bring your own water bottle

i'm just going to get straight to the point: did you know that bottled water costs 1000 times more than tap water? every time you buy a bottle of water, you're throwing money away! and your tap water is, in most cases, better drinking water than bottled water (however, if you have nasty tap water, just buy a filter - it may seem a little pricey but it will end up being way cheaper than constantly buying bottled water).

not only that, but those little plastic bottles take quite a toll on the environment. every year, the world throws away 1.5 billion tons of plastic. that's pretty gross, and to make it worse, it takes over 1000 years for plastic to break down. ew! if you really have to buy a bottle of water, make sure you recycle it! then think about this: it takes 1.5 billion gallons of oil every year to transport bottled water. and that's not including the chemicals used in the manufacturing of the bottles. tap water just makes more sense all around.

if you still aren't convinced, how about this: plastic water bottles have phthalates in them. phthalates are nasty little buggers that mimic estrogen (they are endocrine disruptors). what does that mean? it means that girls go through puberty at an earlier age and boys become emasculated. reusing plastic bottles isn't really a great solution, because even more phthalates are released the older the bottle gets.

so what is one to do? fortunately there are plenty of alternatives. the ones made out of aluminum are really good, but you can get plastic ones. just make sure it is hard plastic, because the chemicals don't leach out of those; they are #5PP, #2HDPE, and #4LDPE. i use the sigg water bottle, which is aluminum. this is the one i use:

isn't he cute? yeah, it's made for a kid, but i didn't feel like carrying around a huge bottle. i love this thing and take it with me to school every day. the other neat thing about these (besides the fact that you are saving the environment) is that you don't have to put water in there. let's say you feel like some orange juice in the morning...just fill it up and then you can rinse it out and fill it with water later - for free! the bottle cost me around $20 but it's paid for itself several times over already.

like i said, there are tons of options. you can check out the kleen kanteen or new wave enviro products, but that is by no means an exhaustive list. there are plenty of reusable bottles out there.