Waste

There is much noise in the media about the bad effects of using and discarding large numbers of plastic bottles.

While I have long thought that having so many different brands of bottled water is wasteful in other ways.

Now a few days ago, we bought a bottle of water and retained the bottle after use as it was a substantial bottle which would re-use well, it being our custom to have bottles of water scattered about the house. Simpler than jugs and glasses.

Then this afternoon, I noticed that the water which had come in this particular bottle was something called vapour distilled. Investigation revealed that this was a newish product from Coca Cola called Glaceau, the same people who got caught a few years ago filling their bottles of water with mains tap water from Sidcup. With a spot of value added by passing it through a filter of some sort.

I dare say that with modern technology, the energy cost of distilling water from water is not as much as one might think. Nevertheless, it does sound terribly wasteful; scarcely a good example to be setting the rest of us. Since when was it not good enough to use spring water from the hills, filtered through thousands of feet of geology?

PS: it may be of some comfort to readers that the likes of Jennifer Aniston (snapped above for the benefit of those readers who, like me, have never heard of her) and Kylie Minogue do very well out of all this, presumably being very well paid to front advertising campaigns for the stuff.

Reference 1: https://pumpkinstrokemarrow.blogspot.com/search?q=retsch. A ten year old foray into the world of bottled water. Coming at it from a different angle.