Bottled Water Gets Massaged; May Get Hosed at OSU

Colleague and friend Aaron Wolf, currently on sabbatical somewhere, sent an email mentioning Todd Jarvis' quotation on bottled water from the article, 'All Water Is Not Created  Equal' from Massage Magazine. As Aaron suggested, this might be a first, certainly for OSU water faculty.

 I've included Todd's quote as today's featured words of wisdom at the bottom of this post.

There are more gems from the article:

Dr. Hiromi Shinya, director of Shinya Medical Clinic in New York, has become widely known for his colonoscopy procedures worldwide and says, "Drinking 'good water,' especially hard water, which has much calcium and magnesium, keeps your body at an optimal alkaline pH."

And this gem:

According to Dr. Hayashi of the Japanese Water Institute, microclustered or ionized water "gains the ability to penetrate tissue and cell walls far more easily." It flushes toxins and acidic wastes from the cells and tissues and has a greater hydrating capacity.

I am not endorsing either of the last two quotes; I'm not a medical doctor, nor do I play one on TV.

Now - what's this about getting hosed at OSU? There is discussion att OSU to ban bottled water from the campus, following the lead of about 30 (?) other universities. A blog post by Todd Jarvis at SEEk lists the issues involved - the plastic bottles, the other bottled drinks, etc. A pitch is even put forth to focus on novel uses for the plastic to set ourselves apart from the others who ban bottled water but don't focus on the reuse of the plastic bottles.

From the post:

At the current OSU student + faculty population rounded to 30,000, that represents about 720,000 bottles per year. Sure, it might be a start to keep this pesky plastic off the campus, but are there other ways to make an impact and a “statement” to the rest of the world?

Banning plastic bottles like other regional and national schools will just place OSU on the bottled-water-bashing bandwagon. Perhaps a better approach is to endorse promoting more uses of the “resource” on campus through green building techniques such as requiring a certain percentage of new and remodel construction to use materials made from recycled bottles (eg. carpet, siding).

Or perhaps we could be more supportive of local industries doing just that. Consider, for example, that EartH2O began self-manufacturing 100% rPET bottles in Culver, Oregon, just over a year ago. They purchased the preforms and blew them into bottles.  They have now installed the equipment to convert 100% rPET food grade resin from California recycled bottles into the preforms in Culver.  Their next goal is to convert someday Oregon’s recycled bottles into food grade resin.

How about OSU finding a way to use the used bottled water to treat stormwater and wastewater before discharging to cherished rivers and streams, or for treatment of drinking water in disadvantaged countries as part of our reputation as humanitarian engineers? Can we use the PET in another form for fuel?

Let’s get crazy. Imagine a recycling logo next to the new logo for the Beavers on a football helmet and the media impact from a statement that the Beavers athletic gear is made of recycled plastic bottles during a nationally televised game against the Ducks.

I am not enthusiastic about a ban. I would rather focus on a campaign to encourage good old municipal tap water, which is great here in Corvallis. I discourage drinking bottled water (although at times I find it necessary) because of a concern that increasing consumption of bottled water may diminish the desire to maintain our municipal drinking water systems.

But check out the blog, including the comments, one of which proposes a 'bottled water institute' at OSU. 

All in? Probably some money from the bottled water industry!

See the recent post by Peter Gleick about the recent uptick in USA bottled water sales. We now consume almost 31 gallons per person per year!

Now, I'm going to get some of that great Corvallis tap water!

And before you buy that next bottle of water, check out Todd's great quote.

"In America we're spending $20,000 every minute of every day on bottled water…and tap water that originally cost maybe 5 cents a gallon can be sold now for $4 a gallon. Twenty-five to 40 percent of what is on store shelves is just tap water that has undergone additional treatment or had minerals added at the bottling plant." - Todd Jarvis, in Massage Magazine

Comments

[Ken Lanfear]

Do OSU buildings have water fountains designed to refill canteens and bottles? Conventional fountains make refilling a mess.