrong impression about taking care ofthe environment .  Maybe you are one of those critics who thinkbeing green will use up too much of your extra time; I mean looking through trash for recyclingis not exactly how you might want to spend a Saturday night.  Youmight alsobe concerned that being green is too expensive – at least it seems like a lot of the green products on the market are more expensive than the non-green products.  A greatexample is light bulbs. The energy efficient bulbs are a littlemore expensive, but they also have some good benefits – they last longer than regular bulbs and they are great for our environment. Even if you may not be a hard-core Earth lover, there are still many easy things you can do each day to be environmentally conscious and not burden your life significantly.;

Here’s some easy ways to be environmentally consciouseach day :

  1. Toss out the take-out bag, the brown bag from home , and the doggie bag and take your food to work in an insulated, re-useable food tote.
  2. Next time you go to the grocery store , bring along a reuseable grocery bag rather than utilizing the plastic bags from the store.  You can even personalize your shopping bag with custom embroidery.
  3. Take your favorite insulated coffee cup with you to the coffee shop whenever you get a cup of coffee.  You will waste less by not using one of their cups.
  4. Rather than buying bottled water, bring your own in a steel water bottle.  
  5. Consider buying a travel set of utensils to take on your next dinner out. It’s silly to use plastic utensils for one meal and then toss them away. You may even find a fun, colorful set, and purchase a set for every family member.
  6. Rather than using disposable paper napkins, consider switching to fabric napkins when eating at your house .  You can easily make napkins from old  fabric scraps or buy a set to use and wash  on your usual laundry day.
  7. Think about purchasing food in local stores whenever possible.  In my town I frequent the Farmer’s Market every summer for all my fresh veggies.  Every time you can buy locally, you are saving resources needed to move and preserve the produce.
  8. Wash your clothing in cold water and you can save around 85% of the energy that hot water would typically take to wash a load of clothes.
  9. Before you jump in your car to run an errand, consider walking to your destination instead.  The exercise you get and the gas savings will be well worth it!

Customize your “green” products with Corporate Imprints Embroidery. They focus on providing quality machine embroidery, embroidery design, embossing and screen printing.  

Easy Ways to be Green at Work and at Home

Posted on by
Reply

As time goes on, the negative impact caused to our wonderful planet by the human race is becoming increasingly obvious.

That’s probably the understatement of the year thus far!

We can all as individuals do small things to counteract or reduce the perpetual damage we are causing.

Recycling, for example has been made simple for us both at home and at the office. It is effective and easy  and we’ve been aware of it for many years .

There are facilities available to recycle our plastic, glass and most metal items. This can be effected at home and by taking the items to a local depot or to convenient recycling areas

We can all save power by switching off lights in empty rooms or offices. We can learn to turn off power sources to various appliances and not leave them on ‘standby’.

we do not need to drink and eat from disposable cups and plates . Some materials from which these are manufactured may be biodegradable but many are not.  A china cup improves the pleasure of drinking a cup of coffee or tea immeasurably. That alone is a real benefit to the consumer.

Bottled water is a total waste of our resources when good, clean, drinkable water is so readily available to all.  Recent reports show that the amount of plastic waste from packaging generated each year in the UK alone is estimated at 1.5 million tonnes.  Reducing that figure would do wonders for our environment.

Email is a boon to society as  thanks to the ‘information age’ we can share our ideas, news items, jokes and anecdotes with everyone without the use of paper resources. Just remember not to print! Few  emails are so important that we need a copy to keep for posterity .

A significant move towards being ‘eco aware’ in the workplace is the use of recycled materials in the production of office furniture. 

A product called Wheatboard has been introduced. It is a by product of wheat straw and would normally  be discarded and burnt or left in landfills . It uses no formaldehyde in it’s construction and when produced into boards, is incredibly versatile as it may be painted, varnished, sealed etc and formed into many designs.

It’s qualities of being lightweight and extremely durable have made it a viable alternative to wood and a renewable material perfect  for making  office desks, cabinets and cupboards as well as items of furniture for the home.

We can all become ‘eco aware’ both  at home or work with merely  a little thought and practical application.