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Bear a plastic water bottle to your own hazard; the pressure of social belief is turning away from you. From popular rating documentaries, to papers and political campaigns, the hot news around is the terror of bottled water and the waste the industry demonstrates.

The production, moving and removal of water in petrochemical plastic bottles eats up large waste of water alongside energy, and produces ridiculous amounts of greenhouse gases and waste.

Director of the recent documentary ‘Tapped: get off the bottle’ Stephanie Soechtig claims “1500 water bottles end up in landfill every second – that’s 30 million water bottles a day! We wanted to show people just how much waste is generated by bottled water.” The people behind Tapped are pushing the movie with their across-America roadshow, asking donations from donors to take down their water bottle waste and taking their used plastic water bottle in exchange for a reusable stainless steel bottle. Download Tapped from Amazon or iTunes.

A short film ‘The Story of Bottled Water’ was released on World Water Day in March. By Annie Leonard of the well-received ‘The Story of Stuff’, this film displays the methodology that amounts to tricking Americans into wasting more than hundreds of millions of bottles of water every week, compared with a few cents cost for a drink from the tap. Look up this short film on You Tube.

Through her book ‘Bottlemania’, investigator Elizabeth Royte chronicles one of the monumental marketing tricks of this century and gives a strong environmental wakeup call. She details the problems we must inevitably answer to. Who appropriates the water supply? What happens when a bottled-water business seizes your town’s source? Is the water that comes out of your tap entirely safe? What is the environmental factor of production, transporting and waste of a single plastic water bottle?

Politicians from all around the world are acknowledging that they must take responsibility for action – notably when the meetings in which they debate are major consumers of bottled water. How often do we observe a politician in a press conference drinking from a water bottle. They can find a water glass in Parliament House.

Leslie Samuelrich of Corporate Accountability International, said “Cities and states are spending hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars on bottled water, and that’s not to mention what’s spent to deal with all the plastic bottles that are thrown out.”

In July 2009, the NSW rural town of Bundanoon became the first group in Australia to stop the selling of bottled water. Around 60 townships in the American states and a handful of places in Canada and the United Kingdom have at this point stopped expending taxpayer dollars on bottled water.

It is doubtless that this dilemma will be brought to the table at World Water Week 2010 from September 5 to 11 in Stockholm, Sweden, the annual meeting for the world’s most current water-related issues.

Article written by Tracey Bailey, founder of Biome Eco Stores.

You are doing the right thing for the planet by filling up at home and carrying a reusable water bottle and you’ve chosen a safe, non-toxic bottle-but if it’s not kept clean then it may not be healthy.

Whether your drink bottle is a stainless steel bottle, SIGG bottle or a BPA free plastic water bottle, it is important to stop mould and other deposits forming in the bottle.

Wash your drink bottles with warm, soapy water at the end of every day and let the bottle air dry upside down with the top off every day where possible.

Should any mineral deposits or lime scale form inside, fill your clean water bottle with Distilled White Vinegar and let it soak for 24 hours. Then rinse with warm water mixed with one tablespoon of bicarbonate of soda (baking soda), rinse out and let dry. Spots inside the bottle that look like “corrosion” are most likely a mineral deposit.

Fill your bottle with filtered water wherever possible. It tastes so much better, but also because water contains different minerals in every area this may affect what happens inside your bottle.

Do not allow liquids such as fruit juice to ferment inside the bottle.

With all reusable water bottles you can also try SIGG cleaning tablets and a specially-designed SIGG bottle cleaning brush, or simply a baby bottle brush. Only ever use a soft brush on aluminium bottles with lining like SIGG so as not to damage the lining. Stainless steel water bottles like Klean Kanteen and Nathan can handle a hard brush.

While all bottles are technically dishwasher-safe, it is recommended to not put them in a dishwasher. Most dishwasher powders are caustic, so they will eat into the metal of your bottle and damage the exterior pattern. Bottle tops should also not be put in the dishwasher because extreme heat expands and deteriorates the plastic.

Never freeze metal bottles as metal can split even with only a little water inside. Water does not always expand in a predictable direction! Freezing plastic water bottles is also not advisable because it may cause the plastic to breakdown and toxins to leach. It is fine to place your bottle in the refrigerator.

Tips on cleaning your water bottle brought to you by Biome Eco Stores Australia.