There are few unsustainable practices dumber than buying bottled water, which usually comes in cardboard cases sealed with plastic.I love the subhead of this article on the question of whether bottled water is any better than tap water (it usually isn't): Americans are spending billions on a drink that is virtually free.
The sad thing is that only about 23% of those little plastic bottles get recycled. For awhile now, people have been saying that a solution would be to add them to state bottle bills, so there is a financial incentive to recycle them.
Well, Oregon has just stepped up, adding water bottles to its bottle bill (and also establishing a free statewide recycling program for electronics!)
Nick over at The Triple Pundit thinks that there are probably some pretty lucrative business opportunities waiting to be found in uses for all this plastic material that will now be kept out of landfills...
hello Bear - so what's the right answer here? water filter on the faucet? brita in the fridge? refill gallons from the spigot at the healthfood store? sparkletts water cooler delivery? helllllp!
ReplyDeletegreat site, thanks for all the info.
I use Brita in the fridge! Then again, our water here in the Bay Area is great. When I lived in Davis, where there are chromium 6 issues from nearby military facilities, we had an in-house filtration system.
ReplyDeleteFind out about your tap water first! Then take action as needed.
On the water bottle side, avoid number seven plastics - stick to the number 2 Nalgenes if you go Nalgene.