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Jerry Bottles

by Posted in 3.6 Businesses & social enterprises Tagged , ,

Jerry sell sustainable steel water bottles to raise funds for water projects around the world.  They love water so much that they give away 100% of their profits to bring water to those that don’t have it.

We sell steel water bottles to raise funds for water projects.  We are committed to promoting the #zerowaste movement and encouraging a cultural shift towards re-useables and sustainability.
Links – twitter – Facebook etc

https://twitter.com/jerrybottles

https://www.facebook.com/jerrybottles/

https://www.instagram.com/jerrybottle/

Please note…

This post was written by the contributor and  is  a PfU.K. Directory submission.

And the Pf U.K. Directory is…?

…a directory of UK-based groups, organisations businesses and individuals who are responding to the problems presented by the misuse of plastic. That does not mean anti-plastic necessarily but certainly plastic-problem aware.

The DIRECTORY is to promote their fantastic work. Read more here…

Got a project?
It is very easy to get a project featured. Each contributor submits a short synopsis of their project, focussing on the plastic aware element and I post it. You can read the submission guidelines here.

Bristol Water Refill

by Posted in 3.7 Other Solutions Tagged , , 9 Comments

“Refill Bristol is a practical campaign to make Bristol a city in which refilling your water bottle becomes a cultural norm.”

But how you ask?

“Participating cafes, bars, restaurants, banks, galleries, museums and other businesses will simply put a sticker in their window – alerting passers-by to the fact they’re welcome to come on in and fill up their bottle – for free!”

By the end of the year they hope to have signed up 100 businesses and have an app telling you where they are. For now you can to find them on this map.

Another great water refill scheme to look out for is Give Me Tap

And lets not forget Selfridges who have banned the sale of bottled water in their shops and installed a water refill bar.

 

 

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Drinking The Chinese Water

by Posted in 3.2 Outside the U.K. Tagged , 2 Comments

But what about the water? In China according to my tap water info graphic the tap water is not safe to drink. So we are drinking boiled rather than bottled water. Most rooms have a kettle and if they don’t you can get a flask of hot water at the reception. The trains all have a water boiler at the end of the carriage.

Many people advise bringing water to a hard boil for 5 minutes, and perhaps longer at higher elevation.   More current literature, however, suggests merely reaching the boiling is sufficient and effective.

If you prefer a belt and braces approach, let the water cool and treat it with your Steripen. Of course you will need to have your own reusable water bottle. We have two.

When you get bored of water there is always fizzy orange – see our next post…..

This post is my contribution to Zero Waste Week (‪#ZerowasteWeek) the brainchild of Rae Straus (also featured in our P-f U.K. directory). Each day, for 7 days, we will feature a tip to help you eat, drink and – ermmm – excrete in the most sustainable and rubbish free- way, backpacking kind of way. Each post will appear up on our advent calender of trash free tips. See them there.

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Selfridges Water Refill

by Posted in 3.7 Other Solutions Tagged , , 4 Comments

Selfridges are setting out to tackle plastic pollution in the ocean by “removing all single-use plastic water bottles from our Foodhalls and restaurants, amounting to approximately 400,000 bottles a year.”  Selfridges website.

I was a little confused by the wording. Single use? Surely all plastic bottles when used as packaging  are single use.  I wondered if perhaps they meant single serving water bottle. I have been caught out like this before. Got all giddy about a water bottle ban only to find that it was restricted to those tiny bottles that contain a small glassful each. Yes a start, but hardly a ban.

So I tweeted them

love that you are removing single use water bottles. Does this mean the single serving small water bottles or all bottled water?

and they replied

disposable water bottles have been replaced with access to water fountains within our store.

Way to go Selfridges.

This  is part of its Project Ocean initiative, a collaborative effort with the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and the Marine Reserves Coalition (MRC).

“Professor Jonathan Baillie, director of conservation programmes at ZSL, said the amount of plastic in the oceans was “staggering” and having a “devastating effect” on marine wildlife.

“No matter where plastic litter originates, once it reaches the ocean it becomes a planetary problem as it is carried by ocean currents,” he said.  Business Green”

There is also an exhibition curated by Jane Withers in the Ultralounge on G at Selfridges London featuring work by Studio Swine (one of our favourites – check out their great project here) Andrew Friend, Nick Wood and Alice Dunseath, “which shed light on the plastic problem and propose alternative futures.”  There is also an in store water fountain and water bar to refill your own bottle from.

There is lots more on the website including ways you can cut your plastic footprint.

Needless to say the British Plastics Federation (BPF)  “expressed its “dismay” at Selfridges’ move. Philip Law, the BPF’s director general said: “The availability of water in portable, lightweight bottles promotes good health and can be critical in emergency situations. Plastic products do not litter themselves onto our streets or into our oceans, people do.” Taken from Plastic News.

Does shopping in Selfridges  really count as an emergency situation? When might critical hydration be called for? If you can’t fit into a size 12? They don’t have it in the colour you want?  Situations when only water in a light weight bottle will do.

And of course people shouldn’t litter.  They shouldn’t rob houses either but I am not going to leave my  front door open. There are some anti-social elements who don’t behave as we would like. The challenge is how limit their negative impacts. Plastic litter  doesn’t biodegrade. Once out there it lasts for ever. It only takes few meanies to drop their bottles and you have an expensive case of plastic pollution. The answer is  not to say people should stop dropping trash but to stop making everlasting litter.

Some more info

Why plastic doesn’t biodegrade

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Russell Brand – sipping pretty or slurping dirty?

by Posted in 3.5 Plastic Free People, Projects & Campaigns, 3.7 Other Solutions Tagged

Michelle Cassar has been refusing to abuse for a while now. Doggedly saying no to plastic has become a way of life but, as Pam can well testify, it can sometimes feel like a pointless exercise . But while I sit sulking in the wardrobe, Michelle is distinctly more plastivist. What is needed she figured, is a celebrity spokesman, one who talks the eco talk but is also a dood, a happening hipster.

So, she put together a plastic free gift pack, went to see Russell Brand and gave it to him…. personally.

I was so impressed when I heard this, I tracked Michelle down and pestered her into giving me the story.

In her own words

I recently heard Russell Brand talking about corporate greed & how we are destroying the planet, and wanting to live in harmony with the animals and other humans. I then went to see him live & noticed he -like everybody – was drinking out of single use plastic bottles.

As someone who´s been refusing plastics for over 5 years I know how they tie into everything he´s talking about . So I decided to give Russell Brand a solution to what´s he´s discussing. I personally gave him a plastic free hamper at his show in Newcastle upon Tyne. In the hope that he would look at the information and start to use it some of the products. Maybe even in public… Russell Brands simple actions of using a metal bottle rather than a single use plastic one would speak volumes. He wouldn´t even need to speak!

As yet I haven´t seen any pictures of him using it. I´m not sure if he would of read my letter. But I tried!! It can feel like a lonely endeavour refusing single use plastics, but there are people out there quietly doing it. Hopefully soon it will become trendy and what better person to lead that trend than Russell Brand!

With or without him though I´ll carry on refusing SUPs (single use plastics) and it´s great meeting other people online knowing there are others out there doing the same. Making a difference, one refusal at a time.”

Let’s hear it for the girl!

The gift pack contained all kinds of plastic free loveliness including deodorant, shampoo in tins, a massage bar wrapped in paper and a metal water bottle – but not just any old metal water bottle, a gorgeous Klean Kanteen.

klean kanteenA KLEAN KANTEEN water bottle.

I have been wanting one of these forever but simply cannot pay the asking price. I am not saying they are overcharging just that we don’t have much in the way of disposable income.

So far Michelle has had no feed back on her gift but I can hardly believe that Russell is drinking water from tacky plastic in preference to that uber stylish bottle? However, if he is keeping it in his trousers so to speak, perhaps he could pass it on… to me. I hate to snatch at a mans water bottle but this is a Klean Kanteen we are talking about.

So Russell – are you sipping pretty or still slurping dirty? Caring people want to know – and me, well I want your Klean Kanteen.

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Bath, Love Tap Water Refill Scheme

by Posted in 3.7 Other Solutions Tagged , ,

A new water refill scheme based in Bath. The following has been taken from their website…

water fountain

 

Two local women want to bring drinking water to the streets of Bath. Love Tap Water not for profit organisation  that wants to make Bath the “first city in the UK to offer its residents and visitors a fully sustainable way to drink water on the go”

It’s water fountains funded by the sale of stainless steel water bottles as designed by Sir James Dyson for the Love Tap Water campaign;

Find out more from their

website  Love Tap Water

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Philippines Water Refills

by Posted in 3.2 Outside the U.K. Tagged

When travelling in far-flung places we will not buy water in plastic bottles. NO its just wrong.

First…
Check if the tap water is actually safe to drink. To find out, visit this super cool website to find out can I drink the water. Just pick the country you want and read the result.

If yes, hooray – all you need to take is your refillable bottle.

If no consider buying a Steripento sterilize you own water.

Refill Stations
Many countries offer a waterbottle refill service. This is for the locals not tourists but you can also use it. We do but still sterilise the water with our pen.

Cebu City  to Moalboal

Theres no need to buy bottled water  in Cebu as far as I can tell. Everywhere you look there are large refillable water bottles, encased in wooden boxes, where you can refill your  bottle for pesos. They look homemade  to me – the boxes not the bottles I mean. Of course there is no way of knowing that the bottles simply haven’t been refilled from the tap but the water is clear so can be further treated with your Steripen.

More

For other water refill points the world over check our big list
More plastic-free travel posts? Try the index
And of course….. how to back pack plastic free

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Water – Index

by Posted in 3.1 Food & Drink Tagged , , 1 Comment

You’re in the right place for information on 

Tap Water U.K.
Refill Schemes – in the U.K.
Carbonated Water  Make your own from tap
Office water
Bottled Water – some facts and greener optionsplastic-free, refillable options here
Water Abroad
Is it safe? Find out here.
How to sterilise
Some refill schemesOther watery stuff

U.K Tap Water

If you are lucky enough to live in a country where the water is safe to drink the easiest way to access plastic free water is from a tap. You can do this at home. In which case you will need a refillable water bottle to take out with you.
Read up about U.K. Tap water here 

Refill Schemes

But what happens when you’re out and about and away from the kitchen or you’ve forgotten your Steripen

Refill Schemes in the U.K. 
The U.K.  is one country lucky enough to have safe drinking water BUT sometimes when you are out and about it can be hard to access tap. These worthy schemes  aim make safe, free, tap water available.

Carbonated Water

But I like fizzy water? Make your own from tap 

Office Water

Want plastic free water at work – try these water filters 

Bottled Water

Tap is best but what if you need bottled? Some plastic-free, refillable options here

Unsafe Tap Water/ Water Abroad

Tap water in many countries the water is actually safe to drink. In others sadly it is not. You can find out here… Can I Drink The Water?
Visit this super cool website to find out if you drink the water. Just pick the country you want and read the result.
Yes? Hooray – all you need to take is your refillable bottle. Fill it with tap water and no need to ever buy bottled.

Sterilise Your Own Water
When the tap water is not safe we still don’t buy bottled water. Instead we sterilize tap water using a Steripen. Been doing this for years all over the world.

Refill Abroad

Many countries offer a refill service where you can buy filtered purified water
Find A Refill Service
S.E.Asia Thailand & Malaysia
Phillipines
India
China

More Water Posts

Off Grid?

Make your own water from air. Have a look at this interesting machine. “Our smallest machine, the Water from Air™ AW3 makes up to 32 litres of great tasting, purified water straight from the air. Our largest, scalable machines (WFA100+) make up to 1500 litres per day, per unit – for example, if the need is 6000 litres per day, the configuration will require 4 stackable units.” Visit the web site.

Water Bottles

For both of the above you will need a refillable, reusable bottle. You can get these anywhere

Other Drinks

And if you can’t stand the filthy stuff, check out our our drinks index here

More Travel Tips

Why and how I backpack #plasticfree. Homemade suntan lotion and a steripen are 2 of my favourite on the road  #plasticlessproducts. Rummage in my pack here

N.B.

Lines changes, products get removed. For more information why not ask the Plastic Is Rubbish FB group for updates. They are a great source of tidbits, personal experience and the latest news. Why not join them and share the plastic free love x

And before you go…

If you have found the #plasticfree information useful, please consider supporting us. It all goes to financing the project (read more here) or

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

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Water Refills World Wide

by Posted in 3.1 Disposables & Reusables, 3.2 Travel Tagged , , ,

Find out first

Of course water in many countries the water is actually safe to drink – you can find out where here.

Sterilise Your Own Water
When it’s not we don’t buy water in plastic bottles. NO its just wrong. Instead we sterilize our own water using a Steripen ….

When a bottle refill service is offered we will use that instead.

Find A Refill Service

S.E. Asia Thailand & Malaysia
Phillipines
India
China

Water At Home

The U.K.  is one country lucky enough to have safe drinking water BUT sometimes when you are out and about it can be hard to access tap. These worthy schemes  aim make safe, free, tap water available.


Water Bottles

Check out which water bottle here

 

S.E. Asia – Water Refills

by Posted in 3.2 Outside the U.K. Tagged 1 Comment

When travelling in far flung places we will not buy water in plastic bottles. NO its just wrong. Instead we sterilize our own using a Steripen …. but when a bottle refill service is offered we will use that instead. We want to support and encourage such  fine ventures.

Clean water machines?

One great scheme is these water machines that are popping up in Thailand, Malaysia and maybe other places.

You put your money in, hold your bottle under the tap, fill it up with nice clean water.

 

It’s safe – and cheaper than bottled water.

Malaysia

The Islands

Perhentians

Coral Bay
In Amelia’s restaurant (next to Mamas place – first restaurant on the right of the pier) is a water machine. Put your money in, position your reusable water bottle, press the button and out comes the clean water.

Quiver Divers, Coral Bay

If you diving with these guys you can fill your reusable water bottle with their filtered water.

Mainland

Georgetown (Penang)

There are 3 on Lebuh Chulia (off Love Lane) one next the Reggae Bar another further up on the right, just near the Crystal Guest house and a third opposite the Air Asia Office.

Tanah Rata Cameron Highlands

There is one on the main road which is called the Main Road next to the KFC style fried chicken outlet opposite the bus station.

There is another one at the other end of the street near the clothes shops.

Thailand

Bangkok

Khosan Road – hidden away behind the t shirts and hair braiders there is a clean water machine – its roughly opposite MacDonald’s (catering for the teenage crowd)

There is another near Khosan on a road I don’t know the name of but next to SEX Tattoo (no, I don’t know who that is catering for).

Chang Mai

One machine on a street I don’t know the name of – can anyone help here – but it is down from the pub that does Guinness, pies and football (guessing they are catering for the ex pat crowd), kind of opposite the book shop.

Chang Rai

There are clean water machines in the night market close to the stalls – sorry I cant be more specific but you might be able to tell from the picture.

Jetyod road – look out for the launderette.

If you stay at Jansom House see tripadvisor for more–  you can fill your bottle for free from their machine.

Nan

There is a water machine on Pha Kong Road on the right hand side just  after you cross Mahawong Road – with the Shell Garage behind you  walking towards the night market.

At Nan Guest house you can fill your water bottle for free- if you are staying there and you could do worse.

More

For other water refill points the world over check our big list
More plastic-free travel posts? Try the index
And of course….. how to back pack plastic free

Water cooler

by Posted in 3.1 House, Office & Garden Tagged , 2 Comments

Want to catch up on the gossip round the water cooler but don’t want to drink BPA laced water from a plastic bottle? Then get your boss to buy one of these bottle free models from Quench. Basically it takes your tap water, cleans it and cools it. Keen to seen as green, they list some impressive statistics for resources saved by using one of these and also contribute to a tree planting scheme for each filter sold.

Here’s some highlights their press release…………………

Bottleless water coolers  bottleless drinking water systems also save money, energy and oil. Gone are the days when a bottled water delivery service is the only option for providing drinking water to businesses and corporations.

Did you know that only roughly ten percent of plastic water bottles ever make it to the recycling bin? Not only does going bottleless save oil and energy, but it also cuts down on the massive waste that all those 5-gallon water jugs creates.

We have accounted for the planting of just over four million trees, saved over 200 million gallons of water and prevented over three thousand tons of waste.

By making use of a structure’s built-in water supply, bottleless drinking water systems maximize preexisting resources. The closed-filtration system and ultraviolet sanitization option assures that only the cleanest most hygienic water flows. And our dispensers produce hot, room temperature and cold water with the option of making ice, too.
You can find out more at their website

You can find more plastic free office supplies here

You can make your own safe water with this cool, portable gadget.

 

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Water steriliser – SteriPEN

by Posted in 3.2 Travel Tagged , 8 Comments

Its easy to give up bottled water in England but what of when you are abroad? in countries where the water is not so reliable? India for example.

I have travelled a lot in India and over the years have seen plastic pollution rise to horrific levels. A lot of that plastic rubbish is empty drinking water bottles many of them discarded by tourists. I refuse to drink bottled water because I don’t want to add to the plastic pollution.

But you might also want to consider this;  some of the drinking water bottles in India, claiming to contain purified water have been refilled with tap water. There are recurring reports about this and  it seems to be a fairly common scam. Empty water bottles are collected, refilled with tap water (if you are lucky), and the cap glued back on. To quote from but one source, “You cannot rely on the bottled water available in public places in India, because of the rampant refilling of used bottled water bottles by the racketeers in India.”

So what to do? The steri pen is my solution to that particular problem. Stick the sticky bit in a liter of water – switch on and 90 seconds later the water is safe to drink. Works by UV light.UV light destroys virtually all viruses, bacteria and protozoa. It weighs next to nothing and is tiny.

It kills

Viruses

A virus is a small infectious agent that replicates only inside the living cells of other organisms.

  • Hepatitis

Bacteria

Bacteria are microscopic living organisms, usually one-celled, that can be found everywhere.

  • Campylobacter
  • Cholera –
  • Escherichia coli –E coli
  • Legionella –
  • Salmonella
  • Shigella

Protozoa

Protozoan parasites live in the cells and tissues of other living creatures. Protozoans can cause problems, from targeting the central nervous system to diarrhea.

  • Cryptosporidium
  • Giardia

It Does Not Filter Water

This is not a filtration system. It does not remove  other contaminants such as heavy metals, salts, chlorine or physical dirt. You have to find clear water. I usually use it on tap water or fresh water.

Effective?

I have used it the world over to sterilise tap water and river water.  I had no tummy troubles at all – which was rather a shame as I was depending on a bout of Delhi Belly to help with my weight loss programme.

Charging It Solar, Battery or USB?

You can choose from solar, battery operated or USB rechargeable Steripens. I have tried them all. The solar charger was way to slow and I quickly had to find an alternative. However that was some time ago and things might have improved. The battery powered was the only option available to me when I bought my first PEN. The batteries (CR123) can sometimes be hard to find abroad though of course it very much depends on where you are. On the plus side the batteries do last a long time ( longer than a charge), but they do present disposal problems and it is not always possible to find a safe place to bin them.

This time I went for the rechargeable Freedom PEN which can be charged via a USB port. I am pleased with it. It holds the charge for days though that obviously depends on how much water you sterilise.

Other Benefits

On a long trip it soon pays for itself and then goes on to save you a considerable sum

You never run out of water. You may not be able to buy water or boil it. That’s the time you are glad you got a SteriPEN.

It doesn’t change the taste of the water – which is not always a plus point!

More

You will need a water bottle with a wide neck to accommodate the width of the PEN as it needs to be submerged in water.

It will do 1 or 1/2 a litre of water at a time. Get a bottle that is one or the other. We found half a litre of water each was as much as we needed to carry.  With a PEN we can always sterilise more when needed.

For more information visit the steriPEN site and check out great reviews of the product here and here.

Find out all about refill points, filters and other water related information here.

Buy

You can buy a SteriPEN in the UK  at shops, on line and of course Amazon.

Travel Plasticfree

Here’s the rest of our plastic free travel stuff and useful tips