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Issue 222, Friday 26 October 2007 - 15 Shawwal 1428

Environment news

By Ala Abbas

Calls for the reduction of plastic bottle waste.
Two leading drinks manufacturers have pledged to dramatically improve their recycling rates amid growing concern around the environmental impact of plastic bottle use.
It is estimated that it takes 1.5 million barrels of oil a year to produce all the plastic bottles required worldwide. Of the 13 billion plastic bottles bought in the UK last year, just 2.7 billion were recycled.
Figures released by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) show that sales of mineral water in Britain reached 965 million litres last year, an increase of nearly a third since 2001. The multibillion-pound industry has boosted profits significantly for companies such as Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and Nestlé, which, between them, account for more than 55 per cent of the global soft drinks and mineral water market.
Liverpool City Council and Defra are amongst the public and governmental voices calling for a ban on water bottles and dispensers in their buildings. Liverpool City Council said it will save £48,000 a year by switching to tap water in all its buildings. “[We’re] Phasing out where possible…because it uses an incredible amount of resources,” said a spokesman.
The Government even funds a free advice service called Envirowise which offers UK businesses, “independent, confidential advice and support on practical ways to increase profits, minimise waste and reduce environmental impact.”
Michael Warhurst, Waste Campaigner for Friends of the Earth said: “Companies are wasting their own and the planet’s resources when they fail to prevent waste. The government has funded free advisory services for businesses…and they should take advantage of them.”
Coca-Cola and PepsiCo have vowed to overhaul their operations to recover and recycle the billions of plastic containers used to sell their products worldwide. Coca-Cola announced that it intended to recycle all its plastic bottles in the US within five years. A £30m recycling plant will be built in South Carolina with a capacity to handle two billion bottles a year.
In America, a campaign has been launched to lobby Congress to invest heavily in the public water system to cut down on bottled water use. San Francisco has banned city departments from buying bottled water dispensers and pledged to phase out large dispensers by the end of the year.
Wi-Fi radiation exposure sparks fears
Europe’s top environmental watchdog, the European Environment Agency (EEA), is calling for immediate action to reduce exposure to radiation from Wi-Fi, mobile phones and their masts, which could lead to a health crisis similar to that caused by asbestos, smoking and lead in petrol.
The warning follows an international scientific review which concluded that safety limits set for the radiation are “thousands of times too lenient.” The scientific review, produced by the international BioInitiative Working Group of leading scientists and public health and policy experts, says the “explosion of new sources has created unprecedented levels of artificial electromagnetic fields that now cover all but remote areas of the habitable space on Earth,” causing “long-term and cumulative exposure” to “massively increased” radiation that “has no precedent in human history.”
EEA’s Executive Director, Professor Jacqueline McGlade, said, “It would be prudent for health authorities to recommend actions to reduce exposures, especially to vulnerable groups, such as children.”
This spring, Britain’s top health protection watchdog, Sir William Stewart, called for an official review of the use of Wi-Fi technology in schools, which has been installed in nearly half of all primary schools and 70 per cent of secondary schools in the country.
Carmarthenshire County Council is drawing up a code of practice for using the technology that it plans to enforce on local schools. It says that the code is “absolutely necessary” as the safety of children should be “paramount”. The move, which was welcomed by the Professional Association of Teachers, is the first of its kind taken by a local authority.
However, the all-Labour cabinet of Haringey Council threw out recommendations for controls on Wi-Fi in schools. Councillor Martin Newton accused the cabinet of “playing Russian roulette with the future of our children.”
The EEA’s initiative will increase pressure on governments and public health bodies to take precautionary action over the electromagnetic radiation from rapidly expanding new technologies. The German Government is already advising its citizens to use wired internet connections instead of Wi-Fi and landlines instead of mobile phones.
In response to the EEA’s recommendations, Vodafone has reiterated its health policy, stressing that they follow very stringent international exposure guidelines as supported by the World Health Organisation and set by the International Commission on Non-ionising Radiation Protection.