Plastic bottles do not cause global warming!

This is an interesting development in the plastic bottle trash debate. The bottled water industry is hitting back at its critics with a recent press release. For us at Hydropal this industry `denial' or response is just further confirmation that `one time use' plastic water bottles, discarded in their billions is a very real environmental problem for many countries and cities.

http://www.offlicencenews.co.uk/articles/46952/Plastic-bottles-do-not-cause-global-warming.aspx?categoryid=9059

Published: 11-07-2007
Written by: Emma Eversham

The bottled water industry has hit back at claims that discarded plastic water bottles are contributing to global warming.

A statement was issued by the Bottled Water Information Office to say it is an environmentally friendly industry following the news that the City of New York is running a campaign to encourage people to ditch bottled water and drink tap water instead to protect the environment.

The BWIO said: “The very foundation of the industry is the protection of a precious natural resource and its use in a sustainable manner, and that ethos is applied in every aspect of the work of the industry.

“Bottled water is most commonly packaged in either plastic (PET) or glass, which is totally safe and conforms to strict regulations on health and safety. By far the majority of bottled water (93 per cent) comes in plastic bottles which is totally recyclable. Bottles also carry messages urging the purchaser to recycle after use. The rest (around 7 per cent) comes in glass bottles, which can also be placed for recycling.”

According to environmental groups, four out of five plastic water bottles end up on landfill sites and the production process contributes to global warming, but figures released by RECOUP show that 727 million plastic bottles were recycled in 2004.

The BWIO also says the industry “continues to make inroads into packaging technology” and that some producers were considering the use of biodegradable plastic.

727 million plastic bottles were recycled in 2004! This number is literally a drop in the plastic bottle ocean...

Centre to study geothermal energy

I'm posting an update tonight on geothermal energy, the South Australian State Government has announced a grant to the University Of Adelaide to study sources of geothermal energy.

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=277471&rss=yes


Centre to study geothermal energy
Monday Jul 9 11:47 AEST
The South Australian government will help fund an international research facility into geothermal energy at the University of Adelaide.

Mineral Resources Minister Paul Holloway said the $250,000 in seed funding would allow the university to host Australia's first research centre into geothermal energy systems.

"The government sees geothermal as an energy source for the future and by helping the university establish their research facility here, will ensure that South Australia is in the vanguard of all facets of developing and demonstrating hot rock systems," Mr Holloway said.
"We have vast hot rock resources and developing them is clearly in the nation's interest."

Water Skin rather than Plastic Water bottle

I like the look of this new product to reduce plastic water bottle pollution;

http://newpersuasion.typepad.com/new_persuasion/2007/07/water-skin.html

`A post at Springwise.com about a new type of bottled that could serve as an alternative to traditional plastic bottles used today.'

Pitched as a water skin, a new bottle created by French packaging manufacturer Sidel provides a lighter alternative to traditional PET bottles. A regular plastic half-litre water bottle weighs 13 – 16 grams. Sidel's "NoBottle" weighs just 9.9 grams. According to Sidel, "Water is the largest beverage market by volume with 160 billion litres consumed in 2006. It also represents the highest growth sector and is expected to expand by 5.7 percent annually between now and 2010." On that scale, waste reduction of 20-30% adds up.
The innovation was made possible by using a highly flexible type of plastic with shape-memory, which lets the bottle bounce back into shape after being gripped or otherwise compressed. While calling a plastic water bottle eco-friendly smacks of greenwashing, Sidel's NoBottle is definitely is eco-friendlier. The potential waste reduction is significant and offering a lighter bottle — and its story — could boost sales for beverage makers marketing to green-aware consumers. NoBottle will be officially introduced at K 2007, an international trade fair in October.

`I know that awareness is increasing across the globe and that we are starting to understand our environmental impact. While this is a good idea for sure, we need to keep in mind that we should avoid one-time-use bottles when we have other alternatives. The fact that companies are developing other means to continue making products that we demand on a daily basis shows that we hate to make changes that we feel could be inconvenient. Hopefully we will find a way to keep everyone happy and healthy. '
Posted by KristinaGroome

Our thinking at Hydropal is very clear on this issue of plastic bottled water, Use a Hydropal instead! www.hydropal.com.au

Wind and hot rock companies pick up steam

On topic with one of the geothermal alternative companies I mentioned in yesterday's post, Geodynamics, gets a mention here:

http://www.dailyfx.com/story/currency/aud_news/The_Aussie_Establishes_Itself_above_1183371564088.html

Wind and hot rock companies pick up steam – The energy sector is generally very sensitive to the political mood on climate change. As the federal Government committed to carbon trading starting in 2012 the winners in the energy sectors have changed. The traditional coal-powered plants will become less profitable when the CO2 emissions will impose hefty costs and their more environmentally friendly rivals shall profit more. Companies in the gas, wind and thermal energy have seen unprecedented levels of growth recently, with a gas giant Queensland Gas Company doubling in value in the past two months, a geothermal energy pioneer Geodynamics Limited doubled in the past month. These small companies are not a threat to the current dominating players such as BHP, which have deep pockets to buy them out. The development of such technologies is viewed as progressive and positive for the Australian economy. Source: The Australian http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21999654-5005200,00.html

keywords;
climate change, carbon trading, CO2 emissions, environmentally friendly

Rethinking Bottled Water

The most interesting part of this article is how a chilled plastic water bottle is a perfect symbol for western consumerism at its worst,

http://www.npr.org/blogs/news/2007/06/bottled_water_a_symbol_of_us_c.html

It's not often that I read or hear something that almost immediately compels me to change something I've done for a long time. But that's what happened when I heard a report about the bottled water industry in America on All Things Considered on Thursday.

Robert Siegel interviewed Charles Fishman, a reporter for the magazine Fast Company, who says that Pepsi's Aquafina and Coke's Dasani are basically purified tap water. That's something I didn't know. No magical springs bubbling out of a picturesque hillside in some rural American forest, visited by locals for years. Just plain old tap water.

The companies say they put the tap water through an "energy-intensive reverse-osmosis filtration process," but, to me, that seems like basically the same stuff we get by running our tap water through a Brita filter.

Fishman wrote in his article for Fast Company:
`A chilled plastic bottle of water in the convenience-store cooler is the perfect symbol of this moment in American commerce and culture. It acknowledges our demand for instant gratification, our vanity, our token concern for health. Its packaging and transport depend entirely on cheap fossil fuel. Yes, it's just a bottle of water--modest compared with the indulgence of driving a Hummer. But when a whole industry grows up around supplying us with something we don't need--when a whole industry is built on the packaging and the presentation--it's worth asking how that happened, and what the impact is.'

Not to mention what all those empty plastic bottles that are tossed aside are doing to the environment. I seriously may never buy a bottle of water again. It just doesn't make sense. It's back to the tap for me, with a reusable plastic bottle. How about you folks? What's your thinking now about bottled water?

Our thinking at Hydropal is very clear on this issue of plastic bottled water, Use a Hydropal instead! www.hydropal.com.au

What is geothermal energy?

There are some very innovative companies looking for sustainable energy sources in Australia, as opposed to nuclear energy, coal and gas fired electricity, and of course oil and diesel.

Here's an easy concise explanation of what geothermal energy is all about:

http://www.dpi.vic.gov.au/dpi/nrenmp.nsf/childdocs/-F3E8F7FE27CEB5ABCA2570030000808E?open
What is geothermal energy?
Geothermal energy – literally, heat from the earth – is a clean, abundant, and versatile natural resource. Applications exploiting geothermal energy, produce no or very low greenhouse emissions. The introduction of the Geothermal Energy Resources Act (GER Act) will enable the development of a clean, secure source of energy and help to diversify Victoria’s energy sources.

Australia’s geothermal resources have scarcely been tapped, but there is a growing awareness of their potential value. With continually improving technology, geothermal energy is likely to play a part solving our increasing demand for clean energy. In Australia, the main types of geothermal energy are to be found in hot dry rocks (HDR) and hydrothermal reservoirs (hot groundwater that has been heated by hot rocks). Currently, these are being used for heating applications and tested for electricity generation in various States.

Hot Dry Rocks - Harnessing HDR energy typically involves drilling into and fracturing hot basement rocks, so that water can be circulated via deep injector wells into the heat source. This heated fluid is recovered from deep production wells and circulated to the surface to a heat exchanger and used to generate electricity. The fluid is then recirculated. In Australia, the potential to produce electricity is being tested in the Cooper Basin area in South Australia and the Hunter Valley Region in New South Wales.

Hydrothermal - Harnessing hydrothermal energy usually involves accessing deep hot water reservoirs and circulating the water to the surface where a heat exchanger is used to generate electricity. The water is then recirculated. Hydrothermal energy can also be used for non-electricity producing activities such as temperature regulation (eg heating) and greenhouse warming.Hot groundwater has been used on a small scale in South Australia, Queensland and Victoria. For example, at Portland, naturally hot groundwater from the Portland area was used from 1985 until recently to heat municipal buildings, the town swimming pool and a motel.

A couple more links on Australian companies involved in developing geothermal energy sources;

www.geodynamics.com.au
Geodynamics Ltd (GDY) is a renewable energy company involved in the development of geothermal energy generation from hot fractured rocks (HFR) in Australia.
HFR THERMAL ENERGY: GDY's concept relies on generating heat through heat-producing granite below the earth's surface. Energy is extracted through an artificial reservoir that circulates through heat trapped under overlying rocks. Standard geothermal power stations then convert the extracted heat into energy.

www.petratherm.com.au
Petratherm Ltd (PTR) is an energy exploration company that searches for commercially-sustainable, emission-free, renewable energy from hot geothermal rocks.
HOT ROCKS: Energy is drawn by water circulated underground and extracted by a surface heat exchanger (hot rock) to generate electricity. The heat extracted from the water in turn heats a low boiling-point liquid, which boils, producing high-pressure steam used to drive electricity turbines.