Going Going Gone...

Sigg Sold Out
I have touted in the past the virtues of shifting from plastic based water bottles (disposable or Nalgene style) for ones made of aluminum or stainless steel. I was needing a new SIGG for a member of my family and well...SIGG is sold out. Due to the drastic increase in demand over the last few months, SIGG no longer sells its water bottles via the web. It is running around the clock to fill back orders. I only know of two stores here in "The Rouge" that carry the bottles and one was sold out. Luckily Whole Foods saved the day! Love that place! So, if you were wanting a SIGG, now is not the time to buy one, unless of course you live near a Whole Foods!

Brita Makin a Splash

Filter For Good
Brita has teamed up with Nalgene to launch a new campaign aimed at reducing the number of disposable plastic bottles that make it into the waste stream every day. The picture at left is one of the marketing campaigns photo depicting a woman with 'oil' running out of her mouth. It is meant to symbolize the amount of oil that is 'consumed' in these plastic water bottles.

Though kind of graphic, its a good campaign and the website is pleasant and provides good information. Not sure about the running pledge total scrolling across the top, but interesting nonetheless. I am all for reducing the need for these wasteful products. Granted, in times of emergency they are useful and can save lives, but there are several alternatives out there for everyday use. I have detailed the plastic bottle issue in a few posts before (here, here and here) and have myself purchased a Sigg bottle and love it. It travels everywhere with me! So I say check it out, it even has a 'fun' google map app tracking how many bottles have been saved by each state. Hope you have an enjoyable Tuesday!

Cheers

Refining the Bling with Abe

Honest Abe is 199 today, so Happy Birthday to the first president of the U.S. to have a beard while in office. He's also the tallest president that we have had and he adores the penny. Which, starting May 12th is what you'll need if you want to buy those annoying 1 cent stamps to mail a letter. USPS announced that the price of stamps will go up another penny over the current rate of 41 cents. Luckily we can buy our Forever stamps and be done with these petty increases in postage. Ah the days when stamps were 29 cents...

Dominica kicks Oil in the Mouth...for Now

Good news today that I first spotted on Steves Dominica Blog that the government is suspending its current plans to build a Venezuelan oil refinery on the island. The Prime Minister said that the public should be included in the debate and the total situation should be examined more closely. I think that the tourism boards public statement that I discussed the other day was a decent swing point in the process and hopefully this is a positive step. Lets hope that Chavez will not spew his Anti-American/ America is the Empire wrath on Dominica for taking a step back and looking out for itself and the resources that the tiny island does have. Anyways, as others and I have said, you can't have "The Nature Island" of the Caribbean and have your oil refinery too.

Do you Bling?

Finally to close out this exciting Tuesday, I have to ask the question...Do you Bling? So I feel bad for getting on Xango yesterday for selling people $40 bottles of "super" fruit juice. I send a small apology (though only a small one) to Xango as Kevin Boyd is catering to your inner star (and pocket book) with BlingH2O. I all honesty I shouldn't give this junk a bit of spin, but it just shows how much our culture is obsessed with "image" and consumption of high end stuff. At $40 a pop, the frosted bottles come with Swarovski crystals and are corked, just like wine. What a horrible idea and its seriously probably the water out of the guys bathtub. Seriously, who wants to lug around a corkscrew at the gym? Why not get creative and cover your Sigg water bottle with some eco bling...like dirt or something?

I can top this on the holy crap-o-meter. The Water Bank of America (WTF is that) is selling prepackaged ice cubes called IceRocks. Yes you read that correctly, prepackaged ice cubes. Here is what their website states:

"ICEROCKS® are secured, ready-to-be-frozen ice cubes made with high-quality spring water. These cubes, to be consumed within two (2) years, are hermetically packaged in disposable containers. ICEROCKS® uses a patented technology, providing a container of refreshing ice cubes that are pure and hygienic.
To enjoy the fresh taste of ICEROCKS® simply freeze, remove the plastic seal, and pop the ice cubes into your favorite beverage!"

Thanks to ecorazzi for showing us this wonderful idea. You have to check out the website because they totally try to spin their product in a eco-savvy/green/_______ (insert eco buzzword here) product. I do have to hand it to them for great marketing, but seriously, trays to make ice are like 35 cents. Better yet, most modern refridge/freezer units come with an ice maker. Seriously, prepackaged ice to go with your bottled water? What will they they think of next? Dehydrated water?

Cheers!

Monday..alarms, commutes and water bottles

Its so hard to get up on Mondays sometimes. The New York Times had some great articles that I found today and I felt it would be fun to pass them along. The first looked at the natural health care product company Burt's Bees, maker of an amazing lip balm. Typical article discussing the of how Burt's Bees got its start, its history, and how it got its name were fascinating. What struck me the most was that the company is now a subsidiary of Clorox, a company that does not necessarily ooze environmental health. Roxanne Quimby, the former owner, sold her stakes in the company to spend portions of her time to preserving large tracks of land, returning them to their "pristine" condition. I wonder why money prevailed in this instance. I feel that Quimby still could have preserved her swaths of land, by no means a bad thing, and still kept Burt's Bees out of Clorox's clutches. If nothing else the PR around the buying and preservation of land would have been amazing. Think if Burt's could have struck a deal with say Ducks Unlimited and worked to preserve even more areas for preservation. This means that Burt's could be the official lip balm of duck hunts everywhere...ha.
Another post (though a couple of days old) on the NYTimes was a conundrum of whether or not to reuse plastic water bottles after use. This country is already addicted to many things and bottled water is just another item on the list. To the tune of billions a year we consume the water and toss the bottle. Most of the time this water is just city tap water. It is a better alternative to say pop, but most of us have access to clean water right from the tap. Even more disturbing is in the building in which I work. There are several water fountains (the old fashioned kind) stationed throughout the building. But instead nearly everybody takes a single use cup, gets a swig from the water cooler and throws the cup away...really is a waste. Not only in the form of the cup, but also in the energy used to capture, bottle and transport the water to the office.
Some people, like myself, rinse and reuse the bottles over and over again. I have since changed this habit once I started reading more and more literature about chemicals from the bottles leaching into the liquid as the bottle ages. The NYTimes piece was humorously written about the very same problem I faced. At home, I no longer use plastic bottles to store my water in for when I am at home (I do keep a few bottles for when I'm on the run and in the car) but have since switched to glass jugs like those used at some "posh" restaurants.
Nalgene's are probably a better alternative to the "single use" type bottles but according to some research these may also leach chemicals and have since been banned in some Canadian sporting goods/outdoor outfitter stores. If you're really concerned, metal bottles are available and don't pose the risk as the plastic.
But for me reducing the ridiculous amount of plastic containers we use in a given day. Whether its glass, Nalgene, or metal, if you are reusing your sturdy bottles to limit the amount of waste your produce I think the risk of a little chemical in the body is worth it. What do you think?