NOT consuming disposable bottled water

Transcription

1 Action 1 & 2:B.Y.O. Bottle and NOT consuming disposable bottled water Why do we need to take action? Not environmentally friendly 129 tonnes of PET plastic bottles (which are generally transparent bottles commonly used for bottling beverages) are disposed of to the landfill every day in HK in 2013, which is equal to consuming 9.56 million 500ml bottled drinks every day*. It takes a thousand years for these bottles to degrade in the landfill, which would bring calamity to the earth! The carbon footprint for producing one plastic bottle is around 82.8g, depending on its size, material and source. If your plastic bottle comes from a country far away, the carbon footprint is even larger. To produce 1 L of bottled water, 3 L of drinking water have to be consumed.

2 Not healthy Generally, most of the disposable bottles are not heat resistant. When hot water is refilled in these bottles, they will deform and even release toxic chemicals. A majority of bottled drinks in the market contain high level of glucose. If you do not want to gain weight, drink water instead. No need to use money Water dispensers are installed in most of the schools and campsites and water can be added for free. The water dispensers are distributed extensively in many schools and it is very convenient to add water. Summary of Action: O Camp committee and participants should bring along their own bottles and refill water from the water dispensers around campus or campsite in order to reduce consumption of bottled drinks. Key Person: Team Leaders: Remind your teammates to bring their own bottle before entering the campsite. 1. Join Green Bottle O Camp organized by Friends of the Earth (HK). Support refilling to reduce bottle waste Step 1: Using the name of your society/organisation, sign the Online Petition to support Green Bottle O Camp Step 2: Like Green! O Camp Facebook fan page ( to get the latest news of the project Step 3: Internal discussion on how to implement and who should be responsible for the implementation Step 4: During briefing sessions, notify your campers that your camp has pledged to support Green Bottle O Camp. Invite them to support and sign the Online Petition (for individuals). Step 5: Invite your campers to take a photo of their reusable water bottles and upload the photo to facebook or instagram with the hashtag #mybottleocamp. At the same time, tag 5 friends to accept the challenge. Step 6: Fill in 'Action 1 Post-Camp Questionnaire', to allow us to evaluate the results of the whole campaigns!

3 2. Make your own "Water for Free" O Camp Map: Search the location of water dispensers in the campsite (particularly the venue for activities) and mark it down on the O Camp pamphlet. 3. If you are preparing gifts for participants of the O Camp, why don t you choose a bottle? Pay attention to the quality of the bottle choose a durable one! 4. Team leaders should set a good example to reduce the use of disposable products! References: Downloading "Water for Free App" through mobile (Search for the location of all the water dispensers in HK) Research on the Carbon Footprint of Bottled Water * A 500ml plastic bottle weighs 13.5g on average.

4 Action 3:Refuse sponsorship of bottled drinks Why do we need to action? Among different sponsored items for O Camp, packaged drinks are relatively practical and attractive it can be an additional drink for campers on hot summer days, yet no extra cost is needed. However, before accepting these sponsored packaged drinks, have you ever thought of their environmental cost? A large amount of energy is consumed for the production and transport of any kind of packaged drinks. Some of these drinks, such as tetra pak drinks, are non-recyclable, which creates extra burden to our soon-to-full landfills. Previous experience shows that some types of sponsored drinks are generally not welcome by most campers as their taste is too 'special'. While in other cases, some campers choose not to consume the sponsored drinks unless they are iced. Many boxes of sponsored drinks are then wasted.

5 Summary of action: Refuse sponsorship of any packaged drinks, or even ask for sponsorship other than packaged drinks at the very beginning Action Recipe: Key person: OCs looking for sponsorship Be a responsible Welfare Office. Quality is more important than quantity. For the sake of the environment and you health, bring your own bottle to refill water for drinking instead. Substitutes: OC and team leaders can prepare drinks for the campers, such as herbal tea, juices, floral tea or any other healthy drinks. References: Research on the Carbon Footprint of Bottled Water