I found this post recently - the video gives a very clear picture of the sheer amount of plastic water bottles we drink our way through and also the never ending cycle of buying and discarding plastic bottles. the video is in Italian, but is very visual and has nice music, so you can feel able to watch it even if you don't understand Italian.
After watching it, I was struck by the thought that in our office at work, no-one drinks bottled water. We don't have a water cooler. We all drink tap water from glasses, or in some cases fill reused bottles up from the tap.....
I recently bought a reusable bottle which I take with me on train journeys etc. Train stations used to be the only place I ever bought bottled water. Now I never do. What about you?
If you want to really think about plastic and how to reduce the amount you use, visit Beth at Fake Plastic Fish.
Thinking Green Thursday
24 comments:
I never buy bottled water unless I am disparate. I have a refillable bottle for trips. Tap water here is not healthy, so we have a filter for drinking water.
I used to. But no longer.
I hear horrible things about water in plastic; especially if the bottle has been heated. I drink a ton of vitamin water -- which is in plastic -- so I wonder if I am throwing away all that money on vitamins that are crashing and burning inside plastic.
At work, we have a filtered water tap. I've kept a large collection of big plastic cups from various fast-food joints, from when I used to eat at such places, and share them with other folks who need them.
Of course, the question is, how often does the filter get replaced? Hm...
I buy bottled water for my runs, but only because it's so nearly impossible to clean reusable plastic bottles. I tried running with a stainless steel bottle, but I live in Houston and often run in temps in the 80s and 90s. A three or four-hour run in those temps plus a steel bottle makes for some mighty hot water!
So I buy little 6-oz bottles for my Saturday long runs and I refill along my route where I can. It's not an ideal solution, but water fountains aren't always available.
That's my only plastic-bottle "sin." I've had a filter on my home tap for a decade and both at work and at home, I drink only out of glass or china. I don't think anything stored in plastic is very good for you, and I'll only drink out of plastic when the alternative (dehydration) is worse.
There's been a thread in the letters page of The Times this week about people asking for tap water in restaurants. Apparently bottled water is no longer "cool and trendy" in London and waiters scoff if you ask for it!
Great idea. I never understood the popularity of buying plastic bottled water. I can understand if people live where the water is polluted. Otherwise, it just seems unnecessary.
Two of the Universities here in Oregon are now banning plastic bottles -- that is, they are not selling them any longer.
I was among those taken in for a long time by the portability and ease of these bottles (although I refilled them for economic reasons). I feel bad, but like so many others really didn't realize the consequences at first.
We travel and now have a built-in filter in our RV. Some places down on the desert usually (not here in Oregon where we are now) really do have undrinkable tap water.
I bought several cases of bottled water for emergency but aside from that, I drink tap water (boiled of course). My city is pride in having one of the cleanest water in the U.S.
Water bottles are horrible for the environment although most of them are recycled but still, it's a big landfill waste. I hope people would invest in those on-the-go reusable bottles. Better for the environment and health!
I never drink water from plastic bottles. The plastics are not stable and release estrogen mimicking chemicals. In Australia metal water bottles are now sold and are replacing plastic bottles for carrying the drinking water we need in the heat.
ISn't plastic the devil's bargain though, eh?
Your great post and the responses generated have prompted me to write about plastics & estrogens on my blog.
In most parts of the US, our tap water is of very high quality, yet bottled water sells and sells. Go figure. Better yet, go think and go act.
We are trying to cut back on our plastic and I like the blog that you linked too. I have a bottle that I can reuse as does my husband. I think they are going to start taxing plastic here in NY....Great post for Thinking Green... Michelle
I never drink bottled water. It's a very expensive and unnecessary luxury. What we get from the tap is fine, and does exactly what it's supposed to do.
Work from home, so no difficulties with the access to the tap (and the water here's nice!).
Do fall into the airport/train station trap though, so thanks for making me think. The small children have got metal "Dr Who" water bottles - why not me?
i boil tap water for drining; but bottled water is very 'fashionable' now here in TT
much love
gillena
Hi, Juliet. I used to refill a plastic waterbottle and use it over and over until I read that the bottle itself is toxic. Now I'm back to water from glasses.
When I was a kid the idea of buying bottled water was weird, something for countries where the mains water wasn't fit to drink.
I have to say I don't like the chlorine taste in our tap water, but a charcoal filter jug takes that out, and you don't have to change the filters half as often as they say! However, I'm sorry to say we still buy fizzy water, though we don't get through gallons of it. I try to buy the thinnest bottles possible, and always recycle them. An old fashioned soda syphon would be a solution...
10 litres of bottled water uses a litre of oil, I've heard. Then there's the question of the masses of tiny plastic granules afloat in the oceans of the world killing marine life.
We've tried to replace our resusable water bottles with glass or metal, even Molly's car supplies, because of the dioxins and false oestrogen things.
Its a shame they ever started to sell water in plastic bottles. We are to spoiled and wasteful.
thanks everyone. Water in Edinburgh is safe to drink though i have in the past used water filter jugs. When I lived in Malawi, we used to boil our water before we drank it.
Good point a lot of you made about the horrible chemicals in plastic bottles. Especially if you reuse a one-use water bottle, then the horrible things just rush out into the water.
Despairing, I'd been reading those letters too, or perhaps a similar thread elsewhere. it's encouraging to see that tap water is becoming cool...
Rabbits guy - devil's bargain indeed...
Greenearth - excellent article you've posted, thanks for sharing
Lucy - excellent point you make - 10 litres of bottled water uses a litre of oil, I've heard. Then there's the question of the masses of tiny plastic granules afloat in the oceans of the world killing marine life.
Great post! I am so against plastic water bottles!
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