THE GREEN OFFICE
BLE AND GREENER G WATER SOLUTIONS
HOW DO AWG’S HELP THE ENVIRONMENT?
The damage that plastic water bottles cause does not begin when they are disposed. On the contrary, the process of making these bottles is in itself a great harm to the environment. According to a 2001 report of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), roughly 1.5 million tons of plastic are expended in the bottling of 89 billion litres of water each year. To produce a single 1 litre plastic water bottle it takes one quarter of a litre of oil and three litres of water. What possible reason could there be to produce a vessel that uses vastly more resources than the thing it contains? Besides the sheer number of plastic bottles produced each year, the energy required to manufacture and transport these bottles to market severely drains limited fossil fuels. Bottled water companies, due to their unregulated use of valuable resources and their production of billions of plastic bottles have presented a significant strain on the environment.
Play a part in preserving your environment by using AWG’s, eliminating not only the problems plastic bottles cause but help sustain existing ground water supplies by harvesting fresh water from the air.
REFILL WATER STATIONS - A NEW PRODUCT THAT ELIMINATES THE USE OF PLASTIC BOTTLES
There is a growing community around the world that is learning about water quality, they are learning about the environment and they are getting involved. Promoting tap water through advertising campaigns or through more aggressive measures such as the ban on bottled water is a growing trend that has now hit the UK. A report published by Green
Futures state that the battle against bottled water is gathering pace with water refill stations to appear at Hammersmith Bus Station and Tower Bridge Museum in London.
The stations will provide on-the-go
access to chilled, mains-fed water, in a project funded by Thames Water as part of its Ten for Ten community programme. Passers-by will pay 20 pence to refill a 500ml bottle, and there are plans to roll the stations out across London, if successful.
The scheme comes shortly after a ban on the sale of bottled water in the Australian town of Bundanoon, a resident- led initiative thought to be a world first. Toronto and New York quickly followed suit with their own initiatives. However the London initiative is only promoting mains-fed tap water, and although Thames water is promoting its water as safe and drinkable several reports highlight the fact that the UK’s water is far from that. Professor Adam Carey (Daily Mail, 2009) states that a recent report found that 40 per cent of water in London still has a lead content that is higher than European regulations. (Lead in water has been linked to abnormal brain
development in unborn babies.) Our water
can be
contaminated by up to 60,000 dissolvable chemicals. Among these are the so- called gender- bending
chemicals such as Bisphenol A
(BPA) that various studies have linked to reproductive difficulties, as well as cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Other chemical derivatives to get into our water include oestrogen compounds. An excessive amount of which in the body not only drives certain cancers, but also affects the way we accumulate fat. Water filters do not remove heavy metals from our water supply and may not catch all dissolvable chemicals and micro- organisms. Professor Adam Cary believes the best way to serve ourselves the cleanest water possible is to use a reverse osmosis filtration system.
The answer lies in a water vending machine that uses reverse osmosis purification filtration and these are now available in the UK from Premier Aqua UK. Excellent for not only siting in public places, but universities, hospitals, shopping centres, supermarkets and indeed anywhere there is a demand for pure drinking water from an ever increasing environmentally conscious consumer.
www.premieraqua.com
SUSTAINABLE FM | JUNE 2010 |59
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64