New Zealand is rad. Kiwis are rad. The Good Water project is also rad. – by Hugh

If there is 1 item that we could single out and say “Stop throwing it out” it would be plastic bottles: Water bottles, pop bottles, oil bottles, shampoo bottles, all kinds of bottles. We’ve seen them everywhere we’ve stopped; piled high on the on beaches from Mexico to the Marquese’s, the Tuamotu’s and Tahiti, Raiatea and Rarotonga, everywhere.

It is pretty crazy when you actually stop and think about all the material and energy that goes into making, shipping and selling a sugary carbonated beverage. At the start of it all, oil is extracted, transported and refined; energy required. From this refined oil, polycarbonate plastic pellets are made (more energy). These are then transported (energy) somewhere else to be made into bottles. Molding into plastic bottles (some as small as 250mls) requires heat (energy) and pressure (yup, more energy). So then you’ve got a bottle, you fill it with some sort of beverage (which in its self is a long, energy intensive process), and transport it to a warehouse, and then on to a retailer (transport = mucho energy). At the retailer the bottle and liquid is cooled (uh huh, more energy… unless you’re in Inuvik). Finally the consumer buys the beverage, and in one gulp, swallows it down… and is left with a fine bottle that will last 1000 years floating the ocean, perhaps washed up on deserted beach, or if it is one of the ~12% of plastic water bottles in the US, it is recycled (but again, an energy intensive process). You get the point I’m sure: this long chain of energy processes is why the first two of the three R’s, Reduce and Reuse, come before Recycle.

But heck, plastic bottles are now ubiquitous in our society. There is absolutely no way we’re going to live with out them anytime soon. This is why I got so excited when I heard about the Good Water Project in New Zealand. Back at my old job I there was plenty of talk about using PLA based plastics in products, but always a new reason to keep studying it, actually using it in a project was a ways off. Hopefully there’s progress. However, the Good Water Project IS making it happen, now! Sweet!