The BETTER WATER campaign connects organizations with existing solutions to reduce the plastic waste generated by plastic water bottles, while at the same time reducing the operational cost of drinking water. One of the methods to achieving this is promoting the adoption of filtered and/or reusable drinking water systems in offices, event spaces and schools.
Corporate offices, conferences & events, and schools are all among highest volume users of bottled water. Adopting a ‘better’ i.e. certified and well-maintained drinking water system, instead of disposable water bottles can be cheaper, less wasteful as well as healthy.
Through this partnership, GI and One Museum Place hope to demonstrate to businesses and office workers in Shanghai the benefits of adopting cleaner, alternative sources of drinking water.
Nitin Dani, Founder & Director of Green Initiatives, said, “Globally, one million plastic bottles are trashed every minute and bottled drinking water is a key contributor to this. As our hunger for convenience grows, the plastic trash that we end up producing to feed this convenience also only further grows.”
Rather than focusing on invoking guilt among consumers, the campaign will focus on the power of collective action and share powerful data on the impact achieved by companies. It will also challenge the widely-held assumption that bottled water is safer and cheaper. In fact, bottled water can be up to 70% more expensive than filtered water or refillable water systems.
In the last 20 years China has become the world’s leading bottled water consumer, according to research from China Water Risk, as more and more consumers in China turn to bottled water out of safety concerns and convenience. The result is that more than one million tonnes of plastic waste is generated by the bottled water industry in China each year, roughly equivalent to one Jinmao Tower of waste.
As if this is not enough, climate scientists around the world have already sent a warning that at the current rate of plastic consumption there may be more plastics in the ocean than fish, by the year 2050.
“The fact is that a solution to address this problem already exists that is neither expensive nor complicated. What's more it can help organizations save operational costs in purchase of drinking water. Through this campaign we hope to spread the message that organizations can make a difference, and that it is simple and affordable. We are delighted to partner with One Museum Place on this campaign,” Nitin further added.
Two short films (“Story of Bottled Water” and “A Plastic Ocean”) were also screened in the event and led to discussions about ways of reducing plastic waste from bottled water consumption in offices, event spaces and schools.
