I don't know why this did not occur to me earlier, and I blame myself for it, but I came to this decision finally.
I WANT TO STOP BUYING WATER AND OTHER BEVERAGES IN PLASTIC BOTTLES!
Look, it's simple, the lesser bottles we use – the lesser plastic will be used. Using plastic hurts our environment (not only while producing it, but also after it was discarded). So, why are we still using plastic bottles? I personally don't buy that much bottles, but if to estimate it 3 bottles a month, it still becomes 36 per year. I recycle them always, but I don't know if I can trust our recycling system, there is still a lot of trash that ends up in the ocean.
Starting this month I want to do better than that and bring that number to ZERO.
If you live in urban surroundings, you will find that most every public place you go nowadays has water fountains. So, why not carry a portable beverage container? There are so many options available, different colors, forms and purposes... I prefer thermoses, as I am a tea drinker I like to keep it hot, but thermoses works as well for cold drinks ;) When I travel, a thermos might be a problem at the security check, but that's because they can not see the contents of the bottle in xray, so I take my transparent plastic bottles (not forgetting to finish my drink before the security). My first stop before finding my gate is a bottle refill station.
For those who like to count if they drink 2 liters a day, there are even bottles which measure your liters for you and send this data to your phone! Recently I found a bottle that makes my water alkaline, this not only helps you loose weight, but also has great health benefits.
Are you looking for a good bottle? Gizmodo might help you: 9 Reusable Water Bottles Recommended By Gizmodo's Staff
If you found yourself in a situation that you have no other option, but to buy bottled water, then see if you have an option of buying it boxed instead. I think this is a neat idea, check out boxedwaterisbetter.com.
Here are some scary facts:
– Americans used about 50 billion plastic water bottles last year. However, the U.S.’s recycling rate for plastic is only 23 percent;
– Making bottles to meet America’s demand for bottled water uses more than 17 million barrels of oil annually;
Here are some good sources to read more on the subject:
Ban the bottle
Stop Drinking Bottled Water (Gizmodo)
Why Is Bottled Water So Expensive?
I truly hope that you would join me in a bottle-free challenge! Feel free to comment to this post and lets discuss it further.