“I’ll send an s.o.s. to the world.
I’ll send an s.o.s. to the world.
I hope that someone gets my.
I hope that someone gets my.
I hope that someone gets my
Message in a bottle”.
From “Message In A Bottle” by The Police.
What does the bottle you drink from say about you?
Soft drink manufacturers try to sell us an image through their products – from the extreme sports ads of Pepsi Max in years gone by to the fact that we all know 11.30 is Diet Coke time. Did you know that Scotland is the only place where coke isn’t the best selling soft drink? I’m kinda proud of that.
Our bottled beers are also heavily branded and advertised as if we are what we drink. Take that to its natural conclusion and it might look quite messy.
Whilst we will have different preferences based on taste, do we think about what certain consumption promotes about us or those that produce it?
I discovered recently that 15 billion plastic bottles of water are sold every year. I am part of that target market too as I often shun fizzy drinks in favour of water. But, actually, what does that cost in terms of manufacturing bottles, extracting water and recycling the empty bottles?
Vending machines dispense 3 billion cups per year in the UK alone. A further 3 billion cups originate from other sources and together these cups use 24,000 tonnes of polystyrene annually.
I have used a mug at work for years rather than disposable cups for that very reason, but I still go through hundreds of plastic cups a year on the premise that they get recycled anyhow. Even that process has a cost financially and environmentally.
I get tired of political tirades on the state of our nation’s education measured on the three R’s (reading, arithmetic and writing). It seems we have begun to educate ourselves better in terms of stewardship of the planet and are using another three R’s – reduce, re-use and recycle. Clearly our spelling is improving too.
So today I am the proud owner of a new aliminium bottle. It should reduce my use of plastic cups from the water dispenser in the office and my need to buy bottled water when I head out. It fits on my bike or in my bag. It’s not revolutionary and, yet, maybe, somehow it is?
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