Go Klean and Think Outside the Bottle

You may have missed the Fast Company cover story a couple months ago that talked about the incredible impact upon the earth that is bottled water. The article contained some disturbing data about our love affair with bottled water but the one statistic that has stuck with me the most since reading it was this (in bold below):

Americans went through about 50 billion plastic water bottles last year, 167 for each person....our recycling rate for PET is only 23%, which means we pitch into landfills 38 billion water bottles a year--more than $1 billion worth of plastic.

Which means that of those 167 bottles per person 129 will be tossed. I doubt that I've drank more than 15 bottles of water this past year but I still feel responsible to do my part. Here's my challenge to you for 2008:

First, stop buying bottled water, especially for camping, climbing, skiing and other outdoor adventures. Get yourself a Backcountry.com Klean Kanteen and refill it with a water filter or with water from the tap - GASP! - Believe it or not tap water quite often is the same quality of many bottled water brands.

Secondly, if you compete in any outdoor events this coming year (cycling, trail running, triathlon, ultra, trail clean up events) demand that the race directors either eliminate bottled water from their race or that they become 100% committed to recycling every last bottle that is distributed. If they won't do this, don't give them your money. They don't deserve it.

Lastly, insist that your employer not offer bottled water but perhaps an alternative like filtered tap water or a 5 gallon water cooler. Have them take the pledge to think outside the bottle.(- via Treehugger.com)

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