rainwater no longer safe to drink

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well we are doing it to ourselves. Also don’t let your kids drink from garden hose.

OP here yes we are.

I feel like we are also constantly being gaslit.

It is almost impossible to find any juice bottled in glass. Its near impossible to find salad dressing bottled in glass. Acidic foods in plastic is a no no which we have known for a very long time.

And yet we are just supposed to accept this. And no one is more willing to accept this nonsense than the American Consumer. And where they arent willing to accept it, its forced on them anyway. Not everyone can get into a car and drive to an organic food store to buy organic glass bottled juice. Heck I don't even do that anymore. I forced my kid to give up all juice and eat only whole fruit and drink water. Sure, thats fine too. But I am in a position where I can buy things like whole fruit.

The kicker was when they started bottling some liquors in plastic. And even wine on planes is now in plastic.

You are totally correct and moreover the average consumer cannot be expected to figure all of this out and essentially vote with their wallet when plastic is so incredibly ubiquitous.

In short, regulating plastics is the government’s job. Which makes this issue political, because we know that a certain political party does not want to regulate anything ever.

[Anonymous]

One day in Giant I was trying to avoid buying plastics and it was almost impossible. The European yogurt is in paper products but ours is all plastic. I had just listened to a NPR report about plastics so I was particularly focused on it and ended up feeling like I was having an anxiety attack when I really focused on it and just imagined all the endless plastic piled up somewhere from every single snack item.

Part of the problem with the items OP cited are that they used to be small companies (Snapple) with some interest in not poisoning their customers and the earth but were eventually bought out by megacorps that only care about shareholder bottom line. Our lives are run by investment algorithms that reward companies for externalizong costs.

We get farm milk (and they sell tea and lemoNade) is glass bottles.

Wish we could get regulations like the Europeans on single use plastics.

[Anonymous]

I’m 50, and this isn’t new. As a child, acid rain was talked about a lot and we were told not to try to make snow ice cream unless it snowed a lot to clear out the air. I actually think that while overall pollution levels have increased, and the ozone problem is definitely worse, overall air quality (and rainwater safety) has improved since the 70’s with the bans on leaded gas and other environmental regulations. Obviously we still have a lot of work to do, and ideally rainwater should be drinkable, but it’s part of the long-standing problem, not a recent crisis. What is rapidly becoming a water crisis is the amount of available water relative to usage. People have largely ignored the imbalance, but current practices are untenable.

Also, drinking from a garden hose is a bad idea. I did it as a child, do was shocked when I learned that hoses and the faucets they attach to are often contaminated by lead.
https://www.clevelandwater.com/blog/why-you-shouldnt-drink-water-garden-hose-and-when-you-can

[Anonymous]

Hopefully it will decrease fertility rates and increase early death. The Earth cannot support this many people. At least not living like this. Too bad. The Earth will recover once humans are eradicated. We are too stupid and short term thinkers to solve this problem.

[Anonymous]

The rain is way cleaner today than when I was a kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well we are doing it to ourselves. Also don’t let your kids drink from garden hose.

OP here yes we are.

I feel like we are also constantly being gaslit.

It is almost impossible to find any juice bottled in glass. Its near impossible to find salad dressing bottled in glass. Acidic foods in plastic is a no no which we have known for a very long time.

And yet we are just supposed to accept this. And no one is more willing to accept this nonsense than the American Consumer. And where they arent willing to accept it, its forced on them anyway. Not everyone can get into a car and drive to an organic food store to buy organic glass bottled juice. Heck I don't even do that anymore. I forced my kid to give up all juice and eat only whole fruit and drink water. Sure, thats fine too. But I am in a position where I can buy things like whole fruit.

The kicker was when they started bottling some liquors in plastic. And even wine on planes is now in plastic.

If my family has to drink out of a plastic bottle of water, I dump out the bottled water and refill from a faucet or water fountain. That water, likely also municipal, has been sitting there absorbing plastic endocrine disruptors. We are poisoning and overwhelming the environment with plastics. I avoid anything packaged in plastic whenever possible. I still have to do it sometimes though.

We have cut down on our plastic waste a lot. It isn't recycled for the most part. Not needed: produce baggies, grocery store bags shampoo and conditioner bottles, liquid soap bottles, laundry detergent bottles. I don't buy those products in that packaging anymore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well we are doing it to ourselves. Also don’t let your kids drink from garden hose.

OP here yes we are.

I feel like we are also constantly being gaslit.

It is almost impossible to find any juice bottled in glass. Its near impossible to find salad dressing bottled in glass. Acidic foods in plastic is a no no which we have known for a very long time.

And yet we are just supposed to accept this. And no one is more willing to accept this nonsense than the American Consumer. And where they arent willing to accept it, its forced on them anyway. Not everyone can get into a car and drive to an organic food store to buy organic glass bottled juice. Heck I don't even do that anymore. I forced my kid to give up all juice and eat only whole fruit and drink water. Sure, thats fine too. But I am in a position where I can buy things like whole fruit.

The kicker was when they started bottling some liquors in plastic. And even wine on planes is now in plastic.

I buy salad dressing in glass bottles all the time (or, you could just make you’re own with oil and vinegar from glass bottles).

Making it in a jelly jar takes 2 seconds and saves $ and reduces plastic waste. I get asked for my salad dressing recipe all the time, it's nothing special though: olive oil, splash of red wine vinegar, water, lemon juice, garlic, dijon, salt pepper. shake up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well we are doing it to ourselves. Also don’t let your kids drink from garden hose.

OP here yes we are.

I feel like we are also constantly being gaslit.

It is almost impossible to find any juice bottled in glass. Its near impossible to find salad dressing bottled in glass. Acidic foods in plastic is a no no which we have known for a very long time.

And yet we are just supposed to accept this. And no one is more willing to accept this nonsense than the American Consumer. And where they arent willing to accept it, its forced on them anyway. Not everyone can get into a car and drive to an organic food store to buy organic glass bottled juice. Heck I don't even do that anymore. I forced my kid to give up all juice and eat only whole fruit and drink water. Sure, thats fine too. But I am in a position where I can buy things like whole fruit.

The kicker was when they started bottling some liquors in plastic. And even wine on planes is now in plastic.

You are totally correct and moreover the average consumer cannot be expected to figure all of this out and essentially vote with their wallet when plastic is so incredibly ubiquitous.

In short, regulating plastics is the government’s job. Which makes this issue political, because we know that a certain political party does not want to regulate anything ever.

This. Our health is held hostage by the chemical and oil lobbies, and $ in politics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well we are doing it to ourselves. Also don’t let your kids drink from garden hose.

OP here yes we are.

I feel like we are also constantly being gaslit.

It is almost impossible to find any juice bottled in glass. Its near impossible to find salad dressing bottled in glass. Acidic foods in plastic is a no no which we have known for a very long time.

And yet we are just supposed to accept this. And no one is more willing to accept this nonsense than the American Consumer. And where they arent willing to accept it, its forced on them anyway. Not everyone can get into a car and drive to an organic food store to buy organic glass bottled juice. Heck I don't even do that anymore. I forced my kid to give up all juice and eat only whole fruit and drink water. Sure, thats fine too. But I am in a position where I can buy things like whole fruit.

The kicker was when they started bottling some liquors in plastic. And even wine on planes is now in plastic.

I buy salad dressing in glass bottles all the time (or, you could just make you’re own with oil and vinegar from glass bottles).

Making it in a jelly jar takes 2 seconds and saves $ and reduces plastic waste. I get asked for my salad dressing recipe all the time, it's nothing special though: olive oil, splash of red wine vinegar, water, lemon juice, garlic, dijon, salt pepper. shake up.

I actually started making more things like dressings and condiments at home during the pandemic and not buying bottled water or any plastic bottled drinks and using our own bottles instead. It takes a little bit more work, but does eliminate some plastic.

There is still so much plastic waste though, I don't know why we can't have the same packages and higher quality by ingredients they get in Europe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well we are doing it to ourselves. Also don’t let your kids drink from garden hose.

OP here yes we are.

I feel like we are also constantly being gaslit.

It is almost impossible to find any juice bottled in glass. Its near impossible to find salad dressing bottled in glass. Acidic foods in plastic is a no no which we have known for a very long time.

And yet we are just supposed to accept this. And no one is more willing to accept this nonsense than the American Consumer. And where they arent willing to accept it, its forced on them anyway. Not everyone can get into a car and drive to an organic food store to buy organic glass bottled juice. Heck I don't even do that anymore. I forced my kid to give up all juice and eat only whole fruit and drink water. Sure, thats fine too. But I am in a position where I can buy things like whole fruit.

The kicker was when they started bottling some liquors in plastic. And even wine on planes is now in plastic.

That was the kicker? I agree that the plastic packaging situation is bad, but every example you provided is pretty easy to avoid.

OP here. You are missing the point entirely.

We are being gaslit by the implication that these options are actually viable and acceptable at all.

OF COURSE you can still buy liquor that is not in plastic. My point is the fact that ANY liquor is EVER bottled in plastic is beyond mind blowing. BTW I dont even drink liquor.

To the PP who said yes there is salad dressing in glass bottles available. I know that. That is all I buy. What you clearly have not noticed is that substitutions going on for items FORMERLY bottled in glass that are NOW bottled in plastic.

I found a dressing a like called Tessamaes. It was bottled in glass up until last year.

ALL of NEWMANS OWN dressings used to be bottled in glass. Now almost all are in plastic.

ALL of SNAPPLES used to be bottled glass. Now they are bottled in plastic in most stores. Glass is now just about 100% phased out for snapple.

NANTUCKET NECTARS were bottled in glass. Now they are bottled in plastic.

So no, its not "pretty easy to avoid". The fact that anyone here thinks so is an example of not only privilege but also the gaslighting I'm talking about.

Next time you go to Safeway, take a stroll down the salad dressing aisle. Next time you are in Wegmans try to find a drink not bottled in plastic.

Try to find a tea brand that is still in glass. There are some, but most are now plastic. Our local convenience store has no juice or tea options that are not plastic.

This is going to get only much mch worse.

On the other hand, glass is heavier than plastic so it’s probably more expensive to ship and requires more gas/diesel.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well we are doing it to ourselves. Also don’t let your kids drink from garden hose.

You can buy drinking water quality hoses, you know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well we are doing it to ourselves. Also don’t let your kids drink from garden hose.

OP here yes we are.

I feel like we are also constantly being gaslit.

It is almost impossible to find any juice bottled in glass. Its near impossible to find salad dressing bottled in glass. Acidic foods in plastic is a no no which we have known for a very long time.

And yet we are just supposed to accept this. And no one is more willing to accept this nonsense than the American Consumer. And where they arent willing to accept it, its forced on them anyway. Not everyone can get into a car and drive to an organic food store to buy organic glass bottled juice. Heck I don't even do that anymore. I forced my kid to give up all juice and eat only whole fruit and drink water. Sure, thats fine too. But I am in a position where I can buy things like whole fruit.

The kicker was when they started bottling some liquors in plastic. And even wine on planes is now in plastic.

That was the kicker? I agree that the plastic packaging situation is bad, but every example you provided is pretty easy to avoid.

OP here. You are missing the point entirely.

We are being gaslit by the implication that these options are actually viable and acceptable at all.

OF COURSE you can still buy liquor that is not in plastic. My point is the fact that ANY liquor is EVER bottled in plastic is beyond mind blowing. BTW I dont even drink liquor.

To the PP who said yes there is salad dressing in glass bottles available. I know that. That is all I buy. What you clearly have not noticed is that substitutions going on for items FORMERLY bottled in glass that are NOW bottled in plastic.

I found a dressing a like called Tessamaes. It was bottled in glass up until last year.

ALL of NEWMANS OWN dressings used to be bottled in glass. Now almost all are in plastic.

ALL of SNAPPLES used to be bottled glass. Now they are bottled in plastic in most stores. Glass is now just about 100% phased out for snapple.

NANTUCKET NECTARS were bottled in glass. Now they are bottled in plastic.

So no, its not "pretty easy to avoid". The fact that anyone here thinks so is an example of not only privilege but also the gaslighting I'm talking about.

Next time you go to Safeway, take a stroll down the salad dressing aisle. Next time you are in Wegmans try to find a drink not bottled in plastic.

Try to find a tea brand that is still in glass. There are some, but most are now plastic. Our local convenience store has no juice or tea options that are not plastic.

This is going to get only much mch worse.

On the other hand, glass is heavier than plastic so it’s probably more expensive to ship and requires more gas/diesel.

This is actually the reason they cite for switching to plastic but there are a couple of options that go unexplored. Once upon a time bottles were returned, washed and reused. It’s been ages since I’ve been but Norway did that with different bottles. They were plastic, but they were some weird heavy duty plastic that was lighter than glass, not breakable (unless you rolled over it with a car or something). Local bottlers used to do this with glass, too

But that’s just not the way businesses approach the issue.

[Anonymous]

I would drink rainwater if that was all I had to drink.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hopefully it will decrease fertility rates and increase early death. The Earth cannot support this many people. At least not living like this. Too bad. The Earth will recover once humans are eradicated. We are too stupid and short term thinkers to solve this problem.

Why aren’t you stepping up and taking one for the team, then?

Seriously - what better impact could you have for the planet than removing yourself from the carbon cycle altogether? Or do you just want those other people to die?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The rain is way cleaner today than when I was a kid.

This.

/thread.