The Guardian Climate Change Conference review is turning into something of a magnum opus, so I am revisiting, adding and editing to do it justice, so it may be a wee while in arriving.So, by way of an interlude, I thought I'd share this.
One of the more relevant, useful... and welcome... additions to the delegate goodie bag was bottle of belu water.
Now, if instead of a near free, and just as good glass of tap I have to go for a bottle, I can't really think of any more deserving brand. Because its packaging is also a wee bit better than most others, too.
But... and it's a... nah.. let's make it just a niggle.
In light of my recent labelling ponderings, what with all and sundry doing all from just discussing to already jumping the entire armoury, I have to say I looked at my bottle and thought: 'what the heck does that mean?'.
Because, with the promise of food mile traffic lights, charts and all manner of other money-wasting nonsense yet to come from a doubtless wildly diverse collection of directions, I can now already add 'No Global Warming - Penguin Approved'. While one word may well make it technically accurate that this the 'first carbon neutral BOTTLED water and does not melt the ice caps (actually... I think they may struggle with justifying that second half. It probably melts them less quickly than the rest, but getting it up, in, out, back and down from production to compost does, I suspect, have a carbon consequence), I have no clue what that means.
And I rather suspect that, along with a load of meaningless other icons and initiatives yet to come, we will simply end up with more guff on the shelves for us to ignore.
2 comments:
Peter,
I think that's just a little on the harsh side. Belu are, I think, the first to provide bottles in biodegradeable plastics made from corn starch polymers. Agreed, they will consume some energy in manufacture, production and transport etc., hence I am largely in agreement with your hesitation on the 'carbon neutral' claim. However, the fact that they can be composted back down into something that can be returned into the earth whence its source materials came surely has to be counted as a, well, at least a slightly positive step forward? And for sure when compared to the equivalent manufacture of PET polymer bottles made from entirely non renewable petroleum based sources.
Surely 'Earth, manufacture, usage and back to Earth' has to be better than 'Earth, manufacture, usage and disposal to a permanent rubbish dump'?
Harsh.... moi?
I do believe that I was rather glowing in my support of just about every aspect of what they represent in the genre, from water up to and including the packaging. So if you do need your H20 in a bit of plastic instead of a tap, then I can't think of any better. And, in comparison to all else, probably streets ahead and a very definite 'better than nothing'.
In fact, all that was rather in passing.
My niggle, and the main point, was about labelling. And I'm afraid a whole screed of guff about penguin-approved, on top of what we may be yet to get further mandated to help save us from ourselves by way of pack-side info, still seems to me erring on being a triumph of marketing over any actual useful communication.
But then, maybe one is just harder on those you love, wish more of... and for.
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