Category: Off the Grid

The REAL Reason Bottled Water Has An Expiration Date

3D render illustration of the row of plastic bottles with clear purified drink carbonated water isolated on white background with selective focus effect

(Ready Nutrition by Sara Tipton) Bottled water is a popular item to store in case of an emergency, and for good reason. It is normally readily available and water should be able to be stored forever, right?  So then why is there an expiration date on bottled water?

Of course, water doesn’t expire, but you should still check the expiration date on the bottle before you drink it. According to Live Science, there a few different reasons why water bottles come with expiration dates, and the first one, you shouldn’t worry too much about, but the second one should make you think twice.

Since water is a consumable product, regulations and laws require bottles to be stamped with an expiration date even though water doesn’t ever “expire.” Rational people understand this, but the government feels the need to step in and protect us from ourselves anyway. The only reason they were put there in the first place was that a 1987 New Jersey state law required all food products to display an expiration date, including water, according to Mental Floss. Since it wasn’t very cost effective for companies to label and ship batches of expiration-dated water to one state alone, most bottled water producers simply started giving every bottle a two-year sell-by date—no matter where it was going. Because the law is rather arbitrary, don’t worry too much about drinking expired water just because a law demands a company stamp the bottle. However, the expiration date serves more of a warning about the bottle itself than the water contained inside.

Unlike the water itself, which has existed on Earth for 4.5 billion years, that manufactured plastic bottle only has so much time before it “goes bad.” The plastic bottles that water comes packaged in (usually polyethylene terephthalate (PET) for retail bottles and high-density polyethylene (HDPE) for water cooler jugs). The bottle will eventually fail (expire) and begin to leach plastic chemicals into the water with an effect on the overall taste. So if you happen to find a water bottle well past its printed expiration date in your home, it’s probably safe to drink, if you don’t mind the chemical bits of bottle which have broken down and are now swirling around in it, but you should also be aware of the fact that it might not be super fresh tasting anymore either.  But in a life and death situation, you could drink well-expired bottled water and probably be alright. But there are many options for storing water that could help you avoid drinking the plastic.

PLASTIC CONTAINERS

That said, storing water for a disaster or emergency should be done in only food grade containers. You can avoid plastics such as HDPE and PET to prevent the leaching of chemicals, but those are, technically “food grade” plastics (according to the FDA – so take that with a grain of salt) and you may not have a way around it. Also, choosing BPA-free containers will be safer as well. If water is not stored correctly, it can (and will) become toxic.  You can minimize the chances of plastic chemicals leaching into your water if you store it in a cool dry place.  Direct sunlight will break down the plastic more quickly. But if there is any doubt in your mind at all about the integrity of your container, trust your gut over the labels and do not store water in that container even if the FDA says its safe to do so.  There are plenty of other options.

5 Short Term Methods to Store Water

One water storage suggestion is a 55-Gallon Rainwater Collection System. Some are made from FDA approved polyethylene resin (and are also BPA free). This particular one has a  plastic barrel and the capacity to hold enough water to supply a family of 4 with over 13 days worth of water, or 2 people nearly a 30 day supply of water. The dark blue color of this 55-gallon barrel restricts light and helps control the growth of harmful algae and bacteria.

You can also use glass containers to store water.  There is no chance that the container will leach and if you’ve got some extra mason jars laying around after canning, it may be a good way to put those to some good use.  Of course, the major disadvantage of glass is that it’s not only heavy, it is pretty easy to break. However, steps can be taken to minimize the chances of the glass breaking, such as wrapping the glass containers with newspaper or cardboard. Check out these highly-rated 18 oz leak-proof glass bottles for your water storage needs if you decide glass is right for you.

The best way to ensure you have enough water on hand and a replenishable supply of the water is to get a mechanized well.  This is my family’s method of “storing” water. We don’t actually have to store any at all, though, and can focus on building our supply of ammunition and non-perishable foods because of it.  Of course, we have the well on a pump that works with electricity, however, we also have devised a way to retrieve water from the well in the event of a crisis or disaster in which we have no power. It is important to keep in mind that this is more of a water generation system than “storage” system, but its the most effective for long-term disasters and therefore worth mentioning. Since wells both store and produce water, if you can build one on your property, you should have a good source of drinking water during an emergency. As the website, Skilled Survival put it: this is highly dependent on how much of your well is mechanized. But the fact remains: someone with a working water well is going to survive a disaster far easier than the rest.

How to Build a Rain Garden Step-by-Step & Why It Helps Protect the Environment

Rainwater harvesting is one of the most important things anyone can do to help preserve our environment. We don’t have an unlimited amount of fresh water at the moment. Plus, rainwater that runs off your roof is better off being used than running down the drain. Roof rainwater is typically filled with heavy metals and chemicals that leach from roofing materials, animal droppings, and many other pollutants. This polluted water will make its way down the drains and into our rivers.

Rain Gardens Are the Perfect Solution

Rain gardens allow homeowners to collect rainwater, put it to good use by growing beautiful plants, ensure that it is conserved in the ground and filtered before it passes into lakes, rivers, and the groundwater. Water can be diverted from driveways and roofs into the rain garden, plus the way the garden is designed will mean most water in a storm will naturally flow into them instead of ending up in places that could hurt our health.

We’re going to look at the steps you need to take to create one, but first, make sure your tool shed is in order. You’ll need tools, so ensure the clutter is gone so you can find them and they’re all stored away neatly. Once you’re done we’ll proceed to focus on the individual steps you need to take.

A quick Step-by-Step Guide to Building a Rain Garden

1 – Choose Your Location

Make sure your rain garden is at least 10 feet away from your home, plus it should be at a low point in the ground to help it attract water naturally. The downspout on your house and garden shed should be able to reach it too. This can easily be achieved with downspout extenders for short distances and non-perforated drain tile for longer distances. Another option is to collect the water in large barrels or troughs straight from the gutters. The disadvantage is that you’ll have to hand-carry water in smaller buckets to the garden. The advantage is that you won’t have a large volume of water rushing into your garden during a storm, damaging plants, washing away soil and defeating the environmental purposes for your rain garden. Controlled watering from a container with a dispersing head produces gentler watering that is targeted and less wasteful.

  • Downspout extenders ($12-$25 each)
  • A 50-foot coil of drain tile ($24-$30 each)
  • 50-gallon rain barrel with lid ($35-$70)

2 – Ensure It’s Large Enough

When you’re collecting water from a roof it’s going to have a big surface area, so you want your rain garden to handle it easily. You’ll have to work out if the area is large enough while taking the type of soil into account.

3 – Designing Your Rain Garden

You’re not just trying to protect the environment at the expense of your beautiful garden. The rain garden needs to be attractive too, which will mean sitting down with a piece of paper and coming up with the perfect design.

  • Graph paper pad ($4-$6)

4 – Choosing Specific Plants

The same kind of thing applies when you’re choosing plants. You want to pick the ones that will make your garden more aesthetically pleasing. One big piece of advice is to use native plants as they’ll be able to handle the environment. The experts at your local gardening center will assist you in selecting native plants that will do well in local soils. Consider digging a hole and selecting samples from the topsoil and underlying soil layers to take with you for the plant expert to inspect.

5 – Start Mapping It Out

Now you will have to create the shape you plan on using based on your previous design work. It needs to be mapped before you do anything else. It’s also worth finding out at this point if there is anything like pipes underground. In the US and Canada, use the Call 811 service, and someone from the local utility company, usually at no charge, will locate and mark pipes and wiring on your property, so you can avoid the danger and damage of hitting them.

  • 22-foot tape steel tape measure or 50-foot fiberglass tape, depending on the size of your project ($4-$24)
  • Wood marking stakes ($4-$8 per bundle)
  • Sisal for outlining garden boundaries before digging ($3-$5)

6 – Now It’s Time to Dig and Fill

Once you’re sure everything is clear you’ll be able to start digging the soil away. You want to make sure you dig between 4-8 inches deep and measure it just in case. Use some of the soil if you want to build a berm around the edge. If your soil is clayey, this depth will likely be sufficient. If you have sandy soil, especially where your climate is dry, consider digging down 12 inches and lining the bottom of the garden bed with rotting timber from nearby woods or locally purchased firewood. This is an eco-friendly permaculture technique like hügelkultur but in bed form. Timbers absorb water, requiring far less watering of the space should little rainfall. The humus and nutrients produced by the rotting wood encourage plant health too. In sandy soil, a layer of clay can be effective for water retention and for filtering pollutants. Soil scientist Gary M. Pierzynski of Kansas State University says, “Many soil clay particles have a negative charge and will attract any constituents in the water that have a positive charge (e.g., some heavy metals, salts, organic chemicals, and pesticides).”  Minimizing the negative impact of these contaminants on the soil and groundwater is a primary reason for building a rain garden, of course.

  • Locally sourced firewood ($50-$70 per cord, sufficient for a 10’x20’ garden bed)

7 – Getting the Soil Ready

You’ll want to add 2-3 inches of compost into the hole you’ve dug, but it will also need to be mixed in with most of the soil until the ground is level again. You need to ensure you mix everything together properly. The greenest source of compost is your own yard and non-meat food waste. Fruit and vegetable rinds, seeds, egg shells, bread, grass cuttings, tree pruning waste and much more can be composted. Here’s a comprehensive list of things you should and should not compost and instructions to guide you.

8 – Planting Your Flowers

Go back to the design you came up with earlier, and lay your plants in the ground. Make sure they are roughly 12 inches apart. Once they’re safely in the ground you can use your hand trowel to put flowers and grasses into the spaces.

9 – Mulching the Rain Garden

When you’re mulching it’s good to use coarse wood chips as they won’t fly away when the weather gets bad. It should be around 2 inches deep once you’re finished, which will help to lock all the moisture in.

Conclusion

Let’s summarize the many advantages of harvesting rainwater that falls on your roof.

  • The polluted water is diverted from storm drains that empty into lakes and streams
  • It can be filtered through soil before entering groundwater
  • Water can be conserved in a permaculture garden so that fresh water isn’t required for keeping the garden green and growing
  • Research shows that, with specific precautions, harvested rainwater can be used to grow edibles

If you’re looking for a project that is good for people and the planet, planting a permaculture-based garden and watering it with harvested rainwater is a very earth-friendly choice.

Editor’s Note

There are some roofs, even some asphalt roofs, where the water can be collected and then be filtered and used as drinking water. It may be worth some research and lab testing. Before you use rainwater collected from a roof in a food garden, and especially for drinking, it is usually a good idea to get it tested.

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