The Story of Bottled Water

The Story of Bottled Water employs the Story of Stuff style to tell the story of manufactured demand—how you get Americans to buy more than half a billion bottles of water every week when it already flows from the tap. Over five minutes, the film explores the bottled water industry's attacks on tap water and its use of seductive, environmental-themed advertising to cover up the mountains of plastic waste it produces. The film concludes with a call to take back the tap, not only by making a personal commitment to avoid bottled water, but by supporting investments in clean, available tap water for all.

Our production partners on the bottled water film include five leading sustainability groups: Corporate Accountability International, Environmental Working Group, Food & Water Watch, Pacific Institute, and Polaris Institute.

And, for all you fact checkers out there, http://storyofstuff.org/pdfs/StoryOfBottledWater_pdfs.zip

Have a Fling

"Flings" are the NEW pop up recycling containers that you can take with you just about anywhere. Melissa McGinnis from Greenopolis TV shows us how recycling just got a lot easier and portable.

Devices use power even when turned off

Are you always getting on your family to turn off lights or the TV when not in use? We can all reduce our waste and energy use with very little effort, and significantly help our environment.

How To Precycle

Recycling’s great, but go even greener by precycling as well, and create less waste to recycle in the first place.

You Will Need

• Reusable bags and containers
• A thermos
• Cloth towels and napkins
• A computer with internet access
• Houseplants or potpourri
• Cloth wrap and bags
• Vinegar and baking soda

Step 1: Think ahead

Bring reusable sacks and containers to the supermarket to carry your items in the cart, rather than using the clear plastic bags that stores provide. When checking out, place all your purchases into reusable bags.

Step 2: Eat, drink, and be practical

Take a thermos to the cafe, or fill it at home; pack a lunch in a box or insulated sack instead of a paper or plastic bag; drink tap water instead of bottled; and buy fresh foods rather than prepackaged. Carry cloth handkerchiefs, and ask take-out joints to hold the plastic cutlery, individual condiment servings, and paper napkins.

Step 3: Go digital

Set up your bills for auto pay. You’ll cut out excess mail and avoid late fees. Read online editions of newspapers and magazines, which are often free and feature additional multimedia content. To prevent unwanted catalogs or junk mail, request to be removed from the company’s mailing list.

For a $1 fee, the Direct Marketing Association’s mail preference service will take you off the mailing lists of many large companies for five years.

Step 4: Cut out single-use products

Avoid buying single- or limited-use products, such as disposable diapers, cleansing face wipes, and razors.

Step 5: Precycle on the job

At work, think twice before printing out emails or documents. Double-sided copies also reduce paper consumption. Posting employee manuals and memos online creates less paper waste and makes the documents easier to update.

Step 6: Clean more with less

Use concentrated dish and laundry detergents, which pack more cleaning power into less packaging.

Step 7: Scent your home naturally

Fill your home with the natural scent of houseplants or potpourri instead of using store-bought air fresheners, especially ones with disposable cartridges.

You can use white vinegar and baking soda – which come with less packaging than conventional cleaning products – to clean just about anything. Use undiluted white household vinegar or a paste of baking soda mixed with water.

Step 8: Don't trash gift wrap

Avoid excess garbage when gift-giving by wrapping presents in reusable cloth or cloth bags. Often, the best gifts need no wrapping at all.

It takes nearly 1.5 million barrels of oil to produce the 30 million water bottles Americans use annually.

Dive! Trailer

HTTP://WWW.DIVETHEFILM.COM

Winner at 21 Film Festivals Worldwide

Follow Jeremy Seifert and his circle of friends as they dumpster dive in the back alleys and gated garbage receptacles of L.A.'s supermarkets. In the process they uncover thousands of dollars worth of good food and an ugly truth about waste in America: grocery stores know they are wasting and most refuse to do anything about it. Contact us at www.divethefilm.com to set up a screening and get involved in the EAT TRASH Campaign for Zero Waste!
Trailer by Chris Settlemoir, music by Timothy Vatterott

Don't know what to recycle? This app can help

Have you ever wondered what things you can cand cannot recycle? Here's an app to help you get rid of the things you don't need the right way and without harming the environment.

Scientist Discovers New Use for Industrial Fly Ash

A new coal waste product is being mixed with magnesium and aluminum to create a lightweight, yet strong substitute for heavy metal products, like certain car parts. Dr. Nikhil Gupta from New York University's Polytechnic Institute believes the material could also be used to reduce the weight of everyday structures like park benches and lamp posts.

The Story of Electronics

The Story of Electronics employs the Story of Stuff style to explore the high-tech revolution's collateral damage -- 6 billion tons of e-waste and counting, poisoned workers, and a public left holding the bill. Host Annie Leonard takes viewers from the mines and factories where our gadgets begin to the horrific backyard recycling shops in China where many end up. The film concludes with a call for a green 'race to the top' where designers compete to make long-lasting, toxic-free products that are fully and easily recyclable.

Is Human Waste the New Coal?

Dean Kamen visits a power plant that is taking human excrement and turning it in to a burnable fuel supply with 66% more power per ounce than coal! The manufacturing process takes a day as opposed to centuries.  If all the waste treatment facilities in America made e-fuel, we would reduce carbon emissions by an astonishing 6.5 million tons a year.  That's the equivalent of taking more than a million cars off the road.

Top 5 Ways to Reduce Waste: Green Your Mail

Join Green enthusiast, Jane Graves, and the founder of Practically Green, Susan Hunt Stevens, in this informative discussion on the best ways to reduce waste and lead a greener, more sustainable life! In this section Susan shares some great tips on how to green your mail!


Electronic Waste in Ghana

Ghana is the latest place where we have discovered high tech toxic trash causing horrendous pollution. Our analysis of samples taken from two electronic waste (e-waste) scrap yards in Ghana has revealed severe contamination with hazardous chemicals.

E-Waste: Dumping on the Poor

Asia Society's multimedia look at electronic waste shipped overseas and the toxic effect it has on places such as Guiyu, China--known as "trash town." With an interview with Michael Zhao of the Center on US-China Relations at Asia Society.