7 Really Good Reasons to Give Up Bottled Water

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byGreen Diva Meg



Water Bottles? Other than my beloved tea, there is really only one other fluid I drink on a daily basis and that's water. Embarrassingly, I succumbed to the marketing hype about bottled water years ago and became afraid to drink tap water - perhaps for good reasons in many cases. But, a few years back, I realized I was amassing these crazy piles of plastic bottles for recycling every week. Well, at least I was recycling them...

So, I got busy and found a good water filter and bought myself and everyone in the family a healthy stainless steel re-usable water bottle. It really wasn't so difficult, and I feel so much better about not having to recycle so many plastic bottles!

7 Good Reasons to Quit Drinking Bottled Water



  1. The U.S. is the largest consumer market for bottled water in the world, followed by Mexico, China, and Brazil.

  2. In 2008, U.S. bottled water sales topped 8.6 billion gallons, which represented 28.9% of the U.S. liquid beverage market.

  3. The average American drinks 21 gallons of bottled water per year.

  4. According to MSNBC, the use of water bottles increased dramatically from 3.3 billion sold in 1997 to 15 billion in 2002

  5. National Geographic estimates that 17 million gallons of crude oil is used on an annual basis to produce plastic bottles. If you fill a water bottle ¼ of the way with oil, this is about how much oil is used to manufacture that one bottle! This amount of oil is enough to fuel approximately a million cars for one year.It is estimated by the Container Recycling Institute and ReusableBags.com that 22 billion water bottles end up in landfills every year.

  6. According to Environmental Working Group's scientific study on bottled water vs. tap water, bottled water contains distinfection byproducts, fertilizer residue and pain medication . . . ahhhhh! Seriously - read this article.

  7. The bottling companies have created a FALSE sense of NEED in the U.S. for bottled water by convincing us that our tap water is tainted and bottled water is the solution . . . NOT if you watch this awesome video by the Story of Stuff about the bottled water industry.



Reduce Plastic Bottle Waste with these Easy Alternatives
Choose Safer Plastic Containers: Know What the Numbers Mean


Good Reasons to Recycle Those Plastic Bottles!

  • Although many plastic bottles are being recycled for good re-use as a variety of materials, National Geographic Kids states that only 1 in 6 plastic bottles makes it to the recycling bin!

  • Recycling plastic bottles saves energy.

  • According to recycling only one plastic bottle saves the same amount of energy as powering a 60-watt light bulb for six hours.


So, What Can We Do?

  • Filter your water - There is a wide range of ways to filter you water from a whole house reverse osmosis system to a simple, but effective pitcher for your counter or refrigerator. I use a wonderful Restore pitcher in my kitchen - it uses a combination of regular charcoal filters in combination with a unique UV germ-killing light and the water is super clean and tastes that way too!

  • Get a stainless steel or glass re-usable water bottle - and use it!

  • Get Active - Last month, the Grand Canyon National Park Service approved a plan that eliminates the sale of bottled water! There are water stations in the park to refill water bottles, which a visitor can bring in to the park.

  • Buy cool stuff made from RPET - RPET stands for recycled PET (Poly Ethylene Terephthalate), which is a member of the polyester family. GreenSmart.Biz - where I bought my awesome computer bag.

  • Listen to the Green Divas Sleeping Naked is Green 5-minute segment on No More Bottled Water.



Learn More about the Guidelines for Recycling Plastic
How to Reduce your Carbon Footprint in 30 Days


References for this post include: Livestrong.com Wikipedia

More Why Should We Care Fun! Please join us in being part of the solution! Watch the Green Divas short YouTube video and visit our Why Should We Care Campaign page and enjoy our silly video, donate and share (and get some awesome goodies when you do)! Meanwhile, we are busy lining up even more interesting high-profile folks (we've already talked to Ed Begley, Jr. & Jessica Alba), who are passionate about a variety of causes that help to make this a better world, for this ongoing feature on the radio show. Look forward to hearing from Fran Drescher, Frederique and Carol Alt - all beautiful, passionate women using their power of celebrity and success for good - in the coming few weeks! More fun surprise guests for this segment soon to be announced!

The Green Divas Radio Show, podcasts, audio vignettes and blog posts feature fun and low-stress ways to live a deeper shade of green, while maintaining some comfort and style. Green Diva Meg, co-host Green Diva Lisa and sidekick, Green Dude Paul offer tons of easily accessible information and resources to help make the journey to a more sustainable world easier and a little more fun and entertaining. The radio show broadcasts live every Saturday morning from WMTR 1250 AM in Northern, NJ/NY Metro area, streaming live on WMTRam.com, or catch up on the podcast.

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