Wednesday, September 05, 2007

Oil and Water Only Mix in Bottled Water

I had heard bottled water is bad for the environment, but here is an article that actually explains in numbers how bad bottled water is.

Unfortunately more and more Americans drink those eight glasses out of plastic bottles—a convenience that stuffs landfills, clogs waterways and guzzles valuable fossil fuels.

Last year Americans spent nearly $11 billion on over 8 billion gallons of bottled water, and then tossed over 22 billion empty plastic bottles in the trash. In bottle production alone, the more than 70 million bottles of water consumed each day in the U.S. drain 1.5 million barrels of oil over the course of one year.

Every little bit helps when caring for the environment and it seems filling up a reusable bottle, such as a Klean Kanteen, would be a nice start.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

One of my friends, who blogs at walkslowlylivewildly.com, loves Kleen kanteens!

We use SIGG bottles, which you can get through reusablebags.com. They've also got great reusable options for people who brown-bag their lunches.

desmoinesdem

Anonymous said...

Wow. I love my Klean Kanteen - the options available are fantastic (sport lid, or just a cap, need a sling?) and the mouth of the bottle is wide enough that it can also function as a 'glass', as I often find myself using it at my desk.

Reusablebags.com is also a great resource: the "Wrap N Mats" have already saved me from using seemingly umpteen-million Ziploc bags, I've picked up one of the 'sets' of reusable grocery bags, and lug my 'Cool Tote' to work every day.

All of that stuff isn't just nice from an environmental stance, it's also de-cluttered my life to an extent.

The Deplorable Old Bulldog said...

How about just tap water and a regular drinking glass?

What a prissy society have we become.

I agree, isn't glass made from sand and 100% recyleable? Why the hell do we use plastic bottles for anything, much less water.

Ironically, plastic bottled water is far more expensive by the gallon than is gasoline-retail to retail.

Anonymous said...

How about just tap water and a regular drinking glass?

Pros: Easy, available.

Cons: Not easy to use in a vehicle and/or while away from said water tap.

noneed4thneed said...

If I ever buy a bottle of water, I will fill it up with tap water and reuse a few times before recycling the bottle.

bgunzy said...

Sporer - Glass weighs more, thereby limiting the amount of product that can be transported and stored. Plastic is lighter weight, of course, so more product can be transported without the extra storage weight.

Plus, we don't want our kids to step on broken shards of glass at the beach, right? We'd rather choke them slowly with massive landfills and polychlorocarbons emitted into the ozone. :)

Anonymous said...

Noneed, I used to do that for years, but I read that depending on the kind of plastic the bottle is made from, it is not always advisable to reuse those bottles. Endocrine disruptors can leach into the water from the plastic.

Ever since I've been pregnant and/or nursing, I've stopped reusing those clear plastic bottles. Don't know how much of a problem the toxics are for men.

desmoinesdem