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Bottled Water - Be Responsible

Americans spent $11 billion on bottled water in 2006, in part because they've been led by snazzy advertising into thinking bottled water is somehow safer or better than tap water. But it’s not. Don't buy into the myth of purity in a bottle. Bottled water is often no cleaner, or safer or healthier than tap water. In fact, the federal government requires far more rigorous and frequent safety testing and monitoring of municipal drinking water.

Additionally, over the past decade, an increasing share of the bottled water sold in the United States has begun to come from municipal water supplies. Many companies simply purchase municipal tap water, put it through a filtration process, bottle it and then sell it back to consumers for hundreds to thousands of times the cost.

What you can do.

In 2008 and 2009, exacerbated by the economic downturn and a growing eco-conciousness, bottled water use actually declined for the first time ever. This is a great turn of events for our planet.

Today, there are many fantastic alternatives to drinking single use, plastic bottled water. You can easily install a filtration device on your kitchen faucet to filter your own water. The best thing you can do is fill a reusable stainless steel water container or, if you must, you can resuse an empty plastic bottle instead of throwing it away (just make sure it's clean and dry before storing).

If you stop or reduce your single-use, plastic bottled water usage and convince your family and friends to do the same, you can make a giant leap toward living a “cleaner life”, save yourself quite a bit of money and have better tasting drinking water.

It's as simple as that.