Bottled Water Twofer

It’s been a while since I actually ranted about plastic, so how ’bout a twofer? The subject matter? Bottled water…my favorite! Companies profiting off of suckers thinking they’re getting a product that’s something other than plain, ‘ole tap water. *sigh* Let’s go in chronological order, beginning with an unexpected post-Halloween find…

On a recent walk down my street here in beautiful BC, I unearthed what I assumed was a horrible prank, then quickly realized that no, in all seriousness, a bottled water company actually found a way to profit off a holiday explicitly known for candy consumption. It would appear that Nestle has figured out how scare the hell out of us environmentalists…good one, Nestle! Ya really gave me a scare there! >.<

Somehow, I’ve found a way to accept the fact that we have turned Halloween into an individually-packaged nightmare, but this is taking it a beeeeet too far. Nestle, WTF are you thinking? Why? Seriously, why?! Cut. It. Out. You’re making our job as plastic-pollution fighters unnecessarily difficult. And to be frank, are kids actually going bananas for bottled water in their Halloween haul? Somehow, I doubt it. Cue the eye roll.

I suppose one could argue that at least I was outside, getting some fresh air, and stretching my legs when I ran into this spooky bottle…so OK, silver lining. NEXT.

Fast-forward a few days to today, and we find ourselves in Harrison Hot Springs, BC. Also a beautiful place here in oh-Canada; stunning, in fact. Google Map it!

As an aside, can someone remind me what year it is? It’s actually 2017, right? …

…so why, why, why are hotels still offering up bottled water like it ain’t no thang? Come ON?!

There are many hilarious ironies about this water, most notably:

• The price. HA!! For real? This coupled with the fact that about 10 steps away resides a sink with perfectly clean tap water flowing freely out of it is basically a recipe for please-excuse-me-while-I go-bang-my-head-against-something.
• The fact that to the right and to the left of this display (not totally pictured) are durable, reusable options in the form of glassware and ceramic coffee mugs. Your ability to drink water does not rest on cracking the plastic seal on a plastic bottle, people! Just lift the dang glass to the spout and turn the tap on!

Ugh. Ugh, I say! This should not be happening anymore. We know better. The companies that make this water (Nestle and Great Canadian Water Company, I am so staring daggers at you!) know better. The hotels and parents that buy this water should know better (more daggers, Harrison Hot Springs…). Can we all just stop pretending like we have no idea that plastic is ruining the planet, admit plastic is actually ruining the planet, and evolve beyond the stupid plastic water bottle? Nathaniel Wyeth, I’m sure you were a great guy and all and you probably had no idea your invention of PET plastic would bite us so hard in the ass…but well, it did. Sigh.

</rant>