Ban Bottled Water in National Parks

[BarkyardBQ]

Hope this is an appropriate post.

http://signforgood.com/parksthinkoutsidethebottle/?code=sierraclub

[elaine amj]

Hmm...I drink only tap water at home but have to admit, I love bottled water for convenience when I am travelling and hiking. I really should be more conscious about refilling bottles rather than bring and toss. I know we use a lot of bottled water particularly when we camp (they make fab ice packs).

[BarkyardBQ]

Could you switch to a Nalgene bottle or Camelbak for hiking and being out and about?

We drink filtered tap water, but use Nalgene bottles for daily moving about or hikes. We also use a 5 gallon water cooler from Home Depot for weekend camping trips.

[gimp]

I prefer an alternative: $1000 minimum tickets for littering.

Look, plastic water bottles have one major thing going for them: when you go on a road trip, you can buy 36 of them for about $4. Stick them in your car. Drive everywhere you want, hike as far as you want, and you will probably be fine on water (if you hike far enough that you're not, you probably know to have a water filtration system and a camelpack.) Sure, camelpacks are better, but most people don't do enough to necessitate one. Real water bottles are great until you realize you need more than a few. And nobody is stopping plastic bottles from being reused.

[meg_shannon]

I'm pretty sure the ban isn't really banning bottled water from national parks, but just to stop them from selling it and putting in place water bottle refill stations/drinking fountains. I doubt they would be inspecting cars for bottled water and preventing people from bringing in their own if they like.

[elaine amj]

Could you switch to a Nalgene bottle or Camelbak for hiking and being out and about?

We drink filtered tap water, but use Nalgene bottles for daily moving about or hikes. We also use a 5 gallon water cooler from Home Depot for weekend camping trips.

We all have reusable water bottles we use every day (filling with tap water). And a no-name Camelbak for longer hikes. But still like the disposable water bottles for the take and toss convenience. I don't feel like I have to keep track of our water bottles or worry about losing them when we are on the go (something I worry about a lot). Also, if it gets to be inconvenient to carry a water bottle, we can just toss it...which we can't do with our nice reusable water bottles.

That said, we can certainly do better. Often we bring a few disposable water bottles and a big water jug and keep refilling our disposable bottles throughout the trip. I really should get over my worry of losing our nice reusable water bottles. It's a little on the irrational side.

[GuitarStv]

Doesn't go far enough.  There is almost no reason to ever use water bottled in disposable containers.  They should be banned country wide.

[BlueMR2]

I prefer an alternative: $1000 minimum tickets for littering.

That sounds more reasonable.  While the concept of banning them is appealing.  Well, someone is always going to forget to bring water/a container and will need to buy...  It doesn't need to be easy (we want to discourage this), but it's not necessary to stick someone in a bad place by not giving them access to water...

[GoldenStache]

I think it is better for people to buy a plastic bottle of water than a plastic bottle of coke.  Getting rid of the water just leaves the coke.  No thanks.

[Kaspian]

Doesn't go far enough.  There is almost no reason to ever use water bottled in disposable containers.  They should be banned country wide.

^^ This.  Everyone died of thirst pre-1990s, it seems.

[bacchi]

Doesn't go far enough.  There is almost no reason to ever use water bottled in disposable containers.  They should be banned country wide.

Or have a heavy tax on them.

[I'm a red panda]

Doesn't go far enough.  There is almost no reason to ever use water bottled in disposable containers.  They should be banned country wide.

I don't use them if I can help it. I'd never buy them.

But man, talk about unnecessary government intervention!

[mareofnight]

Doesn't go far enough.  There is almost no reason to ever use water bottled in disposable containers.  They should be banned country wide.

I don't use them if I can help it. I'd never buy them.

But man, talk about unnecessary government intervention!

The small sizes, maybe. But the gallon jugs can be really important for people who can't handle the local water supply, for some reason. (For example, my parents' town has good drinking watter, but the limestone is still too much for people sensitive to it.)

[marty998]

I prefer an alternative: $1000 minimum tickets for littering.

Look, plastic water bottles have one major thing going for them: when you go on a road trip, you can buy 36 of them for about $4. Stick them in your car. Drive everywhere you want, hike as far as you want, and you will probably be fine on water (if you hike far enough that you're not, you probably know to have a water filtration system and a camelpack.) Sure, camelpacks are better, but most people don't do enough to necessitate one. Real water bottles are great until you realize you need more than a few. And nobody is stopping plastic bottles from being reused.

Really? Over here a litre of bottled water is about twice as expensive as a litre of petrol.

[elaine amj]

Really? Over here a litre of bottled water is about twice as expensive as a litre of petrol.

Wow - liquid gold indeed! Here I can get a case of 24 for as low as CDN$2 (when on sale).

We keep a stock in our house for guests since so many people are weird about drinking tap water. My friend asked for my Brita pitcher the other day and I had to tell her it was broken and we've never replaced it. At least I could offer her bottled water! (although her frugal self struggled a bit with that lol). Another friend of mine will only drink reverse osmosis water (she has installed the filter in her house) so she brings her own water when she visits me since she turns up her nose at bottled water and definitely tap water is a no-no lol.

[Kaspian]

Really? Over here a litre of bottled water is about twice as expensive as a litre of petrol.

Wow - liquid gold indeed! Here I can get a case of 24 for as low as CDN$2 (when on sale).

And this is one of the reasons Canada is the biggest garbage-creator per person in the entire world. :(  Yep, we're even worse than our southern friends.

[I'm a red panda]

The small sizes, maybe. But the gallon jugs can be really important for people who can't handle the local water supply, for some reason. (For example, my parents' town has good drinking watter, but the limestone is still too much for people sensitive to it.)

I don't really think that is what most people talk about when they say "bottled water".  But you're right- selling water is necessary. Individual containers of it isn't.

But I still wouldn't support a ban. To do that you have to have enforcement, and that costs money. Taxpayers don't need to pay that. (Nor pay for the fight to get the ban in the first place.)

[music lover]

Doesn't go far enough.  There is almost no reason to ever use water bottled in disposable containers.  They should be banned country wide.

If you're going to ban disposable water bottles because they are unnecessary, then what's next? Ban fast food? Ban pop? Ban alcohol?

Most people want less government intervention, not more.

[sheepstache]

Could you switch to a Nalgene bottle or Camelbak for hiking and being out and about?

We drink filtered tap water, but use Nalgene bottles for daily moving about or hikes. We also use a 5 gallon water cooler from Home Depot for weekend camping trips.

We all have reusable water bottles we use every day (filling with tap water). And a no-name Camelbak for longer hikes. But still like the disposable water bottles for the take and toss convenience. I don't feel like I have to keep track of our water bottles or worry about losing them when we are on the go (something I worry about a lot). Also, if it gets to be inconvenient to carry a water bottle, we can just toss it...which we can't do with our nice reusable water bottles.

That said, we can certainly do better. Often we bring a few disposable water bottles and a big water jug and keep refilling our disposable bottles throughout the trip. I really should get over my worry of losing our nice reusable water bottles. It's a little on the irrational side.

Personally I use disposable water bottles when hiking because they're lighter. I mean that I'm refilling them but they're the kind that are intended to be disposable.

So many people leave behind their sturdy re-usable bottles that I'm not sure it's an environmental help. If people just re-used disposable bottles, it seems like that would be better than buying ones that require more material to manufacture. Assuming people forget and leave them somewhere at about the same rate.

[bacchi]

This thread makes me sad.

[southern granny]

I have a sensitivity to fluoride and our public water is flouridated, so I must have bottled spring water.  Most filters do not remove fluoride.  I have to have it at home and when we travel.  I did sign up for home pickup for recyclables.