Beyond the Bottle

Rain, by Jesse Cohn

jleibovic — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 02:43:37 +0000

Artist Jesse Cohn says:

I like reusing materials – making something valuable about something discarded. I also like making things out of familiar items. It’s important to me that the art is accessible to the viewer. I like that someone who doesn’t know anything about art can look at what I’ve made and understand how I’ve made it and, for the mos

t part, what I’ve tried to accomplish through the piece.

About 400 bottles came from the Beyond the Bottle tower. The others were primarily collected from recycling bins on campus and around College Hill. I would literally wake up at 7am on trash day and walk around the east side with a garbage bag taking bottles from the curb. The rest I got over winter break at home from my family and friends’ recycling. I have kept about 300 of the bottles, but I emptied the rest of them and recycled them.

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Up North, Vancouver Pushes for Tap During Olympic Games

tkagan — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 06:10:32 +0000

Olympic athletes tearing it up on the slopes or landing multiple triple axels clearly need to stay hydrated.

So do the millions of tourists visiting Vancouver this February. As part of its Tap Water Campaign, the city is encouraging these tourists to choose tap over bottled during their Olympic visit.

The city has set up a “water wagon” downtown, where visitors can rehydrate with tap water from the region’s reservoirs, according to the Metro Vancouver website. Pedestrians are also asked to sign a pledge to support tap water over bottled. Sound familiar? (Take our online pledge if you haven’t already!)

Some hotels are on board with the initiative, too. At the Fairmont Pacific Rim Hotel, for example, guests are given the choice to buy a reusable water bottle instead of single-use bottles, according to the Metro Vancouver website.

As a CBC news article points out, this push for tap over bottled water could lead to conflict with Coca-Cola, the parent company of Dasani and a major sponsor of the Olympics. But Coke doesn’t seem to be too worried. According to the article, the company says it still expects to sell over a million bottles of water during the games.

The campaign has already gained exposure thanks to all the national and international attention focused on Vancouver. So maybe it’s time to push our fair city into the spotlight. Providence Winter Olympics 2018? We know it certainly gets cold enough.

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Beyond the Bottle in Providence Journal

amackcrane — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 17:35:28 +0000

A December Projo article details Beyond the Bottle’s efforts to eliminate bottled water consumption on campus, though the “ban” to which the title refers is not our favored approach. It also mentions Mayor David Cicilline’s 2008 executive order to end use of plastic bottle in municipal buildings, which along with water use reduction and watershed protection forms part of the city’s Greenprint environmental plan. Read the article here.

Providence tap water ranks with the nation’s best According to a recent Projo article, “Providence water quality ranks...

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Photos from Bottle Tower Construction

jleibovic — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 04:35:51 +0000

Last November, members of Beyond the Bottle collected one week’s worth of water bottles from the largest freshman dorm on Brown’s campus. The result was a powerful visual representation of the waste created by single-use plastic water bottles. The bottles are now being used in an installation at List Art Center.

photos by Jaclyn Teixera

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Brown Signs Sustainable Campus Charter

jharris — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 02:18:52 +0000

Beyond the Bottle would like to applaud the University and President Simmons for signing onto the Sustainable Campus Charter. The administration continues to prove its dedication to a more sustainable experience for all of the Brown community.

Brown also committed to providing more educational opportunities related to sustainability. Beyond the Bottle has been and plans to continue to support this goal through its awareness and outreach efforts to all members of the Brown community. Though not necessarily through formal education in classes, Beyond the Bottle is committed to raising awareness of issues of sustainability on campus through a variety of other channels. We believe that President Simmons’ signing of this charter is another strong step in the right direction for the university and we are excited to help make many of the committments of the charter a reality.

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Haiti

jleibovic — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 04:17:31 +0000

UPDATE: Partners in Health is now accepting only monetary donations, rather than supplies.

Haitians are desperately in need of potable water, and bottled water corporations have a history of lending a huge helping hand to disaster relief efforts.

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the American Beverage Association donated over 200,000 cases (over 100 tractor trailers) of bottled water.

After 9/11, a Manhattan Starbucks infamously charged rescue workers $130 for three cases of bottled water.

Lipsey Water, which claims to possess the “largest national stockpile of bottled water inventoried exclusively for disaster relief,” has already donated 1.2 million water bottles to the Haitian relief effort. Incidentally, Lipsey’s bottles are made of glass, which they argue is less harmful to personal and environmental health than plastic; take a spoonful of salt and then read about it here.

Earthquake victims need safe drinking water! But...do they need bottles?

In times of emergency, bottled water corporations are in a great position to donate large quantities of water — but only because they’ve been privatizing a public resource, and selling it back at exorbitantly inflated rates, for so long. And we have to ask why it takes a disaster — whether it be a hurricane, a tsunami, an earthquake, or a terrorist attack — for these corporations to donate, considering that 884 million people don’t have potable water, and that 10% of all disease-related deaths could be prevented by access to clean drinking water.

I was pleasantly surprised (and immediately suspicious) to read that Coca-Cola, the uber-corporation we all love to hate, actually has an impressive resume on the disaster-relief front.

Working in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the partnership is helping remote, tsunami-hit areas of Indonesia, Sri Lanka, the Maldives and Thailand to “build back better” by expanding community access to water and sanitation services and infrastructure. For example, in the fishing village of Sanga-U, located at the southern tip of Thailand’s Lanta Island, 10 check dams have been built to collect and retain rainwater for 117 households.

Of course we would all prefer a long-term solution that addresses infrastructural problems of sanitation and distribution. Unfortunately, in times of emergency, the time factor often takes precedence, leaving wrecked nations with no alternative but to succumb to the intense and enticing pressure of multinational corporations that are more interested in profiting from a vulnerable and malleable market than genuinely addressing complex, deeply-rooted humanitarian issues. Naomi Klein, author of The Shock Doctrine, on “disaster capitalism”:

…we have to be absolutely clear that this tragedy, which is part natural, part unnatural, must under no circumstances be used to 1) further indebt Haiti, and 2) to push through unpopular corporatist policies in the interests of our corporations. And this is not a conspiracy theory. They have done it again and again.

So what are the socially- and environmentally- responsible alternatives to delivering case after case of bottled water to earthquake victims?

Nor any drop to drink

First of all, let me say with no hesitation whatsoever that HERE@Brown is absolutely right. If you have bottled water, DONATE IT. In the United States of America, we have absolutely no need for bottled water. Haiti needs all the drinkable water it can get. But if you don’t already have bottled water, don’t buy it to donate. Instead, consider:

- urging Coca-Cola (and Pepsi) to provide fair, sustainable solutions to the problem of potable water, rather than just dumping plastic water bottles onto desperate people. Coke: sustainability@na.ko.com Pepsi: Perform anceWithPurpose@pepsico.com
donating to Pure Water for the World, which has been bringing hygiene education and clean water to Haiti’s schools, clinics and orphanages since 2008. Donate here.
-reminding all your bottle-chugging friends that America’s tap water is perfectly clean and delicious. If you or your loved ones have any bottled water, send it to where they really need it — and for goodness’ sake, use a reusable bottle instead!

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Beyond the Botttle Featured in Brown Alumni Magazine

dfinzer — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 03:23:00 +0000

A recent article in the Brown Alumni Magazine features Beyond the Bottle’s latest endeavors—including its task force meeting in December. Ari Rubenstein makes a great point that bottled water has “only been a craze for a decade…[Beyond the Bottle] is really all about going back to what Brown did for literally hundreds of years, except we want to do it even better.” Check out the article here.

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Improving the quality of airplane water

dfinzer — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 05:33:01 +0000

The next time you order water on a plane, you may not have to feel guilty about using up a plastic bottle. New EPA regulations for airplanes will likely mean a reduction in the use of bottled water. The EPA’s new National Primary Drinking Water Regulations for Aircraft Public Water Systems—coming into effect in October 2011—will require airplanes to carry water that is suitable for drinking. So, airplanes won’t have to carry around heavy supplies of bottled water because they can serve water from their portable storage systems. Looks like a win-win situation for everyone—including the environment.

Providence tap water ranks with the nation’s best According to a recent Projo article, “Providence water quality ranks...

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Providence tap water ranks with the nation’s best

dfinzer — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 05:42:40 +0000

According to a recent Projo article, “Providence water quality ranks second-best out of 100 city water-supply systems in the country.” One reason is that it has successfully protected its water source—the Scituate reservoir—from contaminants. Safe, tasty Providence water is one more reason to choose tap over bottled!

Beyond the Bottle in Providence Journal A December Projo article details Beyond the Bottle’s efforts to...

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Task Force’s First Meeting a Success!

dfinzer — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 22:24:40 +0000

On December 16, the Beyond the Bottle Task Force—charged with finding sustainable alternatives to one-use bottles and ultimately eliminating bottled water on Brown’s campus—held its first meeting.

Beyond the Botttle Featured in Brown Alumni Magazine A recent article in the Brown Alumni Magazine features Beyond...

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