Bear a plastic water bottle at your own peril; the sway of public opinion is turning on you. From popular rating documentaries, to books and political campaigns, the hottest debate on the soapbox is the menace of bottled water and the waste the industry forces.

The producing, transportation and waste of water in petrochemical plastic bottles demands huge quantities of water along with energy, and pumps out huge measures of greenhouse gases and waste.

Director of the new documentary ‘Tapped: get off the bottle’ Stephanie Soechtig sums it up “1500 water bottles end up in landfill every second – that’s 30 million water bottles a day! We wanted to show people just how much waste is generated by bottled water.” The people behind Tapped are plugging the movie with an across-America roadshow, taking pledges from donors to lower their water bottle use and swapping their used plastic water bottle for a reusable stainless steel bottle. Download Tapped from Amazon or iTunes.

A short film ‘The Story of Bottled Water’ was released on World Water Day in March. By Annie Leonard of the acclaimed ‘The Story of Stuff’, this short animation explores the method that goes into tricking Americans into buying at least half a billion bottles of water each week, compared with a few cents cost for tapwater. Look up the animation on You Tube.

In her book ‘Bottlemania’, investigator Elizabeth Royte chronicles one of the most massive marketing heists of the last century and gives a sudden environmental alarm bell. She asks the situations we must come to deal with. Who appropriates our water? What could happen when a bottled-water company seizes your town’s water supply? Is the water coming out of your tap wholly safe? What is the environmental factor of production, transporting and disposal of every plastic water bottle?

Politicians around the globe are beginning to realise that they have to take responsibility – markedly when the places in which they work are large consumers of bottled water. How often do we see a politician in a political debate drinking from a water bottle. Surely they might use a water glass in Parliament House.

Leslie Samuelrich of Corporate Accountability International, said “Cities and states are spending hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars on bottled water, and that’s not to mention what’s spent to deal with all the plastic bottles that are thrown out.”

In July 2009, the NSW rural town of Bundanoon became the first group around Australia to stop the selling of bottled water. At least 60 townships in the United States and a handful of cities in Canada and the UK have lately banned expending taxpayer money on bottled water.

It is doubtless that these dilemmas will be on the agenda during World Water Week 2010 from September 5 to 11 in Stockholm, Sweden, the annual meeting for the planet’s most time-sensitive water-related problems.

Article written by Tracey Bailey, founder of Biome Eco Stores.

You are doing the right thing for the planet by filling up at home and carrying a reusable water bottle and you’ve chosen a safe, non-toxic bottle-but if it’s not kept clean then it may not be healthy.

Whether your drink bottle is a stainless steel bottle, SIGG bottle or a BPA free plastic water bottle, it is important to stop mould and other deposits forming in the bottle.

Wash your drink bottles with warm, soapy water at the end of every day and let the bottle air dry upside down with the top off every day where possible.

Should any mineral deposits or lime scale form inside, fill your clean water bottle with Distilled White Vinegar and let it soak for 24 hours. Then rinse with warm water mixed with one tablespoon of bicarbonate of soda (baking soda), rinse out and let dry. Spots inside the bottle that look like “corrosion” are most likely a mineral deposit.

Fill your bottle with filtered water wherever possible. It tastes so much better, but also because water contains different minerals in every area this may affect what happens inside your bottle.

Do not allow liquids such as fruit juice to ferment inside the bottle.

With all reusable water bottles you can also try SIGG cleaning tablets and a specially-designed SIGG bottle cleaning brush, or simply a baby bottle brush. Only ever use a soft brush on aluminium bottles with lining like SIGG so as not to damage the lining. Stainless steel water bottles like Klean Kanteen and Nathan can handle a hard brush.

While all bottles are technically dishwasher-safe, it is recommended to not put them in a dishwasher. Most dishwasher powders are caustic, so they will eat into the metal of your bottle and damage the exterior pattern. Bottle tops should also not be put in the dishwasher because extreme heat expands and deteriorates the plastic.

Never freeze metal bottles as metal can split even with only a little water inside. Water does not always expand in a predictable direction! Freezing plastic water bottles is also not advisable because it may cause the plastic to breakdown and toxins to leach. It is fine to place your bottle in the refrigerator.

Tips on cleaning your water bottle brought to you by Biome Eco Stores Australia.