Reflecting today's health-conscious trend, many office workers are switching from drinking canned coffee or soft drinks to mineral water in bottles made from polyethylene terephthalate, or PET. Especially among women, drinking mineral water is becoming fashionable. On TV and in magazines, popular female models pose with bottles of mineral water in their hands, proclaiming the habit to be natural. Mineral water is causing controversy, however. The mineral water sold in PET bottles is actually playing a major role in the destruction of the environment.
Mineral water is usually sold in disposable PET bottles, which are made from petroleum oil. More than 17 million barrels of crude oil are used in order to produce the 29 billion PET drinking water bottles required for annual consumption in the U.S. In addition, water sources are drying up due to the mineral water being pumped out of the ground, while the transportation of mineral water requires a considerable amount of energy because of its weight and volume. This "mineral water mileage," as opposed to "food mileage," is not easy to ignore.
As the global market for bottled drinking water has now grown into a 55 billion dollar business, concerns over its ecological burden are on the increase. Many locales are seeing moves to boycott bottled water and drink tap water in its place. Some ecologically-conscious restaurants overseas have stopped serving mineral water and cities in the U.S. and Europe are eliminating budgets for bottled water and encouraging the broader use of tap water.
In France, the birthplace of bottled water, there was a campaign to promote the use of tap water in 2005 and the mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoë, who is famous for conducting various reforms, is calling for the use of tap water at public events. In the U.K., both the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Treasury have stopped serving bottled water.
Regrettably there are no such official moves in Japan as of yet. According to a survey conducted on "Water and the Consciousness of People in Modern Society" by Japan Aqua Clara Inc., however, 48.1% of people feel guilty about using PET bottles as water containers. Still, of the 30.3% of people who recently stopped purchasing mineral water, 46.4% cited high prices as the reason. Japanese consumers have complex feelings about purchasing bottled water.
Although the quality of tap water in Tokyo is said to have improved, many people feel strongly about drinking tap water directly out of the tap. Water purifying systems can be installed at home, but what about when one is outside the home or at the office? Do we have to rely on water in PET bottles? That is where portable water purifying pot "OFFICE ROKA" comes in. It enables you to drink tasty water easily, safely and economically and is currently attracting much attention. It has a fashionable design that makes it look like an ordinary coffee tumbler, but the cartridge-type water purifying filter installed in the center of the pot removes residual chlorine, soluble lead and trihalomethanes in just four minutes. You can drink purified water anywhere there is tap water.
According to the manufacturer and distributer of the pot, Kai Corporation, sales have increased tenfold mainly among women working in offices since the product was introduced into the market in the spring of 2007. Recently, an increasing number of people are taking OFFICE ROKA with them when out for a drive, at the gym or for any outing. The filter will last for two months when used for a liter of water a day, which costs the equivalent of approximately 12 yen a liter, making it not only environmentally-friendly but also easy on your wallet. Above all, its stylish design and slim body are likely the secrets of its popularity among office workers and women who want to be ECO-fashionable. You can also use it as an ordinary coffee tumbler when the inner case is removed, eliminating the need for a second tumbler.
Drinking water instead of soft drinks or canned coffee is essential to staying healthy, but is it still considered a healthy habit if doing so significantly damages the environment? Staying healthy using a method that is environmentally-friendly, easy on the wallet and even fashionable, like OFFICE ROKA, might be a good idea.
