aquaBUBBLER Drinking Fountains » anti water bottle

Single-use plastic containers big culprit in toxic marine contamination

aqua — Fri, 06 Dec 2013 02:59:36 +0000

Most of us are aware that plastic finding its way in oceans and waterways is a growing ecological problem. Plastics have been found throughout the marine food-chain, in the tissue and digestive tracts of all manner of creatures from whales to tiny aquatic worms.Julia Reisser from the University of WA is studying pollution in Australian waters and has found each square kilometre of seawater carries an average of 4000 pieces of plastic. And it’s not only the plastics themselves that cause problems, but that they attract and concentrate oil-based pollutants in the sea, adding to the toxic load on the unfortunate sea creatures that digest them.

Reisser pin-points single-use plastic containers as being a major source of marine pollution, and encourages efforts to reduce their usage. Yet another reason to ditch the bottled water and soft-drinks, and go tap!

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-28/plastic-polluting-wa-waters/5123062?section=wa

It doesn’t make sense to buy bottled water

aqua — Tue, 29 Oct 2013 04:51:52 +0000

No matter how simple, compelling and logical the message, a dose of humour and ingenuity can really help to make it stick. We’ve been selling the benefits of choosing tap water over bottled water since launching aquaBUBBLER, often working with other interested organisations that share similar goals.

Yarra Valley Water’s Choose Tap Programme is a great example of raising awareness and consumption of tap water through sponsorship, education and community involvement. Travelling to schools, sports and community events with mobile ‘Choose Tap’ drinking fountains and water bottle refill stations, banners, mascots and information resources, this campaign does a great deal to keep the ‘Choose Tap’ message front of mind.

However, marketers of bottled water direct a great deal of skill, and many millions of dollars into positioning their products as being desirable and imparting fashion and status to their consumers, and it can sometimes be perceived that putting out the common-sense message of appropriate hydration – a fundamental human function just like breathing or taking in the sunshine – is maybe a little austere or wowser-ish in comparison.

And this is where the spark of genius lies in Yarra Valley Water’s latest ‘Choose Tap’ campaign. Rather than just pushing the sensible, fiscally and environmentally prudent line, it actively de-constructs bottled water marketing and turns it on its head. The campaign, with a YouTube video and associated parody website, uses a simple analogy to show the buyer of bottled water to be a ‘dupe’, conned into paying many hundreds of times the price they might pay for quality water from the tap.

It’s fun and, in my opinion, really cuts through. Being sensible and responsible by choosing tap is, of course, an excellent thing; but being seen as a hapless dupe for buying ridiculously over-priced and over-packaged bottled water will resonate with an entirely different audience.

Kudos, Yarra Valley Water, from the team at aquaBUBBLER.

Doing their bit!

aqua — Tue, 23 Jul 2013 04:39:11 +0000

“Sustainability,” “Organic” and “Environmentally Friendly” are important words and concepts that we increasingly notice as we go about our daily lives.

At aquaBUBBLER we also love coming across the words “do our bit” – especially when used in relation to saving water and looking after the environment.

That’s why the following plaque grabbed our attention when we recently passed through the Gold Coast Airport in Queensland:

Signs that Gold Coast Airport are doing their bit.

Airports are not necessarily the first places that come to mind when we think about sustainability and environmental restraint – all those travel miles, expensive fuel & pollution.

But a bit of imagination and ingenuity from those in charge at the airport has resulted in the harnessing of rainwater from the extensive roof area to recycle through the public toilet/amenities.

aquaBUBBLER celebrates clever, practical use of environmental resources. Bravo Gold Coast Airport!

aquaBUBBLER is proud to be a prize partner of Cool Australia’s ENVIROWEEK.

aqua — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 00:15:55 +0000

ENVIROWEEK is all about young Australians taking positive action to raise awareness for a sustainable future.

From August 25-31 schools, classes, and individual students are taking up the green challenge. There’s a “Green Thumb” challenge to plant a veggie patch, a “Shopper Challenge” to resist buying anything new for a week ,and a “Sparky” challenge to save energy.

Our favourite is the Go Tap challenge – swapping all bottled and canned drinks for refreshing and healthy tap water!

There are competitions and prizes – an Eco-Fundraiser competition and a Creator competition. And best of all you could win an aquaBUBBLER with water bottle refill station. For more details see http://www.enviroweek.org/.

Same message, different format

aqua — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 02:45:38 +0000

Bottled water is not a good thing. (We may have mentioned this before!)

There are literally hundreds, probably thousands, of websites that can tell you why.

Having read a fair few of them, we enjoy sharing with you some of the lesser known facts about the evils bottled water (read our other blogs on the topic here). And we also have lots of links on our links and resources if you’re looking for even more information.

We thought this video was worth sharing too.

It’s another great summary of many of the reasons why bottled water should be well and truly avoided, and it’s very watchable.

It goes for about 8 minutes, so strike a comfy pose, prepare to be entertained, and listen up!