All Articles

2012 Articles

2011 Articles

2010 Articles

2008 Articles

Smart Water

27/02/2012 By Peter Brooks

After a fantastic year in 2011 Office Water Coolers is looking forward to another great year and this means installing a lot of water coolers in a lot of offices and schools. But as concerns rise over the possibility of a double dip recession with continuing austerity and cut backs we stand by our belief that the office water cooler should most definitely remain on the ‘invaluable’ list when savings are being discussed. 

But it seems that these hard times are causing some unscrupulous people to go to terrible lengths to make a few quid. The slowdown in global economic growth has seen a rise in commodity prices which is being fuelled by an increase in the value of raw materials like copper and lead. The government announced only today that they were going to crack down on the £5bn a year scrap metal industry with tougher regulation which could likely mean a banning of cash being used in metal transactions, something the industry strongly opposes. Many groups believe the continuing existence of unregulated cash transactions in an industry worth billions is fostering criminality.

Thames Water, which recently stated that it is losing £1.2m a year in metal theft, is fighting back though by using some truly remarkable technology. Smart Water is water that has been chemically coded allowing its traces to show up under UV light. Think of it like an invisible and indelible mark, much like that used on some expensive electronic equipment, but through the wonders of modern science, encoded into the water itself. This has no effect on the taste or safety of the water but allows Thames Water’s chemically coded liquid to leave its trace on the stolen piping. 

Many scrap dealers are now arming themselves with UV lights to avoid taking on this illegally sourced metal making life very difficult for the thieves. Good news, not only for the utility companies, but for their customers too (that’s all of us).

Will the wonders of modern technology never cease?



© 2012 Office Water Coolers

Bookmark and Share


Recent Articles

An Improving Environmental Footprint for the Bottled Water Industry

Consider this; recycling a single large plastic bottle (made from PET) conserves enough energy to light a 60 watt bulb for 6 hours. The National Association for PET Container Resources (NAPCOR) reported that in 2010 1.5 billion pounds of PET was recycled in America.  Recycled PET (rPET) can be made into all sorts of things like car parts, playground equipment, carpet or even clothing. Now consider this; in America (and I daresay the figures are not that dissimilar in the UK) plastic bottles ...
read more

Strong Performance for UK Bottled Water in 2011

Good news for the bottled water industry as it reports a 2.8% increase in sales in 2011 (1.8 billion litres). As an industry that employs two thousand people it is good news in these economically trying times as the UK officially enters a double dip recession. So with unemployment remaining high and when people are cutting back on so much, saving their pennies, why does the bottled water industry grow when compared to 2010. Well it seems there are a lot of other factors at play. UK households ...
read more

Venezuela’s President Announces Price Caps on Bottled Water

Flamboyant Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez, has started announcing more price caps as part of his government’s Law of Fair Prices, passed back in November 2011. The law was designed to limit what is seen as excessive profiteering on 19 household goods and groceries but is now being expanded as the government announce new prices for different products and it is starting with bottled water and deodorant. The books of over 16,000 companies have been examined by the Venezuelan government so far ...
read more

Polyethylene terephthalate

What is polyethylene terephthalate? Well chances are you’ve encountered it already today if you’ve swigged from a bottle of water or any of a whole range of bottled drinks. Abbreviated to PET, polyethylene terephthalate is probably most associated with the packaging for plastic bottles due to its properties as an excellent and durable barrier material. The thermoplastic polymer is part of the polyester family and can exist in both amorphous (transparent) and as a semicrystalline polymer which ...
read more