Author’s Note: This is the first in a series of “Sustainability Shifts” , challenging members of the campus community to make small changes towards more sustainable living – and share their experiences online.
Summer is on its way which means sunshine, swimming pools, and spending time outside. It also means working up a sweat walking to the office or even strolling down an un-air-conditioned hallway. To cool off in your cubicle, nothing says refreshment like a icy drink of H2O. But before you reach for a bottle of water, think about the environmental impact of that plastic beverage container.
Bottled water is far from being sustainable. For starters, plastic is made from petroleum, a non-renewable resource. Currently we use about 1.5 million barrels a year to make disposable bottles, and that doesn’t include all the fossil fuels involved in shipping that water to local stores. Once the bottle is emptied, it is likely to end up in a landfill. Despite efforts to recycle at KU, less than 25% of plastic bottles are being recycled in the US. Even when they are recycled, they can’t be made into new plastic bottles but are “down-cycled” into other materials that may eventually end up in the garbage. To add insult to injury, the water in that eco-enemy probably isn’t much different than what comes out of the tap.
Image: “Plastic Bottles, 2007″ by Chris Jordan depicts the 2 million plastic bottles used in the US every 5 minutes.
A simple solution: bring your own bottle. For what you spend on water in less than a month’s time, you can buy a good reusable bottle or two and fill it up at the tap. (If you are not a fan of the flavor of the water at work, use a filtered pitcher or bring it from home.) The water from your faucet is much cheaper, it is produced locally here in Lawrence, and the process cuts down on the use of fossil fuels.
One note: With the recent hype about plastics that contain a chemical similar to the hormone estrogen, it may be best to opt for aluminum or stainless steel bottles. You can get these online and at sporting goods stores, and I’ve even seen them in the health food section of my local grocery store. You can also get plastic bottles made of HDPE plastic which doesn’t contain BPA – they are the ones that look more like the plastic used to make milk jugs.
So try to put a personal ban on bottled water. You may be surprised to see how much you save…beyond just the environment.
Super Shift: Already bringing your own bottle for water? Try not to buy ANY beverages in plastic bottles. Aluminum cans are easily recycled and can be back on the shelf as new cans in as little as 60 days. Do you really need 20 ounces of soda, anyway? You can even buy milk in returnable glass bottles at local grocery stores.
Carol said,
June 3, 2008 at 9:57 am
As far as the BPA in bottles is concerned, if your plastic has a number 7 on the bottom, it contains BPA. Currently, Camelbak and Nalgene are working to make all of their drinking accessories BPA free and some of their products meet that standard already. (source: Backpacker Magazine and sales clerk at Backwoods in Overland Park)
kusustainability said,
June 3, 2008 at 1:42 pm
Thanks, Carol!
The National Geographic Green Guide also has some good info on plastics, and there is another thorough explanation here. As a general rule, plastics number 2, 4, and 5 are probably safe (and 1 for single uses). Of course, these are still difficult to recycle around here and are still made of petroleum.
With a baby on the way in the coming days (you might have guessed based on that last link) I’ve also been concerned about BPA in baby bottles. There is an informative guide on Z Recommends if anyone else is interested.
- Jeff
Steph said,
June 3, 2008 at 2:17 pm
Be Inspired: Watch Tap Dat Water
Dominic Conti said,
October 13, 2008 at 7:59 pm
I have been using the BPA free bottles and i can say they are much better. Not only does your water taste better but you always have it on your person and can use a carabiner to hold it so you don’t waste room on your backpack.
Joe Stogsdil said,
October 14, 2008 at 1:26 pm
I have an older nalgene that I use regularly instead of disposable bottles, and although it may contain BPA, it’s not necessarily harmful unless you’re using hot liquids in the bottle. I love my nalgene; less cost, less mess, easy living.
Julie Thomas said,
October 14, 2008 at 7:46 pm
I have used a nalgene for quite awhile, but I tried really hard to use it all the time these past two weeks. I did slip up once on the first day and it was stupid because I had my nalgene with me! This project made me more conscious that it is easy to carry around my nalgene and always remain hydrated (which is good for me) and not produce unwanted plastic bottle waste (which is good for the environment). It’s a win win really!
Keri Schreiner said,
October 14, 2008 at 10:56 pm
For this challenge, I went out and bought one of the stainless steel water bottles and during these two weeks, I have not used any water bottles and I have not bought any beverages that came in a plastic bottle. I thought this was going to be hard, but when I found out that the plastic that I was recycling wasn’t going to make new plastic bottles, I knew I had to change my habbits to help the environment and it was very easy!
Ashlee Bade said,
October 15, 2008 at 1:43 pm
Using a reusable bottle saved me a lot of money. Normally, I would buy bottled water all the time. It was not too hard to remember to bring the reusable one, but if I did I just refused to buy one and sooner or later I remembered to bring mine. Now that I know that it does make a difference, I feel a lot better about not using bottled water, which makes it easier to do. I did not know before that it could not be recycled into the same thing.
Monica Routman said,
October 21, 2008 at 8:12 am
Using reusable water bottles is what we’ve all been doing all along, the only change is people don’t usually reuse them. Any water bottle, or bottle of any kind is really reusable. It was not difficult for me to make this change because I already wasn’t using water bottle after water bottle. What I did do, was get my three sweetmates to reuse theirs as many times as I could. My roommate even bought a water filter piture to use from now on. We also got two other rooms on our floor to start recycling.
Rion Glynn said,
October 21, 2008 at 5:54 pm
I have been using a swiss made Sigg water bottle. It’s great because it keeps the water cold and is very sturdy. It is a good alternative to plastic water bottles because it can hold more water and it is great for the environment.
Taylor Henton said,
October 22, 2008 at 10:42 am
During a two week period I chose to abstain from using disposable plastic bottles and replaced them with a refillable water bottle. I found this to be just as easy as grabbing a plastic bottle out of my fridge, and actually saved $10 dollars doing it! I had previously hypothesized that it would be a hassle, and didn’t realize how wasteful buying disposable water is, even if you do recycle them. I now have completely stopped using the disposable bottles and converted to a refillable bottle.
Dena Hart said,
November 17, 2008 at 2:54 pm
An interesting article about efforts to eliminate the distribution of bottled water on other campuses (this article is about Washington University in St. Louis).
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/78D790CF6D39C88E862574FE00158C87?OpenDocument
Richard Cure said,
January 24, 2009 at 7:51 pm
In bringing ones own bottle one saves the need of a new bottle. How can you get more conserving? So why the BYOB in your article?
kusustainability said,
January 26, 2009 at 9:51 am
Richard – Using a bottle you already have is a great way to conserve resources! However, it is best to use something that is not designed to be disposable. Otherwise, the plastic can start to break down and leach into your water (if you water tastes or smells like plastic, you are probably drinking plastic). From a health perspective, you are probably better off using a glass bottle or buying stainless steel. And from an environmental perspective, I think it is best to avoid plastic whenever there is a good alternative so we can conserve our petroleum resources for products we really need.