A reality based independent journal of observation & analysis, serving the Flathead Valley & Montana since 2006. © James Conner.

20 September 2016

Get those damn disposable H2O bottles off the debate lecterns

Come on, Steve, Greg, and organizers of Montana’s gubernatorial debates. The candidates don’t need single-use polyethylene terphthalate (PET) bottles of water to treat attacks of cotton mouth while debating. A wide-bottomed glass of chilled tap water — good Montana municipal tap water all Montana politicians should be proud to drink — still works just fine. I’ve never seen one spilled.

Unlike many of my fellow environmentalists, I don’t consider bottled water an intrinsic evil. But I do consider the gratuitous use of it an environmentally unfriendly act. If a closed container of dihydrogen monoxide is deemed a must, bottle #3 below is a good choice. If a transparent bottle is deemed necessary for security, bottles #5–8 will more than suffice. And if the security types still balk at anything except disposable PET bottles, fire them and hire smarter people.

PET bottles, incidentally, can (and should) be recycled. They make fine polar fleece. Were the debate bottles recycled or just tossed in the garbage?

bottle_array

(1) widemouth steel vacuum flask, (2) small steel vacuum flask, (3) lightweight steel bottle with pour spout plug and foam insulation, (4) Contigo steel vacuum flask with sipping cap, (5) Contigo reusable PET bottle with sipping cap, (6) one-litre low density polyethylene wide mouthed bottle, (7) half-litre LDPE bottle, (8) one-litre LDPE Boston lab bottle, (9) half-litre single-use polyethylene terephthalate water bottle of the Montana gubernatorial debate lectern thirst quencher genre.