Ditch bottled water for the environment
For day 38 of our carbon fast we’re looking at our drinking habits!
The advice reads “Say no to bottled water and drink tap water. Buy a refillable washable bottle to use instead. More than 150 billion liters of bottled water are sold worldwide every year. This contributes significantly to landfill and transport emissions.”
Well this is something we do, although our tap water is pretty bad stuff. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate that, compared to many people in the world, I technically have access to ‘potable’ water. However, I know it’s still packed with chemicals I’d rather not ingest such as chlorine and fluoride.
The health implications are for another post, but here’s how we deal with it.
We have a water filter which we use and then we boil and cool drinking water. This pretty much makes it taste much sweeter and softens it.
It’s not rocket science and it works for us. We are forunate enough to have a spring a couple of miles away from our home and when we drive by we might fill up a few bottles of pure, natural water.
When we go out, we always take bottles of drink with us in a stainless steel bottle. I’m just too miserly to spend so much money on a bottle of fancy drink, let alone the ‘green’ considerations!
What about you? Are you still drinking bottled water?
Yeah, we stopped with the bottled water a couple of years ago. We use reusable bottles.
Incidentally – we live in Michigan where you pay a 10-cent deposit on every can and bottle when you buy your drinks at the store. So, a 12-pack of pop selling for $5 would really cost you $6.20. When you finish the drink, you take the containers back to the store and get your $1.20 back. A lot of people still throw their cans and bottles on the ground. The good thing is that homeless and little kids collect them for the money!
The thing is, they only do this for carbonated beverages – not water, juice, teas, etc. My husband was just talking about how absurd that is. They did this, initially for the litter problem, but it obviously doesn’t help when the majority of the containers are exempt.
I remember when the whole bottled water craze hit and everyone was clamouring to be just like the celebs. I was sad to see it was one fad that stuck. I’m all for learning about water safety, but it turned into an eco-nightmare as everyone switched to disposable bottled water and stopped looking at water quality. One of the largest water brands sold is plain old tap water from a city near me that I would not consider one of the healthiest places to drink from. They certainly don’t call it tap water, but that’s what it is.
We filter out tap water and use glass or our Kleen Kanteens. We’re fortunate enough to not have flouridated water here, too. I’m concerned about chemicals and hormones in the water, but I’m not sure any source that I would feel ecologically ethical about using wouldn’t give me the same concerns.
We have a water filter too. Amazing what a difference it makes. you really can then tell how chlorinated normal tap water is compared to that. I have to admit I do occasionally buy a bottle but usually refill from filter tap for weeks. However have been meaning to get a pretty aluminium bottle there are some great ones around
We’re lucky … we have excellent tap water so don’t need a filter or anything. We have a couple of reusable bottles (my favorite is the Eco-Vessel which is insulated and prevents condensation on the outside of the bottle) and we’ve gotten in the habit of filling them and taking them with us whenever we leave the house. Both of them are stainless steel. It’s amazing how much money one can spend on bottled water while traveling … not to mention the waste.
By the way … lovely model in the picture! 🙂
well that’s weird; I’d responded to comments but they disappeared. Sigh.
Small footprints, I love the sound of the Eco-Vessel; I’d never heard of that one…
Nazima, I mentioned in my comment that you might like to read into aluminium before purchasing – some say there is an alzehimers link, so stainless steel is safer 😉