Bottling up the Carbon

You still see them. They are still one of the most ubiquitous sights on the planet. They pop out of gym bag corners and live under the arms of busy executives. They sit on office desks and stand in the side lines at sporting events. They are a small big part of our consumer culture: that global scam, the bottled water.

I admit I use to buy it all the time. It seemed healthier, cleaner, purer, better for me, who cares about the planet, I need my 8 of 8. Right? Aaaah yes the days of buying bottles of stuff I already had at home for free. Makes me want to bang my head against the wall.

Then I realized all that plastic. What a waste. So then I joined the group of people who buy one plastic bottle a week or a month and reuse it by filling it with tap water and putting in the freezer. Well I’m reusing. Really? I’ve had this one for two months. Oh Yeah? I’ve used this one for like all summer.

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Bang. Bang. Bang.

If you are sipping from one of these landfill-clogging, carcinogen-making, planet-destroying, carbon-emitting, waste of hard earned money bottles right now, then its time to offset some carbon. Guilt. Guilt. Guilt.

Here’s the skinny, the DL, the scoop. The food and water watch folks explain that bottled water is a high profit, high carbon footprint, 60 billion dollar industry that promotes low wages, does not promote community development and actually adds to the amount unsafe working conditions in the area. The fact that most bottle water is just tap water with a fancy label is the big problem.

It’s a problem because its such a huge ever growing waste of resources. The industry increases at a rate of 29 billion bottles and year. It takes 17 million barrels of oil to make these planet killers. The plastic doesn’t decompose in the landfill. And now the latest problem is that heated plastic water bottles release carcinogens. Pollution. Harm. Global Warming.

When will we learn? Two basic alternatives exist. Get a steel water bottle. They don’t give off gases, don’t take millions of petrochemicals to make and will last for as long as you need them and can be recycled down the line. Or, another choice, a really hard to grasp concept, that requires a moment’s pause to comprehend in this day and age.

Turn the bleeping tap on and fill a glass.

Bang. Bang. Bang.