Plastic Free July - Part 1


It’s that time of year again where Plastic Free July challenges us to consider reducing our use of plastics. Read our blog from 2021 for the background to Plastic Free July which has some great ideas of how to reduce plastic use.


Water Bottle Challenge

A great activity to run with students is a water bottle challenge. Collect a range of different disposable water containers made of plastic, aluminium, glass, or other material. Display them all on a table and ask students to choose the one they think is the most sustainable and why. Most will choose glass. Based on information found later in this blog, you can ask a series of questions which may see them change their mind. If you cannot collect actual bottles, compile photos with information from their product labels for students to read and consider. 

Other variations:

  • Which would be the healthiest to drink water from?
  • Which would be the most sustainable to use in a humanitarian situation such as a compromised water supply after a natural disaster [e.g. cyclone or flood]. 

I have been running this activity for many years. You could track class data over time to see if student perceptions change. For most year levels the choices are glass and plastic. Over the last two years, Year 11 and 12 data in NSW is slowly shifting with most students consistently choosing glass or aluminium over plastic. It is only in the last two years that water in aluminium bottles and cans has become more common.  Unfortunately, this is usually in supermarkets and not in places where most people buy bottled water on the go.

 

Water Regulations in Australia

Australia’s tap water is regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). They enforce over 250 strict guidelines, and yet the quality of our tap water still varies across regions. Bottled water regulations fall under the responsibility of Food Standards Australia and New Zealand (FSANZ). They have no specific regulations or rules for disinfection or quality control of bottled water. That means the water you are buying may be less healthy and safe than what’s coming out of your taps.

 

Tap Water

There’s also no stopping anyone from using regular tap water in their branded bottles. Unless detailed lab tests are done on both tap and bottled water, it’s difficult to say whether what is in your purchased bottled water is straight out of a tap.

Choosing to drink tap water does mean that you are avoiding ingesting chemicals, such as BPA, that seep into bottled water from certain plastics that can be found in most locations in Australia.

 

What About Natural Springs?

Some brands claim to be sourced from pure springs across the country. The problem is, it is not easy to trace water back to the ‘pristine natural springs’ it supposedly originated from. It is usually hard to figure out if ‘bottled at source’ is accurate. Albeit a great marketing ploy to paint a picture of a fresh, beautiful mountain spring as the source of your water it does pose the question of how a company extracts naturally sourced water right at the source for mass distribution?

 

What About Imports?

Australia imports bottled water brands from a variety of other countries. This means the water must travel vast distances, in heat, cold, and weather-sensitive plastic, before it reaches your thirsty mouth. Is it still safe for consumption then?

 

War On Waste: Bottled Water Vs Tap Water

BottlePro: What Are the Best Bottles to Avoid Plastic? 

 

Some other things to think about to increase the debate in a classroom conversation:

Melting point

Melting point of materials will affect the amount of electrical energy needed to recycle the material. If the source of the electrical energy is a renewable source, such as hydro, the energy use for recycling is not as much of an an issue.

The melting point of:

  • Aluminium is 660.3
  • Glass is between 1400 and 1600
  • PET (polyethylene terephthalate) plastic is 105 to 130.

 

Recycling

Since commencement, the NSW Return and Earn scheme has been a resounding success, reducing drinking container litter in the environment and boosting recycling. In 2020 there was a 52% reduction in the volume of eligible container litter in NSW, and over 300,000 tonnes of materials recycled.

 

Aluminium Recycling

Recycling aluminium saves 95% of the energy it would take to make primary aluminium metal. Every year, more than 30 million tonnes of aluminium scrap is recycled globally, ensuring its status as one of the most recycled materials on the planet. Approximately 75% of the aluminium ever produced is still in use today as it can be recycled again and again making it an incredibly sustainable material.

 

PET Plastic Recycling

PET is near-infinitely recyclable and is the most recycled type of plastic in the world. Bottle-to-bottle recycling is possible and other products, like clothing, can also be made from PET. Even though PET plastic can be recycled, the production of virgin plastic products far exceeds the capacity for recycling. In addition, recycling PET plastic doesn’t necessarily address the root causes of plastic pollution, such as overconsumption and single-use products. It’s important to reduce our overall reliance on plastic and to shift to more sustainable alternatives, such as reusable products and packaging made from biodegradable or compostable materials. Another problem with recycling is that chemicals can leach into drinks from recycled plastic bottles. PET is also known for being the source of a number of potential chemical contaminants, including endocrine disruptors such as bisphenol A, which can cause reproductive disorders, cardiovascular problems and cancer, among other ill effects.

 

Glass Recycling

Glass that is crushed and ready to be remelted is called cullet. There are two types of cullet: internal and external. Internal cullet is composed of defective products from glass manufacturing. External cullet is waste glass that has been collected or reprocessed with the purpose of recycling.

To be recycled, glass waste needs to be purified. Then, depending on the end use and local processing capabilities, it might also have to be separated into different sizes and colours. Many recyclers collect different colours of glass separately since glass tends to retain its colour after recycling. Heat-resistant glass, such as Pyrex or borosilicate glass, must not be part of the glass recycling stream, as even a small piece of such material will alter the viscosity of the fluid in the furnace at remelt.

To be able to use external cullet in production, contaminants should be removed. Typical contaminants are:

  • Organics: Paper, plastics, caps, rings, PVB foils for flat glass
  • Inorganics: Stones, ceramics, porcelains
  • Metals: Ferrous and non-ferrous metals
  • Heat resistant and lead glass

Glass bottles and jars are infinitely recyclable. The use of recycled glass in manufacturing conserves raw materials such as silica sand and reduces energy consumption. The use of cullet can significantly reduce energy consumption compared with manufacturing new glass from silica (SiO2), soda ash (Na2CO3), and calcium carbonate (CaCO3). Every 1,000 kg of waste glass recycled into new items saves 315 kg of carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere during the manufacture of new glass. But recycling glass does not avoid the remelting process, which accounts for 75% of the energy consumption during production.

 

Source of the water

Artesian or spring water is a limited supply and in many areas is a non-renewable resource (will not replenish within a human lifetime).

 

Bottling location

Some water is bottled at the source. For example, the glass VOSS bottles are bottled in Norway, while FIJI water is bottled in plastic in Fiji. This adds to the transport distance and associated impacts.

Local employment and social issues

FIJI water is the largest employer in Fiji. A recent article in Time magazine discusses many of the issues of plastic for small and developing nations.

 

Contaminated town water supplies

Many remote communities rely on bottled water as their town water supply is non-existent or polluted. There are also famous cases in the USA such as the story of Flint, Michigan our those explored in the movies, Erin Brokovich and Dark Waters, which have famously explored contaminated groundwater used to supply communities. Recent articles and news stories in Australia:


LifeStraw

LifeStraw is a company that started small and has grown into a worldwide brand. They believe everyone deserves equitable access to safe water. For every product purchased, a school child receives safe water for a year. LifeStraw supports the provision of safe water during humanitarian emergencies and natural disasters. I have one in every backpack, a few in my car and a large version for an emergency, for camping in remote locations or when travelling overseas.

 

What are they made of? How are they made? How are they recycled?

Aluminium containers


How Aluminium is made animation 

Aluminium How Do You Make It? 

How it’s Made: Aluminium cans 

Aluminium can, minus the aluminium!  an experiment to show dissolving an aluminium can

 

Plastic containers

TedED: A brief history of plastic 

TedED: What really happens to the plastic you throw away  

UN Environment Programme: How microplastics affect your health 


Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell: Plastic Pollution - How Humans are Turning the World into Plastic 

 

Conclusion

Bottled water is controversial, and for good reason. There seems to be a lot of mystery surrounding where it comes from, what is in it, and what is done to it. Many people have installed a water filter in their home or workplace instead of buying bottled water. You’ll be drinking the closest to pristine water you’ll ever find, and you can fill up your own eco-friendly bottles to take with you on the go!