1. Does anyone actually drink a bottle of water and then throw out the bottle? Like systematically on an everyday basis? Everyone I know refills them. Every once in a while you leave it behind or it starts tasting yucky or you start using a new one because you have a cold, but in general you refill it. I always see people at the drinking fountain refilling their water bottles. That Aquafina bottle in my purse? Full of tap water, and I use like six a year.
2. Does anyone actually consider bottled water to be a status symbol? The blamosauruses are all "OMG they're just carrying it around to show off!" (and they say the same thing about cell phones) but I can't imagine anyone actually thinking that a bottle of water that you can get at the shadiest convenience store in your neighbourhood is a status symbol.
3. Now Toronto is talking about banning bottled water. If they want to ban selling it in municipal buildings like they did in London (I think it was?) that's perfectly fine, but they can't ban it from the city. Why? Think back to the 2003 blackout. Did you have running water? People in highrises didn't. The water pumps run on electricity. So people ran around the neighbourhood until they found a corner store that was still open and bought bottled water. I'm worried that if they get overzealous with this ban, we won't be able to buy bottled water at the corner store any more. I'm worried that someone might bring up the fact that it's an emergency provision and they'll attempt to address it by making it possible to buy those big blue cooler bottles at like one Home Depot in Scarborough, which is useless if you're carfree like they're trying to encourage. (It's like how when they talk about banning plastic bags people always say "You can get biodegradable garbage bags at Home Depot," but Home Depot is a half-hour bus ride completely out of my way.) I mean yeah, we're supposed to have 72-hour kits in our homes, but that doesn't mean that people should die of dehydration if they don't manage to get it together.
Dear City of Toronto:
Whatever you do, please do not ban or make it more difficult to acquire bottled water as an emergency provision.
2 comments:
Does anyone actually drink a bottle of water and then throw out the bottle? Like systematically on an everyday basis?
I know this seems hard to believe, but there are people who buy cases of bottled water for their own homes, drink the water, and toss the bottle in the recycling bin or the trash.
I do the same thing as you, but I have seen this crazy wasteful behaviour in homes and offices.
Does anyone actually consider bottled water to be a status symbol?
No one I know or have ever heard of.
Every time I read this, I think, who are these people that think a bottle of water is a status symbol? And why do journalists continue to perpetuate this bizarre idea?
That's gotta be weird, you'd need to estimate your water needs for the day and pack provisions before leaving the house!
It would really piss me off if it ended up being harder for me to find bottled water for use in emergencies because other people engage in this inexplicable behaviour.
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