Does the Evening Standard understand the irony of using up paper to campaign for restaurants to offer tap water due to the environmental damage causes by packaging and transporting bottled water. Tap water has always and will always been on offer in restaurants. Making people aware of this and showing them that consumer power is the way to influence what is available may be a worthy cause. Restaurateurs have even been jumping on the band wagon - Surely they must have been able to work out all along that bottled water is bad for the environment and that if they put profit motive to one side they would have been promoting tap water at their tables for a while and offering only UK produced bottled water for the die hard fans. They have not been pushing the eco alternative because until 2 weeks ago and a horizon show which quite frankly stated the obvious there was profit in bottled water. There is only profit in a product that people want to buy.
This is the same for everything available in a free market - If you don't want it don't buy it! If something is produced unethically do not campaign for it to be banned - don't buy it.
Breaking news!!! I heard today on the news that plastic bags are not as bad to turtles as we thought and that the pictures of them choking on bags are greatly exaggerated. This may or may not be the case. It does not change that fact that plastic bags are bad for the environment. They are made from plastic which comes from oil. There is not much oil left. It takes energy to make them. Energy comes from oil. There is not much oil left. Burning oil to make plastic bags releases carbon dioxide. Running lorries to carry plastic bags release carbon dioxide. There is too much Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere. Free plastic bags at the counter encourage us to use them once and through them away - this is bad, it equals less oil and more carbon dioxide. It is this simple. It is the same with all types of consume goods. If an item takes energy to make, package and transport and is disposable it is bad for the environment. If there is not alternative item then this may be justifiable, if you do not care about the environment - this is justifiable, if you think its not up to you its up to big business and china to end climate change then this may be justifiable. But do think about what I said above - If there is a profit in it then someone will sell it.
Lets make it less profitable to over package and over travel things. Reuse carrier bags - you may not save the turtles but you will be helping climate change.