Buy the movie here: Tapped

What did we pick up off the streets (and keep out of our waterways) this month? Participants found:

Athletic tape, bank deposit envelopes, beer/soda cans, bubble wrap, candy, a CD, chip bags, cigarette packaging, coffee cups, a dust mask, flyers, food wrappers, glass bottles, headphones, a license plate frame, napkins, newspapers, packing material, paper towels, papers, a pizza box, a planter, plastic bags, plastic bottles, plastic cups, plastic utensils, postcards, takeout containers, tissue paper, and wood.

Participants covered a wide area including areas outside of our watershed. We picked up trash in Northwest Philadelphia, Northeast Philadelphia, East Falls, Center City, West Philadelphia, Cheltenham and Plymouth Meeting. Check out all the places we found trash Trash Map!

Go to the 30 Days to Cleaner Streets Trash Map!

By a huge margin, plastic bottles were the most common items found. William Shatner’s “The Transformational Man” CD remains the most unique item found.

Thank you again to all who participated! Don’t forget, you can keep adding to our trash map here. And stay tuned — we’ll be running another 30 Days contest in the future!

From the Philadelphia Streets Department Website:

Recycle All Plastic Containers!

You’ve been recycling plastic containers marked:
#1: Soda, water bottles
#2: Milk jugs, detergents, shampoo bottles

Now you can add:
#3: Rigid plastic containers and juice bottles
#4: Plastic tubs and lids from butter, margarine or similar products
#5: Yogurt containers and deli trays
#6: Plastic cups, plates and to-go containers
#7: Many mixed plastic containers and plastic products

These are just some examples of what you can recycle, so look for the number to make sure.

More info from RecycleNow Philadelphia:

2010 has been a banner year for Philadelphia’s residential recycling program – incentive based recycling was rolled out citywide in July and as of August 1 the City has begun collecting plastics #3 – #7. The change comes as the City recently awarded its recycling processor contract to Waste Management, who is building a LEED certified materials recovery facility (MRF) in Philadelphia.

While the market is strongest for plastics #1 and #2, uses for other plastics are emerging, making their collection viable. The best option is still to reduce the use of plastics and minimize waste, but diverting materials from landfills and incinerators is critical in conserving energy and natural resources and reducing pollution. To differentiate between plastics there is a number on the bottom of the container inside a recycling symbol. The most common recycleable among #3 – #7 plastics are yogurt cups, medicine bottles, bottle caps, take out containers, shampoo and detergent bottles, squeezable food bottles (ex: ketchup or mustard), and plastic packaging.

Plastics that CAN NOT be recycled curbside are plastic bags and dry cleaner bags, pvc pipes, and compostable plastic. For more information on plastics recycling, Earth911.com has developed a “Plastics 101” guide that even lists each different plastic’s reuse. If you have any questions of what can or can not be recycled please email info@recyclenowphilly.org.

What does recycling plastic have to do with the health of our watershed? One of the biggest problems in our creeks is an abundance of trash, especially plastic trash. The more plastic that is recycled properly means (hopefully!) less in our waterways. Thank you to the Philadelphia Streets Department for taking this important step!

The film is thought-provoking and at times, quite disturbing. For example, some people who live near natural gas drilling sites are suddenly able to light their water on fire, straight from the tap. Nearby residents and pets are getting sick,  losing their hair and losing weight. The chemicals used in the fracking process don’t have to be disclosed due to an exemption in the law — and this means that hundreds of unknown (and some well-known and proven unsafe!) chemicals end up in our waterways.

After the screening, filmmaker Josh Fox stayed for a Q-and-A session. In it, he noted that “the culture of convenience is leading us down this path.” It was heartbreaking to hear that we are sacrificing our water quality and air quality in large part to manufacture disposable plastic products.

You can find a screening of Gasland here or catch it on HBO and HBO On Demand. Fox told us there will be a theatrical release in the fall and a big screening in Philadelphia in late September. The DVD will be released in December, but you can watch the trailer here:

The Gasland website includes many ways to take action. The Delaware Valley River Basin Commission will be holding a public meeting regarding the Marcellus Shale next Wednesday, July 14, at 1:00 p.m. at the West Trenton Volunteer Fire Company in West Trenton, NJ. Many citizens will be there to call for a complete moratorium on natural gas drilling in the Delaware River Watershed. For more information, visit Delaware Riverkeeper.

But the movie here: Gasland

Bottled water can be as much as 1,900 times more expensive than municipal drinking water, and it’s not necessarily any safer or cleaner. Plus, researchers have found that producing and transporting bottled water requires up to 2,000 times more energy than tap water.

But the Pennsylvania government still spends your money on bottled water.

Click here to add your name to our petition. Pennsylvania shouldn’t be spending state funds on bottled water for government offices and other non-emergency purposes. It’s a simple, common sense step that saves money and protects the environment. These days, that should be a no-brainer.

This month’s Grid magazine has an article on where Philadelphia residents can recycle plastics #3-7:

Because No. 5 is the next most common plastic (after 1 and 2), Weaver’s Way Co-op (weaversway.coop) collects it—including Brita filters—as part of the “Gimme 5” campaign. Plastics must be clean, dry and clearly stamped with the number 5. Collections take place on the third Saturday of each month at the Co-op’s garage (524 Carpenter Lane), and all the plastics are then shipped to the Gimme 5 processing facility in New York State. The South Street Whole Foods (929 South Street) also collects No. 5 plastics.

The other numbers are trickier. The foam variety of No. 6–Polystyrene and the dreaded No. 7–Other categories are notoriously difficult to recycle. But Recycling Services, Inc. (365 Elm Street, Pottstown, 610-323-8545) takes all comers (numbers 1 through 7), and the facility is open for public collection on Tuesdays and Saturdays (9 a.m. to 1 p.m.). They charge an $8/car gate fee, so consider loading up with your neighbors’ No. 3 through 7s, too, before you head out there.

If you drink a lot of bottled beverages, you can recycle the caps at the Big Green Earth Store (934 South Street) and at Aveda stores throughout the Philadelphia region (the Shops at Liberty Place, Cherry Hill Mall, Willow Grove Park and Exton Square).

And, in addition to recycling plastic, we can just try to use it less — especially when it comes to unnecessary purchases like bottled water!

Here is a great, eight-minute video that explains all of the problems with bottled water. Watch The Story of Bottled Water with Annie Leonard!

Many people quote these same problems as contributing factors in why they decide to purchase and consume bottled water…

I am here to say STOP!  Drinking bottled water is not healthy for you or your environment.

The Philadelphia Water Department (PWD) does a fantastic job of cleaning the water from our rivers, the Delaware and Schuylkill to make it safe for us to drink. Not only are they already doing a fantastic job of keeping our drinking water clean, at each of the three water treatment plants they have test projects to find newer ways to make our water even cleaner. Knowing that, why would you want to pay for something you can get for free out of the tap.

Even more importantly though, bottled water is harmful to your body and our planet. Not only is the water that you buy in a bottle not regulated as strictly as the water that comes out of your tap, your water is absorbing toxic chemicals just by sitting in a plastic bottle.

Here is how the Philadelphia Water Department monitors water quality:

Throughout the water treatment process, our plant technicians analyze the water, monitoring its quality. Supported by the very latest in advanced chemical analysis equipment, our environmental laboratories examine over 12,000 samples of water each year collected from our reservoirs at more than 65 locations across the City. Each sample undergoes an average of five (5) tests to ensure that our customers enjoy safe water, free from contamination.

And here is how the FDA regulates water quality:

FDA monitors and inspects bottled water products and processing plants as part of its general food safety program.  Because FDA’s experience over the years has shown that bottled water has a good safety record, bottled water plants generally are assigned a relatively low priority for inspection…  FDA’s field offices follow up on consumer and trade complaints and other leads, as appropriate, on potentially violative bottled water products… As with other types of food, FDA periodically collects and analyzes samples of bottled water.  Samples come from several different sources.  Some samples are collected during inspections if the inspector’s observations warrant collection to test for contaminants or if the bottled water facility has a previous history of contamination.  Other samples are collected in response to trade or consumer complaints.

Now I ask you, which water do you want to drink?

For more information about why you should TAP INTO TAP WATER watch “Tapped,” a fantastic documentary outlining the real and sometimes scary facts about bottled water.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Beth from Fake Plastic Fish has a great write-up of the segments, with some ideas about working towards a solution:

1) Commit to reduce our own plastic consumption as much as possible.

2) Talk to our family and friends about the problem and set an example that others can follow.

3) Support measures in our communities to ban plastic bags and other single-use packaging.

4) Support Extended Producer Responsibility legislation which would require manufacturers to provide for the entire life cycle of their products and remove the burden from communities and local governments. EPR laws in Europe have proven that when companies have to figure out how to recycle their stuff, they end up using fewer, less toxic materials in the first place.

This issue can seem depressing and overwhelming, but there are things we can do. What other steps can we take? We want to hear from you!