today i forgot my water bottle and ended up buying one with my lunch, only to discover that poland springs had responded to the fury over bottled water in its own way: by using a new ‘eco-shape’ bottle, made from the same PETG as before, but containing ‘up to 30% less’ of the material. here are the old and new bottles side by side:
seems like a step in the right direction – or is it? the first thing you notice is that the bottle is a lot flimsier, which means that if you wanted to reuse it you might not be able to. so, it’s even more disposable than before. then, there is the ‘recycling’ symbol that makes you feel ok about throwing it away when it will likely be dumped or at best downcycled into an inferior product. to quote from ‘cradle to cradle‘ in ‘why being ‘less bad’ is no good:’
“Eco-efficiency is an outwardly admirable, even noble concept, but it is not a strategy for success over the long term, because it does not reach deep enough. It works within the same system that caused the problem in the first place, merely slowing it down with moral proscriptions and punitive measures. It presents little more than an illusion of change. Relying on eco-efficiency to save the environment will in fact achieve the opposite; it will let industry finish off everything, quietly, persistently, and completely.”
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