Bottled water is on the verge of becoming the new social pariah, says an activist leading the charge to ban the packaged beverage.

“One day drinking private plastic bottled water is going to be as uncool as smoking in public or drinking and driving. That is my belief,” says Maude Barlow, national chairperson of the Council of Canadians and the UN’s senior adviser on water.

Bottled water has become the latest environmental battleground as consumers increasingly say goodbye to plastic bags, gas-guzzling vehicles and electricity-gobbling lightbulbs.

Plastics advocates are lashing out against the vote, claiming that such a policy change “wouldn’t lead to any meaningful environmental change.” It sounds more like fear, however — what better place to teach good eco-friendly life habits than in schools? The changes may be few at first, but the lessons taught will, if the the vote passes, likely last a lifetime.

Shops gave out 3.5 billion fewer plastic bags last year under a voluntary scheme which has, for now, headed off the threat of a government ban on free carrier bags. Figures from Wrap, the Government’s anti-waste body, show that the number of plastic bags dispensed fell from 13.4 billion in 2007 to 9.9 billion last year, a drop of 26 per cent.

According to the article, not only was there a 26% drop in dispensing of plastic bags at grocery chains, but the usage of virgin materials for plastic bags was slashed by 40%, indicating a rise in effective recycling coinciding with the reduction. With this overwhelming success, the stores have now set their sights even higher, pledging to reduce bag usage to 50% by May as the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs continues to hold fast to the threat of a plastic bag tax if improved standards are not met.

As disposable bag usage dwindles, Londoners have been relying more and more on cotton and jute reusable bags. With any luck, they are learning a shopping habit that will stay with them for a lifetime, whether the bag tax hammer drops or not.

With all of the anger built up around disposable plastic bags and the hype built up to get them off the market, it isn’t hard to make a leap to the assumption that paper bags are the eco-savvy answer. Not so fast — the production process of paper is, in truth, just as costly and pollutant as plastic, and it’s only getting worse. The big bonus for paper is supposed to be its superior recycling properties, but according to the BBC, its effectiveness is dwindling as prices rise due to a combination of poor technique and crumbling economies in the overseas markets on which we have relied.

At warehouses around the country giant stacks of recycled paper were piled high at the end of 2008 as the global downturn led to a slump in demand.

Much of our “mixed” paper – which could be contaminated with other materials – is shipped to China and the Far East to be recycled in giant mills. But this market suddenly dried up in November and December as China’s economy slowed.

Last September, when recycling prices peaked, a tonne of mixed paper fetched between £65 and £75. But today that has fallen to just £15. Paper that has been separated and is not contaminated peaked at between £90 to £115 a tonne. Now it is worth about £40.

It could mean problems for any councils which have based budgets on the higher prices.

The back-up of resources and dwindling costs have led to very real thoughts about some unsavory methods of alternative deployment to avoid the worst-case scenario:

A spokesman for the Local Government Association (LGA) said in November a quarter of councils had had to find extra storage space for unwanted paper, plastic, glass and metal.

And the economic downturn could force authorities to look at alternative ways of dealing with recycled paper, he said.

“I think we will have to look at all manner of scenarios. We may need to look at incineration of paper.

“What councils want to avoid at all costs is sending [paper] to landfill.”

Incineration is obviously terrible for the atmosphere, but paper left to rot in a landfill has problems of its own, most notably producing twice the atmospheric waste of decaying plastic counterparts. It’s a difficult dilemma, deciding what to do with all this paper already produced and on the planet. But in the meantime, how about getting a reusable bag for your groceries and helping to curb the build-up before it gets even worse?

Photo via Flickr!

The Display Centre in The Avenue, Fareham, is working with Go Green Bags, to help local retailers reduce their use of plastic carrier bags and save money.

The carrier bags hold more than three times as much as a typical supermarket carrier and should last for at least two years.

Available in a range of colours, the fully recyclable and reusable bags are branded with powerful environmentally-friendly messages such as ‘Think Global, Shop Local’. John Freeth, managing director at Go Green, said: ‘The Display Centre is well known to retailers throughout the UK, and we are delighted to be working with them on this campaign to reduce the use of plastic checkout bags.

If this project gains momentum, it could spread to colleges and universities within the next year, so here’s hoping that it catches on. Not a bad plan at all, and one that could make the earth breathe a little easier in the coming season.

Tapirs are adorable! They look like a cross between an aardvark, a wombat, and a pig — and yet, they are most closely related to the horse and the hippopotamus. Who wouldn’t want to own one? Of course, being that they are on the endangered species list, it is a dream that cannot often be fulfilled. Art therapist Rachael Nicholson tried to remedy both situations: crafting a tapir from recycled mesh and scrap metal, she hoped to sell the beautiful and strange piece as part of a London Zoo-based auction to raise funds for worldwide endangered species conservation. Sadly, things did not go to plan.

For the financial squeeze has not spared even the Malayan tapir – one of earth’s oldest creatures and an endangered species reportedly numbering less than 3,000 in the wild.

The tapir in question is, in fact, one of an eclectic bunch of 20 sculptures that was to have gone under an online auction hammer to raise funds for worldwide animal conservation. But with inflation nipping at everyone’s heels, even the most die-hard animal lovers have found it tough to dig into their pockets and bid for the sculptures.

Indeed, the auction estimate of between £300 and £400 (RM19,500 and RM26,000) for the tapir may not be that steep a price to pay for its conservation.

Yet, moving frantically into the “less is more” economy, many Britons are thinking twice about spending money as they brace for what has been warned as a sharp slowdown ahead.

The repurposed-goods tapir is not alone — glass penguins, hubcap sharks, TIRE-rannosaurii, and plastic bag polar bears all lie in languishing wait. Nicholson hopes that turning to private sale may prove more successful for her creation, but (thanks to the global economic crisis facing, well, everyone these days) the outlook is uncertain. The artists themselves aren’t devastated, though: the biggest point was publicity for the animals, and that has most certainly been achieved.

All is not in vain though, for the artists from around Britain, Canada, Norway and Serbia have at least succeeded in raising environmental awareness and demonstrating re-use and recycling.

No doubt Nicholson was a little disappointed that there were no bidders for her tapir sculpture due to the economic crisis.

But she doesn’t really mind as she had done it more to create awareness about the endangered species rather than for the money.

That said, funds definitely would have been nice, and it’s a shame that too many people have to choose between saving animals and supporting sustainable art or saving and sustaining ourselves. Not that global economy is a time-sensitive topic or anything, but hopefully soon enough we’ll be back on track and can do more to help our endangered pals while still staying afloat ourselves.

Photo via Flickr!