Glasstic has been participating in #CleanWaterWednesday for a while now and we wanted to help highlight the effort beyond just tweeting our support. We reached out to the folks at Time For An Oil Change and they were kind enough to provide us with some more information about them and the #CleanWaterWednesday movement. We are also very excited to be sponsoring the next Clean Water Trivia Hour with them on October 21 at 11am PT/2pm ET so be sure to mark your calendar and join in by following the @CleanWaterWednesday profile and feed, there will be 5 Glasstic Bottles given away!
What is the purpose of #CleanWaterWednesday?
#CleanWaterWednesday is about inspiring dialogue and action to ensure clean water around the world. It’s an opportunity for individuals, charities and businesses, like Glasstic, who are passionate about the environment and clean water to join together as a collective to support clean water action. Our hope is that at least one day a week people will engage in a dialogue about how we can ensure clean water now and in the future. #CleanWaterWednesday is part of the @SilentOilSpills public outreach campaign to increase public awareness about the environmental impacts of used motor oil, a coalition of environmentally friendly organizations that formed to help address motor oil pollution.
What were the motivating factors to start the movement?
Water is a precious resource across the globe. We are facing a number of looming water-related crises that are endangering our future drinking water and food supplies. Among them, one prominent concern is water quality.
In California alone, approximately 150 million gallons of motor oil are purchased every year, generating over 90 million gallons of used oil, the largest volume of hazardous waste generated in the state. Over 70 million gallons are illegally dumped or lost in use each year and end up in our rivers, lakes and ocean, degrading our drinking water supplies and poisoning aquatic life. These slow, but steady “silent oil spills” from petroleum-based motor oil don’t receive as much attention as a pipeline or wellhead spill, yet it generates a much greater amount of oil pollution – 10 million gallons a week globally. We believe that increased public awareness of the problem and everyday actions toward solutions can help minimize motor oil-related water pollution and ultimately, improve water quality.
What has surprised you most since this began?
How quickly the movement has grown. We have thousands of folks every week who love engaging and learning from each other, all in support of a clean water future.
Please tell us a bit about the monthly Trivia Hour:
One Wednesday a month we host a clean water trivia hour on Twitter. We have a sponsor who offers prizes and our questions are focused around clean water topics. Our next one is with Glasstic on Oct 21!
Connect with @SilentOilSpills and @CleanWaterWednesday on Twitter, and Silent Oil Spills on Facebook. You can also visit the Time For An Oil Change website to learn more about Silent Oil Spills and #CleanWaterWednesday.
