"I'm not Plastic"
This is what made me take a second look at these plastic looking sports water bottles in the same market I found the crickets and mealworms. No, it's not the design that made me take notice of them but that caption saying; "I'm not plastic".
As it obviously reflects on the many blogs I already wrote here, I'm a nature lover and a planet Earth loyalist. It doesn't mean I'm not open to operation Mars. I'm keeping myself updated about that, too and just so you know, a lot of those testings are happening in the Wageningen University which is half an hour away from us. They've managed to grow potatoes and other crops in a Mars soil prototype they've created so maybe - in due time there would be a planet B.
However, right now, we're all living on Earth, this is my home, my planet, my concern so I joined and support many organizations that help keep the environment well protected. One of them is Greenpeace just because I love bees and Green Peace Netherlands is focused on propagating bees and every year, they inform us about progress or decline on bees. This year, there were more bees as early as early spring and as late as last week. Their project is paying off.
Aside from Green Peace, I also support The Sea Shepherd who campaigns stopping whaling. Now, don't get me wrong, I don't hate the Faroese nor any other whalers. I don't like hating. I support the Sea - Shepherd because they dare go to the deep of the sea to help stop whaling and risk getting hurt or worse drowning and getting arrested for this. Plus I love those sea creatures they are fighting for ~~ so there.
I support those groups and the many other environment help organizations because of one goal. Someone has to initiate and take big steps to saving the planet. I can't go away from home and I am not a fan of sea travel as I get very easily seasick but they braved themselves and do so. We could only support.
We do not necessarily all have to support financially or go brave the deep sea waters to save planet Earth, we could all start taking small actions that would create big impacts to the environment at the same time give ourselves personal benefits. So when I saw that each of these water bottles says; "I'm not plastic", really turned my head. I got intrigued.
Curious, I asked the woman selling what's it made of then but didn't get an answer. I've decided to just check out the site. Turned out that these bottles and the other environment friendly products that they are selling are all inspired by the fact that the Netherlands has something to do with water. Yes, every thing has something to do with water here. The Dutch are water geniuses, they control water - not just a glass of it - a whole ocean, seas and rivers. They've managed water flow and can you imagine living in a country that is declared below sea level of water yet, it's not sinking and even growing year after year?
That's the magic the Dutch created. On my first year here, I had to learn how to swim in case it floods big deal. Do you also know that any faucet you could see here, even in the bathroom as long as there's no molds nor rust on it - have clean water for drinking? Water is freaking cheap here. The Dutch have made it that way because water is very important. We could live without food but never without water. The Dutch have made water affordable for everybody here.
The creator of these "I'm not plastic" water bottles were inspired by the habits of bringing their own bottled water everywhere the Dutch go. Oh yes, we do this. Why? Because it's very important to stay hydrated. However, most water bottles here are made of plastic like those in the Philippines and it's sad that specially in summer, they sometimes end up in water sewers, meer, lakes and even the beaches when those places flock with swimmers or sunbathers.
In the Philippines, our sewers are mostly clogged and its plastic trash that causes that the most. An hour drizzle would automatically cause a puddle or an ankle - leveled flooding specially in big cities. If this happens in the Netherlands, we'd surely sink in because we're below sea level. The Dutch came up with projects intended to help water and water creatures plastic free. This "I'm not plastic" sport bottles support that purpose.
Those sport water bottles above are actually made of sugar cane. Yes, I was also surprised as you probably are.
It's the first bio-based sport water bottle in the World and so an article worth writing about. It's food safe, recyclable and most of all bio-degradable.
How cool is that? If this accidentally get thrown in the water, it would not cause much harm except if any water creature swallows it and get choked.
The best part about this is that its BPA free. BPA is bisphenol A, a chemical used to make plastic and could seep in to your food or water or juices you put in a plastic container.
I checked the users manual at the back and its written in Dutch but it says;
Wash both water and lid properly before use.
Dry both separately.
Dishwasher safe till 40 degree celcius.
Use for cold drinks only.
These ones however are the thermos for the hot drinks. These ones are made from Polylactic acid from corn.
I thought of writing about all of this because some of you guys are coming over here. Perhaps you'd give it a thought to support and spread their slogan which says;
LOVE WATER, LEAVE PLASTIC.
They're hoping that sooner, the world would start using more of the bio plastic made products using PLA than plastic. PLA stands for Polylactic acid. It is made of 100 percent vegetable starch extract materials like sugarcane and corn. It is thus, compostable. Environment friendly!
This jute bag says; "I'm not using plastic bags . That adds to the consciousness campaign. I pulled one out from the pile to take a good look and they look like abaka - in the Philippines. It's a certain plant we use there in making thick strong biodegradable ropes for pulleys that could actually carry a load of betons. This bag looks pretty durable and it actually has columns inside which is handy for fitting all your bottles and other food to carry on the way, in it. It cost € 3,19 but hey, each plastic bag costs € 0.10 cents here and we can't really re-use them much - this one looks more promising to last for years.
These are the only designs I saw out there but when I checked out their site, I saw other jute bags that could be customized for any client with two smiling meerkats on it, a lion's head, ocean, tulper and a tulip mark and one that says; "Creating Heroes."
And so I thought that day, wow, there's hope for the earth to be plastic free. It's starting now through these bottles and sooner or later we would all find a way to repair instead of destroying planet Earth. And so what can an Earth lover like me do but spread the word.
sources:
TULPER
The Dutch boy mopping up a sea of plastic
What is BPA, and what are the concerns about BPA?
More plastic than fish in the sea by 2050, says Ellen MacArthur
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