I, like everyone else in the world, was glued to the television watching the unfolding disaster in Haiti on CNN.  I was wondering how any of those unfortunate people were going to survive?  Anyone following Anderson Cooper’s journey’s could see they were in big trouble and were going to need the basics of food, water and shelter just to make it through for the next few days.  Thankfully, the airport opened quickly and aid started pouring in.  One of the things that I noticed accompanying almost every emergency team were pallets of bottled water.  One of the first to arrive on the scene of the disaster was a Search and Rescue Team from Iceland and they brought with them bottled water donated by Icelandic Glacial.  Yep…it was bottled water that was coming to the rescue– not free tap water, not an aluminum or heavy plastic refillable bottle.  Yes, it was the much maligned, standard plastic, one time use, water bottle that came to the rescue of millions of Haitians.

Without bottled water what would have become of thousands of Haitian children, and the elderly, the most vulnerable of those affected during the quake?  What would have happened if the “Ban the Water Bottle Movement” had been successful in eliminating bottled water all together?  Studies are showing that when convenient bottled water isn’t available consumers are replacing it with other convenience drinks—mostly unhealthy soft drinks.  Thankfully, bottled water was available for this crisis.

I believe we need the bottled water industry.  For me bottled water is an important part of our national security, providing us the ability to quickly deploy search and rescue, emergency medical and military to disaster situations like the ones we’ve had in the past and like the one that Haiti is experiencing.

Having said all of this, Haiti will find itself awash in a sea of plastic bottle pollution.  Hopefully recycling organizations are looking ahead and developing contingency plans to handle sudden surges of plastic pollution.  Organizations such as the Association of Postconsumer Plastic Recyclers (APR) or National Association for PET Container Resources (NAPCOR), who have the expertise to develop plastic recovery programs,  will be able to dust off the plans they have developed and put them into action once a disaster strikes.  Recycling is important before, during and after these types of emergencies.

We all know how important recycling is, don’t we?

Currently here in the U.S., recycling is only able to recover 20-30 percent of plastic bottle waste which is sold and shipped to companies that make items out of the plastic bottles such as carpet, clothing, grocery tote bags, post consumer plastic bottles and many other items.  Unfortunately, the other 70-80 percent will go to the landfill.  Standard PET plastic, the kind of plastic used to manufacture bottles for soft drinks, teas, water, etc., is an extremely durable plastic.  PET is almost the perfect container for beverages; it is light weight, doesn’t leach harmful chemicals, has an excellent shelf life and is able to withstand the pressures of carbonated drinks.  But the major problem with PET is that it is so durable it doesn’t want to decompose so PET that finds its way into a landfill will languish there for hundreds or thousands of years.

There is a better answer–biodegradable plastic bottles.  ENSO Bottles, has developed a biodegradable plastic bottle that can be recycled and if it gets into a landfill environment will biodegrade leaving behind biogases.   These are then captured and can be used to produce clean energy.  Biodegradable bottles aren’t the final answer to solving plastic pollution but they are a positive step in developing new products to improve our environment.

Research continues to develop new products that will reduce the use of fossil fuels and develop plastics that are more sustainable for our environment.  ENSO supports recycling and is working hand-in-hand with recycling organizations.  The goal is to increase consumer recycling rates for plastic.  However, as long as 70-80 percent goes to a landfill, the only answer is the ENSO biodegradable plastic bottle.

Pray we won’t have another disaster; however, should another hurricane or earthquake wreck havoc, look for the lowly water bottle coming to the rescue again, hopefully in an environmentally friendly biodegradable plastic bottle.

By Max

www.ensobottles.com

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“A tragedy of this magnitude affects everyone, everywhere. At Icelandic Glacial, we are doing our best to help search and rescue teams like ICE-SAR with their efforts on the ground in Haiti, and we pledge to ship thousands more cases of bottled water in the coming days,” said Jon Olafsson, chairman and co-founder, Icelandic Glacial.

ICE-SAR’s international team operates as a special unit within the Icelandic Association of Search and Rescue. Iceland is the second most volcanically active country in the world and the international SAR team was deployed to Haiti because of its expertise in earthquake rescues.

As the world’s first CarbonNeutral® certified bottled spring water for both product and operations, Icelandic Glacial delivers a water of exceptional purity to consumers with a “net zero” carbon footprint. The company uses 100% natural green energy in the form of geothermal and hydroelectric power to fuel production.

For more information about Icelandic Glacial, visit www.icelandicglacial.com.

About Icelandic Glacial Natural Spring Water

As the world’s first CarbonNeutral® certified bottled spring water for both product and operations, Icelandic Glacial delivers a water of exceptional purity to consumers with a “net zero” carbon footprint.

Located in Ölfus, Iceland, Icelandic Glacial is an environmental pioneer in the industry. The company uses 100% natural green energy in the form of geothermal and hydroelectric power to fuel production.  The source of Icelandic Glacial is the legendary Ölfus Spring, a naturally replenished catchment zone formed during a massive volcanic eruption more than 4,500 years ago.

Icelandic Glacial was named “Best Water of 2007” by industry experts BevNET, and also received accolades for the “Best Sustainability Initiative” at the 2007 BottledWaterWorld awards.

Icelandic Glacial is distributed in the United States by Anheuser-Busch, which took a 20 percent ownership stake in the company in July 2007.

For more information on Icelandic Glacial, go to www.icelandicglacial.com.

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