Monday, April 16th, 2007
I resused my water bottle
Actually it was a juice bottle first.
I really needed some healthy yummy juice yesterday, so I bought a bottle (at the local food co-op in Mount Rainier, of course - Glut represent!). This morning I really needed some healthy yummy water, so I poured some from the tap (through a Brita filter of course because this is Washington DC and I have no interest in spending the rest of my week here in the bathroom), and into yesterday’s juice bottle. I carried it around with me all day — to a conference, to the park, even to a coffeeshop — refilling it in water fountains when necessary. What are the advantages of this?
(1) tap water is free. bottled water is not free.
(2) No extra bottle means 1 less plastic bottle produced, 1 less bottle of water shipped across the country, 1 less plastic bottle sitting in a landfill somewhere. If I use this bottle all week, that’s 7 less bottles. If I get a permanent water bottle, like a Nalgene, that means hundreds fewer bottles produced, shipped, and sent to landfills every year — just because of me. That feels good.
(3) I get a hint of flavor in my water.
(4) I get to carry my “Naked” bottle around longer.
Do you know that human beings spend $100 billion dollars on bottled water every year, but for just $15 billion a year everyone on the planet could have safe drinking water and proper sanitation? It’s true. Did you ever stop to think that, at $1.50-$2.50 per liter ($6-10 per gallon), bottled water costs twice what gasoline costs in the United States? Get the whole low-down on the implications of buying bottled water from this excellent OneWorld article from last year.
on Friday, April 20th, 2007 at 5:06 pm:
Home Owners know that tap water isn’t free either, at least if you pay your water and sewer bill. Compared to bottled water, even the cheap stuff at the grocery store, the 1.2 cents per gallon can be ignored.
We reuse the sports style water bottles. Even our 2 years olds can open and use the adult bottles. The lids go through the dishwasher in the silverware tray fairly well if you leave them open.
We also use really well cleaned large apple juice bottles (bigger than gallon size from bulk store) that our kids used to go through so rapidly to store extra water in case of emergencies.
The cost of water compared to gas is really scary as we spend so much time complaining about $3/gallon on gas while drinking our bottles of water.
on Saturday, October 20th, 2007 at 9:20 pm:
Reusing a water bottle is not safe. Do you Know the risks? I suggest you look it up. You will be surprised with your results
on Sunday, October 21st, 2007 at 4:51 pm:
I find it hard to believe that any potential risks of reusing a water bottle outweigh the benefits to the planet. I’ve been doing it for years and haven’t gotten sick yet.