Stop drinking bottled water August 16, 2007
Posted by Greg Jerome in Economics, Environment, Global Warming.trackback
I found a great post at Sin City Siren about the issue of bottled water, dubious marketing, and waste. In short, she talks about the environmental impact of all those plastic bottles and the fact that most of the stuff is simply filtered tap water. Not to mention that Coke and Pepsi (among others) have convinced us to pay for something have used for free for generations.
The biggest problem with bottled water is the fact that the majority of the bottles end up in landfills. This is certainly due to the manner in which we consume bottled water; in public, in places that often lack recycling facilities. The bottles end up in the trash. These bottles are a non-renewable resource that take up to a thousand years, or longer, to decompose.
From a health perspective I am encouraged to see people drinking more water and drinking less soda. Before the bottled water craze it was much harder to find water in public. We need to take this positive lifestyle change and make it more environmentally friendly.
Like most ways you can help the environment this example takes just a little planning and soon it becomes habit. Buy a reusable bottle, like those from Nalgene. Fill it and take it with you everywhere you go, pretty soon it is just something you take out the door with you. If you don’t like the taste of your tap water, but a pitcher with a filter to keep in the refrigerator. You will save money and help the environment.
The more people who join in, the more people who will follow.
Thanks for the props! I always like meeting others who are trying to change their lives to be more environmentally friendly. Now that I am changing things in my life, I feel guilty whenever I learn about another area where I’m failing. I switched over to using re-usable shopping bags in January (something I’ve written about a couple of times on the blog) but didn’t even think about bottled water until recently. Every little bit helps and I do believe we can all make a difference by making changes in our own lives every day!
I never really got WHY anyone would drink bottled water in the first place. Most bottled water is just tap water from someplace else! If you had told my 30 years ago that someone could make money selling bottles of water, I would have said you were crazy.
When you add the negative environmental impact, it makes no sense at all!
The scientifically impossible I do right away
The spiritually miraculous takes a bit longer