New Water Bottle
// January 24th, 2010 // environment
While 30 million people continue to wonder why it’s a big deal to throw away one plastic water bottle, many college students find it trendy to carry around reusable water bottles. Many people, however, are on the run through the day, so they opt for the convenience of buying bottled water. Most bottles of water cost over a dollar. That $7 a week, ~$31 a month, $365 a year is pocket change to some. That’s assuming you have one bottle a day (instead of the 64 ounces of water per day we all wish we had). I assume you can buy in bulk and save money. Let’s say you’ve already done the math and know that, obviously, you save money by having a filter at home and using a reusable bottle when you’re out. I did this for some time and ended up trusting that the water I used to refill my bottle was clean. (How bad could it be?) Many continue to buy clean, bottled water to avoid this predicament.
What if you could filter your water throughout the day? There are many plastic bottles that have built in filters, but BPA is one of many problems one can experience. (I’m told BPA-free plastic is probably OK, but plastic will leach chemicals into your water eventually.) Even bottles made of other materials (e.g. aluminum) have had their issues. SOLUTION?? I personally have a 27-ounce bottle from Seychelle (specs here). It’s a new product, thus, the price may scare off some. For those that don’t know ways around the price, or simply aren’t a fan of the built in straw, Water Geeks have a solution (specs here)*. (The Australians are allowing fans of the French-press to have a (plastic) option as well). You can’t hang on to the same bottle or filter for too long, but you’re still bound to save money. I realize there are better home filters out there, and drinking from glass is great, but these bottles are the best portable option I’ve seen.
So why wouldn’t you buy a reusable like one of these? No really, someone email me and tell me one decent reason not to make this purchase instead of continuing to buy water bottles that may or may not be recycled, and may or may not have tap water in them. Regardless of change happening from the top, there’s no reason not to wait; start something from the bottom.
Money isn’t an issue for you? Please take a moment to look. No, really, LOOK. What is the rationale behind being wasteful?
*N.B. Water Geeks are currently making donations to Hope for Haiti with the purchase of this bottle. Please do what you can to help the Haitians regardless of if you’re thirsty or not!
Also, Beth Greer has a great book and many online resources for those interested in this and other important topics.
