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Bottled Water: Always There When You Need It

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Bottled Water: Always There When You Need It

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Bottled Water - Always There When You Need It

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About this film

The Story of Bottled Water, released on March 22, 2010 (World Water Day), employs the Story of Stuff style to tell the story of manufactured demand-how you get Americans to buy more than half a billion bottles of water every week when it already flows virtually free from the tap. Over five minutes, the film explores the bottled water industry's attacks on tap water and its use of seductive, environmental-themed advertising to cover up the mountains of plastic waste it produces. The film concludes with a call for viewers to make a personal commitment to avoid bottled water and support public investment in clean, available tap water for all.

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Credits

The Story of Bottled Water was co-created and released by The Story of Stuff Project and a coalition of partners, including Corporate Accountability International, Food & Water Watch, Polaris Institute, Pacific Institute and Environmental Working Group. The movie was produced by Free Range Studios.

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The Story of Bottled Water - Story of Stuff

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About this film The Story of Bottled Water, released on March 22, 2010 (World Water Day), employs the Story of Stuff style to tell the story of manufactured demand-how you get Americans to buy more than half a billion bottles of water every week when it already flows virtually free from the tap.

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What Are Some Advantages of Bottled Water?

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What Are Some Advantages of Bottled Water?

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Water is vital for life and is an essential nutrient. Nutrients are substances in food and drink that are utilized by your body in metabolic and/or sustaining functions. Essential nutrients are those that must be consumed regularly, as your body does not produce the amount needed without utilizing external sources in the form of dietary intake. Deprivation of water will kill an individual faster than being deprived of any other nutrient. This important liquid is a vital component of most major body processes.

Lubricant

A primary function of water is to serve as a lubricant. For example, it is found in saliva and is a substantial component in the fluid surrounding joints. Water is also in and surrounding body structures such as the brain, spinal cord and eyes. The water layer helps protect and cushion these vulnerable areas from shock and trauma that could otherwise cause significant damage.

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Body Temperature Regulation

Water is an important agent in body temperature regulation. The human body cannot function unless this is maintained within a certain range. Water helps achieve this in two ways. Since water is slow to change temperature and is efficient at storing heat, the amount of water in the body composition, 60 to 75 percent, is a natural temperature regulator. Another way this nutrient is used by the body for this purpose is through the process of perspiration. As water evaporates from the skin, the body is cooled.

Important for Chemical Reaction

Protein and carbohydrates are two nutrients necessary for healthy body functioning. They provide energy and are vital for growth and development. However, these two substances are useless to the body without water. Water enables a chemical reaction to occur which results in protein and carbohydrates becoming absorbable and usable by the body.

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Transportation

Water is essential in the body's transportation system. Nutrients and other necessary elements must be sent to all parts of the body in order to ensure functioning of every single body process, from respiration to muscle movement to digestion and waste removal. Without water as the movement medium, the body would not function.

How to Stay Hydrated

Because water is vitally necessary for your body to function properly, it's important to stay well-hydrated. The average person should drink around eight 8-ounce glasses of water per day, although this can vary. You may need to drink more fluids if you exercise, are pregnant or are experiencing very warm weather. As a rule of thumb, drink a glass of water or another beverage during meals and between meals. Also, drink water before, during and after a workout.

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Note that all beverages and foods contain some water and will help keep you hydrated. Foods like watermelon, spinach and celery are especially high in water content, providing needed fluids to keep you hydrated. If you aren't thirsty, though, and have pale urine, don't over-hydrate yourself. Drinking too much water can actually be life-threatening.

References

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water in diet university of nebraska extension: water mayoclinic.com: water: how much should you drink every day

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What Is the Purpose of Water & the Function It Provides for the Body?

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It is necessary for us to consume water to support our essential bodily functions. Whether...

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Should Sales Of Bottled Water Be Banned From Schools?

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Should Sales Of Bottled Water Be Banned From Schools?

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Around the world, people throw away roughly four million tons of trash every day-that's enough to fill 350,000 garbage trucks or 10 Empire State Buildings. About 12.8 percent of that waste is plastic, which causes big problems for wildlife: some animals mistake plastic for food, while others can become entangled in the trash.

Don't use face wash or toothpaste with microbeads. These tiny plastic beads go down the drain, eventually making their way to rivers, lakes, and the ocean at a rate of eight trillion a day in the United States. Because these toxic beads look a lot like fish food, it's not uncommon for bigger fish and sea turtles to munch on them-a dish that could be deadly.

Say no to straws! In 2015 a viral video showed an olive ridley sea turtle in obvious discomfort as a team of experts work to dislodge something deep within its nostril. At first, they thought it was a worm. But experts were stunned to see what it really was: a plastic drinking straw.

Instead of packing your sandwich and snacks in plastic bags, use reusable containers or cloth sacks instead. Same goes for your drink: Skip the juice boxes and opt for a refillable water bottle.

Reduce the amount of plastic bags clogging up our trash and oceans by shopping with reusable bags instead.

To eliminate some of the excess packaging piling up in landfills, encourage your family to shop for snacks, cereal, and pasta in the bulk section of your grocery store (if yours doesn't have any bulk items, check out a nearby natural food shop). Then, store it all in reusable glass jars.

Pack an apple, a banana, or an orange. Fruit fills you up in a healthy way, plus there's no need for extra packaging. (Save the core, peels, and rinds for your compost bin.)

Using these tips, keep track of the trash you toss. Every week, try to throw out less and less and see how much you can minimize your waste in a month. Some people have managed to put an entire year's worth of garbage in one jar. Can you beat that?

If your family is like many in the United States, unloading the week's groceries includes hauling a case or two of bottled water into your home. On your way to a soccer game or activity, it's easy to grab a cold one right out of the fridge, right?

But all those plastic bottles use a lot of fossil fuels and pollute the environment. In fact, Americans buy more bottled water than any other nation in the world, adding 29 billion water bottles a year to the problem. In order to make all these bottles, manufacturers use 17 million barrels of crude oil. That's enough oil to keep a million cars going for twelve months.

Imagine a water bottle filled a quarter of the way up with oil. That's about how much oil was needed to produce the bottle.

So why don't more people drink water straight from the kitchen faucet? Some people drink bottled water because they think it is better for them than water out of the tap, but that's not always true. In most places in the United States, local governments make sure water from the faucet is safe. There is also growing concern that chemicals in the bottles themselves may leach into the water.

People love the convenience of bottled water. But maybe if they realized the problems it causes, they would try drinking from a glass at home or carrying water in a refillable steel container instead of plastic.

Plastic bottle recycling can help-instead of going out with the trash, plastic bottles can be turned into items like carpeting or cozy fleece clothing.

Unfortunately, for every six water bottles we use, only one makes it to the recycling bin. The rest are sent to landfills. Or, even worse, they end up as trash on the land and in rivers, lakes, and the ocean. Plastic bottles take many hundreds of years to disintegrate.

Water is good for you, so keep drinking it. But think about how often you use water bottles, and see if you can make a change.

And yes, you can make a difference. Remember this: Recycling one plastic bottle can save enough energy to power a 60-watt light bulb for six hours.

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The battle between bottled water enthusiasts and tap water die-hards is finding new ground on YouTube, with dueling videos from environmental activists and the International Bottled Water Association.