From "The Story of Bottled Water" Script
 
"People in the U.S. buy more than half a billion bottles of water every week. That’s enough to circle the globe more than 5 times.1"
 
"Guess where a third of all bottled water in the U.S. actually comes from? The tap! Pepsi’s Aquafina and Coke’s Dasani are two of the many brands that are really filtered tap water.2"
 
"The problems start here with extraction and production where oil is used to make water bottles.3 Each year, making the plastic water bottles used in the U.S. takes enough oil and energy to fuel a million cars.4 All that energy spent to make the bottle, even more to ship it around the planet and then we drink it in about 2 minutes?5"
 
"What happens to all these bottles when we’re done? 80% end up in landfills, where they will sit for thousands of years.6 "
 
"Consuming water from the tap...reduces energy consumption by 85 percent and greenhouse gases by 79 percent…Even the best performing bottled water scenario has global warming effects 46 times greater than the best performing tap water scenario.7"
 
Kick the Bottled Water Habit (from StoryOfStuff.org)
 
Bottled water is not safer, or better tasting, or even more convenient, than tap water; it’s certainly not cheaper, and it generates massive amounts of needless waste. The piping, the bottling, the transportation, the greenhouse gases…it’s all unnecessary. So, on a daily basis, we don’t need bottled water, period.
 
As individuals, we can each stop buying it and start using reusable bottles. If you plan to purchase a bottle, we recommend stainless steel or lined aluminum.If you have concerns about the quality of your tap water, or the chemicals it may contain due to treatment or to contaminants, contact your local water utility to ask for a report. To address your concerns, there are many brands of safe, convenient home water filters you can install in your kitchen.
This website was created to suggest you make an intentional decision every time you consider opening a manufactured bottle of water. Consider that bottled water has an environmental impact at every step in the process; the bottles: raw material extraction, raw material consumption, manufacturing, transportation, disposal; and the water: harvesting, transportation, filtering, bottling, transportation (again).
 
REQUEST A FREE, 4" FILLYOUROWN.ORG BOTTLE STICKER
 
Please send your questions, comments, and suggestions to bsmith@leanliving.org. Thanks!