plastic water bottles
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Industry mocks college students for fighting bottled water
College campuses across the country have been fighting to ban bottled water from campuses, and the International Bottled Water Association is fighting back with a pretty inane video.
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Grand Canyon gives Coke the finger, bans bottled water
Once upon a time, there was going to be a ban on the sale of bottled water at the Grand Canyon, because apparently people can’t be trusted to tell the difference between a majestic natural wonder and a public rubbish bin. Then the Coca-Cola company got them to reverse the ban, because apparently selling a […]
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British kids build greenhouse out of plastic bottles
What do you do with the empty plastic bottles that you really shouldn't have been drinking out of, anyway? These British school children spent a year and half collecting 1,500 of them and used the bottles to construct a greenhouse, in which they are very successfully growing tomatoes.
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Sunlight can disinfect water
Turns out the nonsensical yuppie idea that bottled water is “cleaner” is actually true, in very very specific circumstances. In areas where it’s hard to find drinkable water, plastic bottles and sunlight can save lives.
SODIS, or solar water disinfection, is a fancy way of saying, "Leave germy water in a plastic bottle out on your hot roof and eventually all the bad stuff will die." It's a simple idea, but remarkably effective at dealing with water contamination. -
Ask Umbra on turning plastic garbage into gasoline at home
Send your question to Umbra! Q. Dear Umbra, Not long ago, I saw a video of a Japanese scientist who had created a small machine that converted discarded plastics back into fuel. He was demonstrating it to schoolchildren. Is something happening with this technology? If it is true it could certainly help to save us […]
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'Bio-based': organic’s sketchy new cousin
Will the USDA's new "bio-based" label, for products made with renewable ingredients, actually just enable greenwashing?
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Van Jones on the economic injustice of plastic [VIDEO]
Van Jones lays out a case against plastic pollution from the perspective of social justice in this TED talk.
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Ask Umbra’s Book Club: Would you give up garbage?
Syliva Earle marvels at how much trash has wound up in the oceans. How much plastic do you use every day? What can you imagine giving up? Discuss!
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Umbra on Camelbaks
Dear Umbra, Recently, I’ve started to try to avoid plastics (especially plastic water bottles). For Christmas, my brother gave me a Camelbak-type water bottle. How safe is this? I assume it’s as bad as most plastic water bottles. Timothy Kearney Issaquah, Wash. Dearest Timothy, Gifting quandary alert. But does it suck? Photo: iStockphoto Not all […]