No Bottle No Problem

" By 2050, there will be more plastic in our oceans than fish". Estimates like these make me cringe, and make me wonder, why people are so reluctant to change their habits only a little. Why is it so difficult for many to give up plastic bags or bottles for the greater good? And how can people not see that giving up plastic will also benefit their own health? Thinking about this I often get very frustrated.  Luckily, there are many young and motivated people which know which consequences our current behaviour will pose for our ecosystems. This great video gives impressions on the current state of our oceans! It's time to become active and be part of positive change. Leave your mark here: Take the Parley AIR pledge - Avoid, Intercept and Redesign. You have great ideas and are eager to collaborate with those that share the passion of saving the oceans? Join the movement, become part of the Parley Team and make your mark for the oceans: https://a...

Some of single use water bottles' most damaging effects occur before they actually exist - while they are still being made. They require an enormous amount of resources to product, and their byproducts are harmful for mother earth. Plastic bottles are made from a petroleum product known as a polyethylene terephthalate (PET), and they require terrifying amounts of fossil fuels to both make and transport them, including oil.  The amount of oil that is required to make one plastic bottle is as much as 25% of a plastic bottle filled with it. The cost of this oil is 90% of the total cost of the production of a water bottle. To provide the world's supply of bottled water 17 million barrels with oil are required. With this amount of oil we can fuel 1.3 million cars for a year or provide 190,000 homes with power. By burning this amount of oil, 2.5 million tons of carbon dioxide will be emitted... How easy is it to contribute to a cleaner planet? Very easy. Just stop buying pla...

Just re-using your plastic bottles from super markets might not do the trick. Even though I have a reusable bottle made of steel , I sometimes forget it at home. Since I am not a camel, going without water for a day seems pretty tough. Despite my ethical motivations, the thought and need for some water then often lures me to the next supermarket. Generally, I know how bad plastic bottles are, so I justify buying bottled water to myself, by thinking; 'It's not that bad, I'll just use it more than once'. What I know now, is that this doesn't really work. Studies have shown that the plastic used for plastic bottles actually segregates over time, leaving harmful chemicals and particles in the water you drink. That means that even the plastic bottle might be relatively safe and passes health standards for emitting chemicals, after some time and refills, this is not the case anymore. So if I reuse plastic bottles to make up for my tardiness, I actually provok...

In our last post we explained how harmful plastics in bottled water impact our health . Today we will explain what exactly happens in our body if we are in too much contact with plastics. This is important to know, as the chemicals plastic needs to sustain can have a large effect on the human body. These harmful chemicals we talk of are BPA, PBDE or TBBPA. Shockingly, these chemicals have now also been found in us humans. And while they help to make plastic durable, they have a drastically altering effect on our endocrine system . The endocrine system is responsible for managing and transmitting hormones in our body. Seems quite relevant, right? To give an example of how these chemicals work we will take a closer look at BPA. The chemical BPA works similar to the hormone oestrogen . Oestrogen is the female sex hormone necessary to develop the female reproductive system. (Specialists call BPA a Xenoestrogen , because it is a synthetic product which merely imitates h...