Dear editor,
The application to bottle Valley water for sale has generated concern in the community, but the most pressing reason why this is a bad idea seems to have been missed.
The fact is, water bottled in plastic is one of the planet’s biggest problems, and citizens in rich countries with easy access to good tap water are making an outsized contribution to it. Anyone who ventures out to sea these days can see the results of our obsession with plastic – the oceans are floating plastic rubbish tips, and sea life is dying from ingesting it. A recent study confirmed that microplastics are in the air, soil and Arctic ice. Even our drinking water now has microplastics in it.
Why would anyone want to contribute to this?
Disposable glass is not the answer; we can’t keep up with the recycling.
The answer is simply to stop using bottled water for frivolous reasons.
How hard is it to pour tap water into a reusable container to take with you on a camping or bike trip? How difficult to carry a reusable container on an overseas trip? When an advisory is enacted, why is it too hard to boil a pot full of water for one minute to kill bacteria?
Jane Sproull Thomson,
Courtenay
