Forgot your reusable water bottle — and got so thirsty you wasted money on FIJI water? Turn that eco faux pas into valuable environmental research by saving the bottle — and joining Environmental Working Group’s 2009 Bottled Water Label Scavenger Hunt. You could win a snazzy stainless steel water bottle to prevent such faux pas in the future!
The skinny behind the scavenger hunt: Eco-nonprofit EWG’s doing some research on bottled water, which as you may have heard, often contain scary pollutants AND could be leaching estrogen-mimicking compounds from their plastic containers to boot. Despite those dirty findings, many water bottles boast labels that promise the purest, cleanest of water from some faraway untouched source.
Are those promises true? That’s what EWG wants to find out. To help, just follow these 3 steps:
1. The next time you need to buy a bottle of water (even we EWG’ers sometimes forget our reusable bottle) choose a non-sparkling, unflavored water bottled in glass or clear plastic.
2. Carefully remove the entire label from the bottle. We need all the information from the label, so if necessary, cut the plastic around the label to get it all off.
3. Write down:
* the name and location of the store where you purchased the water
* the date you purchased the water
* your name, email and mailing address4. Mail your labels and other information to:
Environmental Working Group
Attn: Nneka Leiba
1436 U St. NW, Suite 100
Washington, DC 20009
Everyone who sends in a label get a Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides magnet — and whoever sends in the most labels (no duplicates!) by June 15 gets an EWG-logo’d stainless steel water bottle and reusable grocery tote printed with EWG’s pollution solutions tips.
Earlier:
>> 10 reasons to ditch the bottled water habit!
>> Film review: FLOW — Make clean water a human right
>> Take back the tap, avoid new taxes
>> Making disposable water bottles useful: From jewelry to eco-art
Photo by Muffet
Does it have to be bottled water that you purchased? My husband is a runner and recently got a couple bottles of water at the end of the race.
Condo Blues’s last blog post..Can You Recycle Concrete?
Comment by Condo Blues — May 26, 2009 @ 2:25 pm
I’m not sure — I’ll ask!
Comment by Siel — May 26, 2009 @ 3:13 pm
EWG had one of these collections last year & the requirement for info on where the bottle was purchased w/ date is new, so I am assuming it is important.
I won one of the bottle/bag combos last year, but I secretly wonder if I messed up their data collection since I sent in a ton of labels that I collected from bottles from the LA Marathon, which is to say I have no idea where the bottles came from.
Comment by M — May 26, 2009 @ 3:38 pm
Am I missing something? Why are they rewarding people for buying the MOST bottled water? Shouldn’t it be just a random drawing to STOP people from buying bottled water?
Comment by Emma — May 26, 2009 @ 5:21 pm
M is right — Buying is important. Says EWG via a tweet: “Yes, need to buy it b/c we need to know date & location of purchase (due to new 1/09 law in CA & gen’l good data collection)”
Emma — You’re right, it is kinda funny, because it’s a don’t do it! But if you do, it’d really help us out! :P It’s like abstinence-only ed with rewards for using condoms.
Ok it’s not like abstinence-only ed b/c that doesn’t work but not buying plastic bottles does…. I still think there’s an analogy in there somewhere but it’s just not clear to me right now.
Comment by Siel — May 27, 2009 @ 11:47 am
Hi from EWG! Thanks all for your interest in our “scavenger hunt” for labels – and our effort to assess labeling info.
We certainly understand the conflict here and have as you note recommended that people not buy bottled water for a host of reasons (http://www.ewg.org/reports/bottledwater).
That said, we do need current labels (with purchase date & store name/location noted) to do this research; hopefully people will send in labels from bottles that they were already going to buy – perhaps they were on a trip and forgot their stainless water bottle :-)
Again, thanks for your interest, willingness to assist us, and general support of EWG!
Comment by LisaatEWG — May 28, 2009 @ 8:22 am