Hotels and bottled water - cutting down on waste

Why don't more hotels provide refillable, reusable plastic bottles? Hilton hotels in Finland do. So does Novotel Century Hong Kong.

When good turns to evil. Charity bags polluting Melbourne's waterways. Rant No 2: The curse of bottled water.

How festive, charity bags festoon the trees, Glen Waverley.

Scotchman's Creek, in Melbourne's south-east, after a heavy shower

Almost weekly you get a plastic charity bag in your letterbox (for your old clothes, shoes, homewares ready for later collection). All well and good, but the majority of the empty bags end up drifting into the gutters, into the stormwater and hence into the urban waterways. Melbourne's creeks and streams flow into the waterways like the Yarra River or straight into Port Phillip Bay.
The plastic mess is supplemented by plastics bottles and polystyrene (caused by morons overpacking or incorrectly filling home recycling bins).
Why people buy bottled water in the first place, is a mystery to me. Melbourne's drinking water is excellent (and free). But you see people with supermarket trolleys filled with cases of bottled water (it's Australia, not China, for crying out loud).
Well, there's my rant for today.

Ikea : Saving the Planet??? Bottled water bullshit

Ikea Australia sent me an email this week telling me they were replacing free coffee/tea in their restaurants with 50% off bottled water, "better for you, better for the planet". What crap. Australian tap water is fine to drink (especially Melbourne water).
How irresponsible for a so-called environmentally-friendly multinational company to promote bottled water.
"Better for the planet"
.... better for landfills and clogged waterways? What a waste of money and resources.

Okay, Ikea, if you want to pull the free coffee, okay, but don't clothe it in fake 'green' credentials.

Melbourne Water catchment area, 5 km from Ikea Springvale

Ten things that piss me off at the moment

Apart from Australia's destructive federal government (of course)

1. Facebook dependency and self-indulgent photos of their kids.
2. People who buy bottled water in Australia, particularly in the eastern states. Melbourne's tap water is of a high standard. It's disheartening to see empty plastic bottles dropped everywhere - ending up in stormwater drains and ultimately our waterways/oceans.
3. Wankers walking around with their coffees in disposable containers that end up in the street, bus stops, waterways. Here's an idea, you love walking around with your cups of java, well... WALK to the f*cking bin with it.
4. Parents in the supermarket who hold up a cereal, biscuit packet, etc and ask their young ones sitting or hanging off the trolley, "Would you like this?" "How about this one?" Don't pander to the kid, don't give 'em a choice for God's sake, just buy the generic/cheapest brand or the healthiest one. Too many choices, kids want/need structure in their life not more decision making.
5. Idiot parents who don't get their kids vaccinated.
6. "Maccas" ...let's face it, it's a global monolith, nothing Australian about it, call it McDonalds, don't patronise me.
7. People drop junk takeaway wrappers from their cars (see No.6).
8. People using their smartphones, who are not smart enough to walk around me when in a busy street.
9. Smokers who think their butts aren't classified as rubbish so they stub them out/drop them anywhere. Smokers in general.
10. Dog shit... the latest thing to do in my park is for owners to bag up their dog's poo, then later turf the plastic bag in the bushes. Plastic is probably more harmful to the waterways than dog crap. Go figure.

I drank Bali tap water and survived...

I refilled a 600 ml mineral bottle with tap water (to test the seal - it's a long story that involves transporting duty free vodka on a domestic flight). Anyway we took the wrong bottle to the pool and drank about half before we realised. Tasted okay, looked clear.

It's been 24 hours and no after effects. I wouldn't make a habit out of it, though. We have travelled in Asia, Africa, South America for 30 years and have always boiled tap water for coffee/tea or making ice cubes (when desperate). Good quality hotels use purified water for their ice. Bottled water is cheap, anyway. 

Things I really miss...

• my much loved Tin Tin tee-shirts,Thailand circa 1990 (getting a bit ragged around the collar), turned into cushions by my other half. They look good, but ....
• Windows XP (thank God my old laptop still has it, Windows 8 is an acquired taste)
• Watching Bill Collins give his rapturous spiel on "The Golden Years of Hollywood" before each movie.
• When kids brought a box of coloured pencils and building blocks to gran and pop's place (rather than an i-pod or mum's smartphone to play with).
• plastic bags that open easily
• Watching black and white movies on free-to-air television
• Reading to my daughter at bedtime
• W-i-d-e  seats in Business Class
• In Australia, the only bottled water for sale was Mineral, Soda or Tonic Water. Buying drinking water in Australia is a ludicrous waste of money and resources. Don't get me started about the litter.
• Groceries being packed in brown paper bags.
• Going to the cinema when people were considerate and .... silent.

• This is a work in progress....