Water Bottles to Toys

There have been a few newspaper articles that caught my attention lately. First was the statistics on bottled water use here in Ontario. Apparently we drink a lot of bottled water. In one region here, the bottle water drinkers were reported at 45 %. I can’t fathom why this many people who choose to pay for water when we get perfectly good water from the tap.

I drink tap water and have done so all my life. I drink a lot of water too. I really don’t see the need to buy spring water in plastic bottles. I know that some people believe that it is a cleaner and fresher alternative but I don’t really buy it.

A related story that appeared in the paper had to deal with plastic bottle recycling. We put out blue boxes every week for the city to take away our recycling waste. The article stated that we ship the a lot of our plastic bottles to China. The article criticized the practice because the Chinese standards aren’t up to par and it could be dangerous for the recycling plant workers.

Other than this one story, I haven’t heard anything else about this. Is this an issue that deserves more attention? I’m not sure. But if this is related to one more issue that has been all over the news, then it is definitely worth more attention.

You may have heard about the numerous toy recalls lately. The one thing in common is that these toys were all plastic and manufactured in China.

I don’t want to start throwing blame here. I am sure that there is more than enough to go around. I just hope that the toys we give to our children are safe. And I know the tap water is safe. So what is the problem here?


4 responses to “Water Bottles to Toys”

  1. The saddest thing is that all the parents giving their kids bottled (non-flouridated) water these days, may be setting them up for tooth decay the likes of which hasn’t been seen in my country for decades.

    And in some developing countries, providing bottled water allows the government to duck its responsibility to provide clean tap water.

  2. My water tastes like wet chlorine so I drink bottled water too. I tried those purifiers but they never seem to make that taste go away.

    However, my water bottles then become dog toys before being recycled. A better use perhaps? 🙂

  3. If our bottles are made out of plastic, and plastic from China has been proven to have lead in it, are we sure our bottles are NOT coming from China? What are we drinking besides water? S

  4. You’ve given us more scary things to think about Silverfish. Maybe we all need to rethink the plastic bottle issue. There has to be better alternatives.

    It kind of makes me question the whole practice of recycling as well. I always thought that it was the right thing to do and a personal responsibility for me to do so.