The PDGA has announced a sponsorship deal with Brazilian Springs, a bottled water company. Accepting Brazilian Springs hype that ten percent of their profits can restore their carbon balance, the PDGA tells us that Brazilian Springs is environmentally friendly. Finally, the PDGA encourages TD's and players to use Brazilian Springs water at tournaments, as it will be at Worlds.

I have a problem with all of this. First, this decision was made when the PDGA Environmental Committee had no chairman, nor presumably any members who provided input to the Board. Bottled water is not environmentally friendly compared to using local sources (e.g., www.thinkoutsidethebottle.org , www.nrdc.org/water/drinking/qbw.asp.). Plastic bottles must be manufactured and shipped to the bottling source (Arkansas, in this case). Then the filled bottles must be freighted from Arkansas to local distributors, delivered to tournament staff and distributed on the course. Finally, the empty bottles must be collected and transported to sanitary landfills. This does not include the aesthetic costs of plastic bottles littering courses.

Worse, bottled water companies have an insidious agenda. They will maximize profits if they can sell you and me on the idea that that bottled water is our best option. If they can pull this off, communities will ultimately be forced to spend public funds on bottled water, rather than on maintaining and improving municipal water supplies. For this reason, about 60 US municipalities in the US have enacted legislation that prevents taxpayer dollars from being spent on bottled water.

The PDGA argues that, as there could likely be objections to any corporation that might sponsor us, we might as well go partners with Brazilian Springs. Internal justification and external hype appear to be powerful motivators in this particular case. Based on the former, we could certainly expect that the PDGA would happily go partners with a cigarette company. Now suppose that that company claimed that it improved overall public health by using ten percent of its profits to endow pulmonary carcinoma clinics. Would the PDGA then encourage TD's to distribute cigarette packs to tournament participants?

I believe:
1) that the PDGA should not disseminate corporate environmental claims without an active Environmental Committee to substantiate them.
2) that it is irresponsible to shill for bottled water in a country where almost all tapwater is drinkable.
3) that bottled water is not an environmentally friendly (and probably not a cost effective) way to deliver water to tournament participants.
4) that all corporations are not equally desirable (or undesirable), and that the PDGA should be sensitive to the differences.
5) that Brazilian Springs is too low on the spectrum of desirability to make a good partner for the PDGA.

i agree with all of peter's points about bottled water- it's a scam that is harmful to the environment.

that being said, with the current complexion of the ORG's marketing, ya takes what ya can get. sponsorship from the cigarette companies sure didn't hurt nascar.

I made the decision to go with bottled water because there was no readily available source of tap water at the course, and there was no way to ensure that water jugs out on a course remained uncontaminated during the round. I have seen many players remove the tops of water jugs to grab ice with dirty hands.

Wow, sponsor bashing! Great idea! First the Dooz, now this. Way to compound the pDGA's image problem!

From the purest of pure himself. Hypocrisy flows so easily from the tongues of past and present pDGA authority figures.


http://www.sfgate.com/blogs/images/sfgate/pets/2008/08/13/FSXX5X9F5LD8L8K.MEDIUM300x375.jpg

You are convicted of looking a gift horse in the mouth. Do not post again for ONE YEAR!


http://media.ebaumsworld.com/picture/Hootto/SOUPNAZI.png

Yawn !!

Rats. I thought the whole anti-bottled-water-as-the-next-front-in nanny-state-environmentalism was going to be a passing fad that had passed.

You can go sip from the river, Peter. I'll stick with the Absopure when I'm away from home.

Good idea Peter! Doesn't the PDGA promote "green thinking"?

Here is an online story I originally read in my newspaper about a town in Australia banning bottled water.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/as_australia_bottled_water_ban

Forget bottled water, ban bottled beer!

The Campaign for Real Ale (http://www.camra.org.uk/)

Peter Shive wrote:

I believe:
1) that the PDGA should not disseminate corporate environmental claims without an active Environmental Committee to substantiate them.

The costs of the Environmental Committee spending time, resources, and money on this activity outweigh the benefits. This money should be spent on other more important PDGA programs and initiatives to grow the sport of disc golf.

2) that it is irresponsible to shill for bottled water in a country where almost all tapwater is drinkable.

Giardiasis, traveler's diarrhea, and E. Coli are real and occur in this country quite often. You may not care about it, but I do.

3) that bottled water is not an environmentally friendly (and probably not a cost effective) way to deliver water to tournament participants.

Reluctantly agreed, although concerns from my previous point still exist. I never have a reason to distrust bottled water, and there will always be lingering doubts with any communal water from an unknown source.

4) that all corporations are not equally desirable (or undesirable), and that the PDGA should be sensitive to the differences.

The costs from spending time, resources, & money on being sensitive and researching the differences outweigh the benefits. A water company which is sensitive to rainforest destruction hardly seems like an undesirable corporation, no matter the points brought up about their supposed environmental un-friendliness.

5) that Brazilian Springs is too low on the spectrum of desirability to make a good partner for the PDGA.

That is your opinion, but I think you are essentially equating Brazilian Springs with cigarette, alcohol, gambling, or any other number of corporations with severe negative associations. I think this is hardly the case. Furthermore, at this point, we should be lucky to have corporate sponsors and our spectrum of desirability should be quite wide until we are in a position to be able to choose more carefully.

A little drift-
It seems that alot of people think that there are only 2 options-bottled water and tap water.

I carry a 3 gal jug in my car and fill it up a few times a week at whichever grocery store is closest. Typically less than dollar to fill, and environmentally friendly. I used to drink bottled water all the time. So much trash, so much wasted $.

39,458th on our list of priorities.

Somewhere below stopping people from driving to their disc golf course. So much environmental damage, just to throw a frisbee?

And let's get the plastic out of the sport, altogether.

Oooops. Got carried away there. Sorry.

i agree with all of peter's points about bottled water- it's a scam that is harmful to the environment.

that being said, with the current complexion of the ORG's marketing, ya takes what ya can get. sponsorship from the cigarette companies sure didn't hurt nascar.
I couldn't have said it better myself. Kudos to the PDGA on landing some sponsorship $$$.

OK...for those with the concern, here's a few Wal Mart stores that have water refill setups. There may be other places, but these come to mind first. These are stores somewhat close to courses or hotel concentrations. I'd bet there are a few grocery stores around that do this as well, but can't vouch for that possibility.

This is NOT intended to start a Wal Mart morality discussion...:eek:

Wal Mart Neighborhood Market store
103rd and Metcalf (near Metcalf and I435)

Wal Mart Super Centers
Kansas side:
K7 and Kansas Ave (south of WYCO)
K7 and Santa Fe (just east of Prairie Center)
Shawnee Mission Pkwy east of I435 (north and east of Shawnee Mission park)
159th and Metcalf (sort of, but not really, on the way to Thornfield)

Missouri side:
MO 291 in Lee's Summit. (Sort of on the way to Pleasant Hill, but not really.)
MO150/135th St and State Line Rd (south, right on the state line, MO150 is one route to Pleasant Hill)

Are you seriously bummin on a Water sponsor for Worlds in Kansas City in late July?

While I don't discount alot of the environmental concerns that are attributed to the bottled water industry, I also recognize the essential need, desirability and benefits of using it under these circumstances.

The realities of hosting hundreds of players traversing remote park areas with no other water sources sort of answers all the reasons why taking advantage of such a sponsor makes sense.

Perhaps if you had volunteered the appropriate staff and transportation resources to man the jugs on every course, your beef could be taken more seriously. I would certainly see encouraging staff to establish appropriate recycling efforts to be a step in the right direction. But turn away a sponsor offering what in the KC Heat could be essential health services - seems a bit much. Especially when you consider that staff for such events are generally all tasked heavily already. Lets just make more heavy work for em yeah!

i agree... you can go sip from the river, peter.

A little drift-
It seems that alot of people think that there are only 2 options-bottled water and tap water.

I carry a 3 gal jug in my car and fill it up a few times a week at whichever grocery store is closest. Typically less than dollar to fill, and environmentally friendly. I used to drink bottled water all the time. So much trash, so much wasted $.I refill my water bottles with Waterford tap and cannot tell the difference. But I've gotten the strange tap trots drinking tap in towns that purify the local river water.

I am curious what the hidden agenda is behind the anti-bottled water movement. They could do a lot more for recycling and the environment to lobby for bottle deposit laws in states that don't have them, and expanded coverage to include all beverages in states that only have deposits on carbonated beverages.

Trying to ban bottled water seems like tilting at windmills. Creating incentives to recycle rather than litter seems like it would be so much more productive.

bottled is convenient at times but i prefer tap, but another view

http://planetgreen.discovery.com/food-health/healthier-tap-bottled-water.html

You guys should scroll up and read Gary Duke's post about the unsanitariness of those big yellow jugs that get put out on courses. I've put those out myself and retrieved them after tourneys. There's usually a crap-load of grass and dirt inside of them at the end of each day.

The good news is that KCMO's public water supply has long been considered one of the best tasting in the US. They actually sell it at the airport, bottled.

The answer to dirty hands etc in the jugs on the course: you see someone doing that, yell at them. Call the course manager, the TD, whoever, and tell them it needs to be changed out, or even dump the whole thing.

Just make sure you don't do it yourself!

The need for water in KC in late July is very real, believe me. Anything is better than nothing, even water that's been in your car all day. Best idea, to be sure about your own supply: have several bottles to fill up each day, fill your cooler with ice at the hotel in the morning, and keep your own water supply.

A new book, "Bottlemania" (ISBN-10:1-59691-372-X, paperback, 2009), reviews the current state of the bottled water/tapwater controversy and explores the case history of a bottling plant operation in Maine. If you care about the issue, this is the least boring way I know to learn about it. It would also make a good Christmas present, no matter which side you favor.

The PDGA has announced a sponsorship deal with Brazilian Springs, a bottled water company. Finally, the PDGA encourages TD's and players to use Brazilian Springs water at tournaments, as it will be at Worlds.

I'm going to ask the question nobody else has: What exactly does the sponsorship deal entail between the PDGA and Brazilian Springs? If the paramators entail simply "encouraging TD's and players to use BS at tourneys", then that is hardly a 'sponsorship-type relationship'.

Anyone remember the Microtel 'deal' of 2006? Players would make reservations at a Microtel and receive ten percent off their room, the same discount applied to ANY person claiming to be part of ANY group. (I made a few calls to Microtel and asked if there was any corporate discount - without mentioning the PDGA - and Microtel readily gave me 10% just for asking, and I didn't even have to provide any sort of substantiation). When I called the PDGA HQ, they claimed that 'sponsorship deal' was more for tracking/testing purposes to convince Microtel to give the PDGA a 'real' sponsorship in the future, which never happened (although I think Barry got some free rooms....)

So what are the details of the water sponsorship? Is it another tracking exercise? Do the TDs get unlimited amounts of bottled water just for asking? Or do they have to buy X-many cases in order to get ten percent off their purchase? Or what?

two zip tie to hold the lid to the handles is very effective.
add a band of duct tape and the players will get the idea.