Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
colored containers at supermarkets or in town centers accept a wide range of products
to be recycled by a network of advanced recycling plants, and compared to the five-
cents-a-bottle return fee paid by a few states in America, financial incentives to recycle
are much higher in Europe.
“If they can do it there, why can't we do the same here?” American activists have de-
manded.
US beverage companies have responded with recycling initiatives, by purchasing
carbon credits, and by developing thinner bottles that use less plastic. Although biode-
gradable, corn-based plastic bottles exist, their shelf life is limited, and they tend to go
sot in the sun. For better and for worse, PET lasts almost infinitely.
After growing at a rapid clip, about 5 to 15 percent a year,
bottled-water sales in the Un-
ited States declined
for the first time in thirty years in 2008. But not by much, only about
1 percent, a barely perceptible drop. In 2009, bottled-water revenues declined another 5
percent and volume dipped 2.5 percent.
Bottled water now faces a backlash against its economic and environmental costs.
Some consider it a luxury, while others object to the amount of water the bottlers take
from aquifers, the energy used to transport heavy water from Fiji or the Alps to Amer-
ica, the plastic used in bottles, and the carbon footprint of the product.
WHAT IT MEANS TO BE FROM MAINE
Beneath the dark green fir trees, wide ocher fields, and rolling purple-blue mountains
of western Maine lie deep aquifers filled with billions of gallons of pristine water. The
state gets an average of
24 trillion gallons of rain
a year; about 50 percent of that runs
off into rivers and lakes, 30 percent evaporates, and 20 percent—or 2 to 5 trillion gal-
lons—filters through bedrock or glacial sand and gravel deposits and collects under-
ground. The Maine Geological Survey has mapped over thirteen hundred square miles
of aquifers, which are annually recharged by 240 billion gallons of precipitation. Maine's
water is consistently ranked at, or near, the highest quality in the nation.
Since
Hiram Ricker
built a spa here in the mid-nineteenth century, the Poland Spring
Water Company has advertised its wares as “the best tasting water on Earth … since
1845.” Poland Spring bottled water is undeniably refreshing. To my palate, it doesn't
taste particularly good or bad; it tastes like what it is: purified springwater. It lacks
that distinctive minerally flavor water aficionados prize. But the water Poland Spring
sells is clearly what most Americans want: it is the bestselling springwater in the na-
Search WWH ::
Custom Search