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In Bali, Thailand and many other places in SE Asia, you can get water that comes from local treatment plants (it usually looks like this[1]) instead of "brand"
by mastazi 7y ago
In Bali, Thailand and many other places in SE Asia, you can get water that comes from local treatment plants (it usually looks like this[1]) instead of "brand" bottled water (like these ones[2]), the former is almost always bottled locally (at the nearest water treatment plant, they are ubiquitous in SE Asia even in regional areas, sometimes they are subsidised by governments), as a result the water tends to stay in the bottle for a much shorter time whereas "brand" water is not sourced locally and it travels long distances after being bottled. In addition the employees of the local water treatment plant will often come and take back empty bottles to use them again, so in those cases you have nearly 100% recycling and very little plastic waste.
I don't have any evidence that [1] contains less microplastics than [2] unfortunately, but I think it could be the case.
(I have lived in Indonesia for about one year and part of my family is from Thailand).
[1] http://www.nomad4ever.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/12/bottle_handling_at_bintang_supermarket_legian_bali2.jpg http://www.nomad4ever.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/12/bottle_...
[2] https://www.bali.com/media/image/865/plastic-bottles-waste.jpg https://www.bali.com/media/image/865/plastic-bottles-waste.j...
- thelittleone 7y agoThere’s also a system where Nestle gallon containers are filled by small merchants with local filtered bore water and recapped and sold (often as original).
- mastazi 7y agoIn many places in SE Asia, Nestle "gallon containers" are sold at a premium compared to locally purified water (often 3X - 4X the price), but I would be curious to see side-by-side water analysis results...
- fouc 7y agoThe 18.9L/5 gallon water jugs are common even in Canada and US also, it's not unique to Asia. They do get washed and re-used also. It's an interesting question if they'd be at risk for microplastics as well.
- peteretep 7y agoSurprised you didn’t mention the ubiquitous bring-your-own-container 1 baht water vending machines in Thailand too, which as I understand it are doing ad-hoc filtering: https://m.alibaba.com/product/137674491/Water-Vending-Machine-Model-RO-800.html https://m.alibaba.com/product/137674491/Water-Vending-Machin...
- mastazi 7y agoYes you are right, those are another very good example of locally treated water, my Thai relatives live in a rural area where the “gallon bottles” are more commonplace so I forgot to mention those machines.