Bottled Water

Between 07/01/2008 and 06/30/2009 Occidental's campus dining and hospitality services bought over 200,000 bottles of water.

Found this ridiculous video off a website that sparkletts linked me to.

In support of bottled water. Sparkletts wants you to sign an "IMPORTANT PETITION" in support of bottled water on this website.

Sparkletts:

"Most of our big water bottles are recycled at the end of their life cycle. The recycled plastic is used to make carpet, toys, tool handles, bird feeders and other items. You typically will not find large bottled water containers in landfills, because these bottles are returnable, reusable, refillable and recyclable."

Places like this are where your recycled bottles end up

From SustainLane.com:

Recycling is a business like any other. Curbside recyclers must find markets for the materials they collect. The biggest market for plastics is China, so most of our plastic is shipped overseas. Unfortunately, China doesn’t necessarily have the same standards of worker and community safety as we do, and towns like Lian Jiao have become toxic waste dumps for our plastic “recycling.” [CLICK THIS LINK] Sky News recently released a video showing the heartbreaking condition of this town that has become the waste bin of the western world. But with the recent downturn in the economy, the Chinese market has dried up, and as the New York Times reported in December 2008, much of our recycling is actually ending up in the landfill.

So what about the plastic that is recycled? Actually, plastic recycling is better referred to as “downcycling.” Plastic containers, for example, are not recycled into new containers but into other products like lumber or outdoor furniture. Even the plastic yogurt containers recycled by responsible companies likeRecycline into toothbrushes and cutting boards are actually downcycled, since the manufacturers of the yogurt containers continue to extract virgin materials for their disposable products.

What’s the solution? Reducing our consumption of disposable plastic! Switching to reusable bags, bottles and containers are first steps to solving the plastic problem. Find more solutions and plastic alternatives atwww.fakeplasticfish.com.