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Let Them Drink Sparkling Water! | The Expeditioner Travel Site

Let Them Drink Sparkling Water!

Friday, September 24, 2010

Today, I am in wonder of the world. In a good way.

I saw an article in a newspaper at work. I had to sit down a minute and really think about what it was that shook me. The headline read: “Paris Introduces Sparkling Water Fountains.” I then found a similar article in the Guardian.

My first reaction was, mmm, delicious. I like sparkling water because it is the salty, boring version of sweet sodas. My second thought was: why was I taken with this article? I read on. In France, the people drink a lot of the fizzy stuff. Perhaps it’s a cultural thing, but whatever it is, the waste produced from the consumption needed to be addressed (262,000 tons of plastic waste in 2009 alone).

Then, someone with half a brain knew that to address the problem, they needed to take the bottle away in a way without possibly sparking a revolution. So, to “wean” the people from their wasteful bottles, Eau de Paris (the city’s water supplier) injected carbon dioxide into a public water fountain, with the hopes to do the same to future fountains in an effort to do away with plastic. In Paris, the people know what they like and are proud of it.

In North America, we like bottled water: Perrier, San Pelligrino, carbonated, mineral, Smart, Vitamin, etc . . . We have a lot to choose from for many reasons. The options are wonderful to think about; the plastic waste, not so much.

By Brit Weaver

TheExpeditioner

About the Author
britweaver

Toronto born and based, Brit is an avid leisure cyclist, coffee drinker and under-a-tree park-ist. She often finds herself meandering foreign cities looking for street eats to nibble, trees to climb, a patch of grass to sit on, or a small bookstore to sift through. You can find her musing life on her personal blog, TheBubblesAreDead.wordpress.com.

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