a simple choice

while wondering about the million mass of people clamoring to buy the iphone today (and then pitching their current phones), my thoughts returned to the never ending dilemma of buying and discarding water bottles. i'm a regular offender (carbonated h2o is my weakness but i won't buy the pepsi/coke water brands acqufina-- #1 seller & dasani-- #2 seller in the nation). lately, i've really been trying to break the habit. i saw an article today, message in a bottle, from fast company that might just scare me out of my numb complacency enough to commit to tap water. some jaw dropping stats from the article..

• We pitch into landfills 38 billion water bottles a year--in excess of $1 billion worth of plastic.


• 24% of the bottled water we buy is tap water repackaged by Coke and Pepsi.


• Worldwide, 1 billion people have no reliable source of drinking water; 3,000 children a day die from diseases caught from tainted water.
  
• San Pellegrino's 1-liter glass bottles weigh five times what plastic bottles weigh, dramatically adding to freight costs and energy consumption. The bottles are washed and rinsed, with mineral water, before being filled with sparkling Pellegrino--it uses up 2 liters of water to prepare the bottle for the liter we buy. [ouch! i really gotta stop buying this stuff!]

it's time for us all to start making a choice about the luxury of bottled water.

update: how to green your water... lots of tips & plenty of info to help you tackle serious h2o conservation. here's a green guide from treehugger. one tidbit from the EPA: Much of the world gets by on 2.5 gallons of water per day. The average American uses 400 gallons per day, 30% of which is for outdoor uses and half for watering lawns- 7 billion gallons per day. [damn suburbs!] also check out ideal bite for advice on water filters and bottles to tote your l'eau.