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At work I usually drink lots of bottled water( 3 to 4 bottles every day) This year I made a pledge to not to bring or use any plastic water bottles at work. So far I've been using the reusable water bottles. I fill up every morning with my Brita water filter. The only hard thing is to remember to bring them home every day. So I purchased three of them to make it a little easier on me.

So if I drink 4 a day for 180 days ( I'm a school teacher and have to be there that many days according to the state of NJ ) that = 720 bottles not used:D
At 5 to 6 dollars a case - 25 bottles to a case roughly and 28 cases a year = a savings of 158 dollars.

Yes i know i have to pay for filter refills but its still a lot better for the environment-
:Banane33::Banane11::Banane33::Banane11:

I read recently just under 2 million barrels of oil a year to make all those disposable water bottles in the US.

Good for you, Coaster! :Banane09:

One person at a time, one step at time, is all it takes to change the world.

Here's something you can do along with the bottled water:

Today the wife and I picked up 16 linen napkins, which is the number we came up with to cover 1 week of using them at both work and home. I also made a few bundles of a linen napkin with some old silverware we had, and I will keep one in my backpack and my wife will keep one in her purse, to be used any time we eat out (whether together or apart, whether getting lunch at work or going out for dinner).

This only cost us about $30 to get into and adding them to our weekly laundry load will be negligible. Not only does this save some trees but also the processing energy it takes to create paper napkins and the landfill space they take up afterward.

They sure do feel better on your face than a paper napkin, too. ;)

To take it a step over, I got a Bento box (www.laptoplunches.com)-- so no brown bagging and all those little plastic bags. I have to find the cloth napkins I bought. (Everything fits nicely in the laptop lunch box. (However, while it comes with a water bottle, it is a "soft bottle" which I don't think much of for storing liquids).
I love the laptop lunch box as it seems like it encourages me to be a little creative in what I put in my lunches so it isn't a sandwich every day. That isn't positive or negative for the environment but variety is good for your health.

My coworker uses little plastic washable containers and used bottles to put sandwiches, carrots, salsa, etc. etc. which is a good option as well.

--des

Good for you, Coaster! :Banane09:

One person at a time, one step at time, is all it takes to change the world.

Here's something you can do along with the bottled water:

Today the wife and I picked up 16 linen napkins, which is the number we came up with to cover 1 week of using them at both work and home. I also made a few bundles of a linen napkin with some old silverware we had, and I will keep one in my backpack and my wife will keep one in her purse, to be used any time we eat out (whether together or apart, whether getting lunch at work or going out for dinner).

This only cost us about $30 to get into and adding them to our weekly laundry load will be negligible. Not only does this save some trees but also the processing energy it takes to create paper napkins and the landfill space they take up afterward.

They sure do feel better on your face than a paper napkin, too. ;)

I got a case of bottled water and have been using the bottles ever since - though the initial purchase was wasteful, it was essentially like getting 24 reusable bottles for about five bucks (not bad!)

Good idea, it's not only better for the environment, but could be for you as well.
I just read one of the best articles on studies of plastics in our household in the LA times today: http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-he-plastics10sep10-2,1,5477633.story?coll=la-headlines-health&ctrack=1&cset=true
If anyone has trouble accessing it, I'll be happy to email you a text copy.

It opened my eyes to a lot of plastic around our food I never even noticed before (besides water bottles) and I'm making some immediate changes due to reading this.

tarabell it wont let me view it ! It said I have to become a member.

Afraid to say, I'm still using bottled water, but I only use 1 bottle a day & refill all day long. At some point I'm going to find a glass or washable bottle or something else I like and get about 10 of the things so I can take a batch to work & bring one home each day. At the end of the week I can wash and take them back to work on Monday.

Even then, I'm still going to keep bottled water in the car for emergencies. I don't trust tap water sitting for days/weeks to still be healthy even if I boil the water & container.

waytogo you guys! i admit to once being a bottle guzzler, but i have filled a bunch of them and put them in the fridge at home. i am going to make a point of not buying them anymore, since i don't buy pop in plastic bottles (i actually don't buy much of it at all, maybe once a day during the week to go with lunch)......

So far so good. Remembering to fill up each morning has been the only tough part.

Good going, folks. I think you're starting to catch up to me.

I grew up on NYC tap water and still can't understand the bottled water thing.
Proof again that I'm thickheaded and obstinate.
I only drink the bottled stuff if I'm at an event where that's the only water supplied, and if it's provided free.

I use platic mugs with sip lids - usually intended for coffee. Now that's I've mostly kicked coffee I mostly use them for water.

I fill it up wherever I am and refill it at the next place I am. It's easier to fill than a narrow-necked bottle and can get clean in a dishwasher now and then. Mostly I just rinse it out. Once in a long while one gets lost or breaks apart, then I spend a couple bucks for another.

Um, how did humankind ever possibly survive over millions of years without water supplied in narrow-necked plastic bottles???

I've never believed in drinking bottled still/flat water. I remember many, many years ago reading a Consumer Reports article where they ranked NYC tap water higher than every single brand of bottled water they tested. From that moment on I recognized what "evian" is spelled backwards.

But I do have a weakness for sparkling water. I used to drink a case or more of it a week, and for a while I took a 2L bottle of it to work every day. Fortunately I have cut way back for both cost and (more recently) environmental reasons. I have been indulging in a case or two a month this summer because it's so freakin' refreshing, but prior to that I went several months without buying it all, and I may go back to that mode now that fall is here.

I'm not able to obtain locally sourced sparkling water, but at least the stuff I do buy (Talking Rain or Tahoma) is sourced near Seattle, so it's only being shipped a couple hundred miles instead of all the way across the country or worse.

Occasionally I'll be out somewhere with my son without having properly planned ahead, and will need to buy him some water. When that happens I at least try to buy from the most local source possible. Even minimarts carry a wide variety of brands, and there's usually at least one that's local.

A potential health problem with the water from most municipal water systems is the chlorine they add to kill all the evil stuff. Chlorine is a substance the is best to not be in your body. Some say the fluorine is just as bad. I am lucky that I have well water. Also all bottled waters are not equal. Water processed with a reverse osmosis system filters out anything larger than the water molecule. If we going to use bottled water, we should make sure we recycle every one of the things.

We were talking about the plastic/water bottle issue at my book club the other night. Several of us mentioned (including me) how we've replaced our sandwich bags with wax paper, thrown out our Glad microwave containers in favor of pyrex/glass, and drink out of washable glasses again instead of bottles.

Bit I also learned how quickly in LA an environmental issue can escalate into full blown obsession (or maybe thinly disguised oneupmanship) once health also enters the picture.. :D

Anyway according to my book club (who know these things), the ultimate water bottle, can be bought here: www.mysigg.com
One woman who won't let her kids drink from anything else, has a dozen as sippy cups.

I have to say, some are very pretty -- maybe have to drop a hint to the family for my birthday....;)

I have one of those bento boxes too, I haven't used it a whole lot (only had one quarter at school with back to back classes around lunch time since buying it), but I love it.
For drinks I have 2 Sigg (http://www.mysigg.com/index.asp) bottles, my boyfriend has one too. I think they're nicer looking that any other reusable bottle, plus because it's made of aluminum there is no plastic taste. It also has a special coating on the inside that makes it safe to carry really acidy juices in it.

Most municipal water systems use fluoride, not chlorine. I live in the only major American city that uses chlorine, and the dentists are always fighting to get it changed.

Fluoride and chlorine are both toxic, and both bad to ingest.

Problem with fluoride (used in the vast majority of American water treatment systems) is it's difficult to filter out. Yes it reduces tooth decay, but consuming fluoride is not the best way to accomplish that. There's a reason we're taught at a very early age not to swallow our toothpaste.

The advantage of chlorine is that it evaporates if water is left to sit out for a few minutes, and is extremely easy to filter out with a simple charcoal filter. We have a filtered water tap on our sink, and our shower head is attached to a very inexpensive inline filter. And (like almost everyone) we use fluoride toothpaste, so fluoridated water wouldn't do us much good anyway.

I've been following the issue of water bottle safety closely for several years. My take:

I'm not convinced the Sigg bottles are a healthier alternative to "plastic" bottles. They're still lined with epoxy, which is still plastic. If it's the same epoxy as used in canned goods, it contains Bisphenol-A (BPA), which numerous food companies (including the "natural" and organic ones like Muir Glen) have confimed is present in their can liners. See polycarbonate/Lexan below for my view on BPA. Whether this is a danger in water bottles is unknown at this point. I would NOT run an epoxy lined bottle through the dishwasher or scrub it inside with anything abrasive.
Polycarbonate/Lexan bottles (the hard, clear ones that come in all the beautiful colors) may be fairly benign IF they're in good shape. The plastics industry and Nalgene Corporation adamantly insist that the Bisphenol-A in their product doesn't leach into your water. However: If they've gotten scratched up with use or have been exposed to detergents, they can leach Bisphenol-A, which has been implicated in birth defects. Unfortunately there is only one scientific study on this so far and it was done on rats, but birth defects were off the charts for rats that were raised in polycarbonate cages that had been run through the dishwasher. Yes, I realize this study is not conclusive for humans but for now it's the only hard science available. Bisphenol-A is also a known endocrine disruptor and causes additional problems besides birth defects. We're definitely invoking the Precautionary Principle on this one. Our midwife warned us back in 2005, and my wife is being told in her (naturopathic medical) classes: until more data is available, women of child bearing age should consider avoiding Lexan (polycarbonate) water bottles. Sorry. Yes, I realize how cute the pink ones are. My wife threw out her beautiful (and beloved) tangerine one when we heard of this.
When we must use plastic, we stick with #2, #4 and #5 (polyethylene and polypropylene) bottles. Despite the fact that they impart more plastic taste to your water, the compounds you are tasting in your water are more benign than the stuff you can't taste that's leaching out of the #1 (PET) bottles that bottled water comes in. Never reuse #1 bottles! They are intended for one time use, and even the plastics industry has avoided endorsing their reuse.
Also, all plastic bottles leach at a much faster rate when exposed to heat and/or UV light. Whenever possible, avoid drinking water that has spent time sitting in water bottles in a hot car. Empty and refill those bottles with fresh water whenever possible. If you keep water in your car for emergencies it won't kill you, but it is best to refresh it periodically.
Whenever possible we use the Kleen Kanteen (http://www.kleankanteen.com/) bottles. These are the only unlined stainless steel bottles we have found. My wife has used a 40oz one for several years, and although it shows the dents, scars and bulges of incredible use, it's still working just fine for her. Nothing is perfect, but except for the rare few with nickel allergies (the Klean Kanteen uses a low-nickel alloy, but it does contain some nickel) this appears to be safest choice for "durable" bottles by a wide margin.
Speaking of "durable", if breakage isn't a consideration nothing is safer than glass. We NEVER used anything but GLASS bottles for our baby.

I've been following the issue of water bottle safety closely for several years. My take:

I'm not convinced the Sigg bottles are a healthier alternative to "plastic" bottles. They're still lined with epoxy, which is still plastic. If it's the same epoxy as used in canned goods, it contains Bisphenol-A (BPA), which numerous food companies (including the "natural" and organic ones like Muir Glen) have confimed is present in their can liners. See polycarbonate/Lexan below for my view on BPA. Whether this is a danger in water bottles is unknown at this point. I would NOT run an epoxy lined bottle through the dishwasher or scrub it inside with anything abrasive.
Polycarbonate/Lexan bottles (the hard, clear ones that come in all the beautiful colors) may be fairly benign IF they're in good shape. The plastics industry and Nalgene Corporation adamantly insist that the Bisphenol-A in their product doesn't leach into your water. However: If they've gotten scratched up with use or have been exposed to detergents, they can leach Bisphenol-A, which has been implicated in birth defects. Unfortunately there is only one scientific study on this so far and it was done on rats, but birth defects were off the charts for rats that were raised in polycarbonate cages that had been run through the dishwasher. Yes, I realize this study is not conclusive for humans but for now it's the only hard science available. Bisphenol-A is also a known endocrine disruptor and causes additional problems besides birth defects. We're definitely invoking the Precautionary Principle on this one. Our midwife warned us back in 2005, and my wife is being told in her (naturopathic medical) classes: until more data is available, women of child bearing age should consider avoiding Lexan (polycarbonate) water bottles. Sorry. Yes, I realize how cute the pink ones are. My wife threw out her beautiful (and beloved) tangerine one when we heard of this.
When we must use plastic, we stick with #2, #4 and #5 (polyethylene and polypropylene) bottles. Despite the fact that they impart more plastic taste to your water, the compounds you are tasting in your water are more benign than the stuff you can't taste that's leaching out of the #1 (PET) bottles that bottled water comes in. Never reuse #1 bottles! They are intended for one time use, and even the plastics industry has avoided endorsing their reuse.
Also, all plastic bottles leach at a much faster rate when exposed to heat and/or UV light. Whenever possible, avoid drinking water that has spent time sitting in water bottles in a hot car. Empty and refill those bottles with fresh water whenever possible. If you keep water in your car for emergencies it won't kill you, but it is best to refresh it periodically.
Whenever possible we use the Kleen Kanteen (http://www.kleankanteen.com/) bottles. These are the only unlined stainless steel bottles we have found. My wife has used a 40oz one for several years, and although it shows the dents, scars and bulges of incredible use, it's still working just fine for her. Nothing is perfect, but except for the rare few with nickel allergies (the Klean Kanteen uses a low-nickel alloy, but it does contain some nickel) this appears to be safest choice for "durable" bottles by a wide margin.
Speaking of "durable", if breakage isn't a consideration nothing is safer than glass. We NEVER used anything but GLASS bottles for our baby.


Lots of interesting info -great post:)

I've been following the issue of water bottle safety closely for several years. My take:
Polycarbonate/Lexan bottles
Whenever possible we use the Kleen Kanteen (http://www.kleankanteen.com/) bottles. These are the only unlined stainless steel bottles we have found. My wife has used a 40oz one for several years, and although it shows the dents, scars and bulges of incredible use, it's still working just fine for her. Nothing is perfect, but except for the rare few with nickel allergies (the Klean Kanteen uses a low-nickel alloy, but it does contain some nickel) this appears to be safest choice for "durable" bottles by a wide margin.
Speaking of "durable", if breakage isn't a consideration nothing is safer than glass. We NEVER used anything but GLASS bottles for our baby.


Epoxy is NOT Plastic. It is a resin-based adhesive. Nothing alike.
Polycarbonate and PMMA (Lexan) are two quite distinct substances. Lexan does not have the abrasion problems of poly.
As for good bottles: Get a canteen/water bladder and dilutely bleach it occasionally.
If you want safe baby bottles, use Pyrex or something similar.

Always inspect bottles and everything else for damage and wear and fix or toss suspect items.

We bring re-usable containers for restaurant leftovers. We started because the styrofoam clamshell boxes wouldn't sit flat in our bike panniers and would leak if tipped on edge. Less styrofoam waste is a side benefit. I leave a few nested in the rack trunk on our triplet.

I've always wondered why bottled water is safe after sitting in PET bottles for a few months, but too many chemicals leach into the water if re-filled and drunk later in the same day. Not a critical issue for me -- I don't use them anyway. I use polycarbonate bottles when camping, but not daily. I probably won't worry about that one, either.

I have a ceramic mug at work, but use styro at church. I should start bringing a real mug. None of this stuff is hard once it becomes habbit.

Most chemical leaching occurs when an item is new. Allowing it to be washed multiple times in the dishwasher can drammaticly reduce the amount of chemicals leached into your beverage. I also tend to take new contains and leave them filled with water between dishwashings. That allows the chems to leach out and then be poured off. I'm usually comfortable after about 2 weeks & 3/4 washings.

I just purchase this:

Kleen Kanteen: 40 ounce stainless steel bottle

The other day i drank some water from my lexan water bottle and it had a horrible taste. I hope to have the stainless steel bottle for a long time.

Just a quick update:

Since September I have not purchased 1 plastic bottle for watter or soda. I work really hard a using/remembering my Kleen Kantten bottle.

:D:D

That's great, bud!

Just a quick update:

Since September I have not purchased 1 plastic bottle for watter or soda. I work really hard a using/remembering my Kleen Kantten bottle.

:D:D

That is awesome! I haven't bought any plastic bottles for ~6 months but I'm still re-using the old bottles and filling them with my activated charcoal filter. IIRC, it works out to ~$.05/gallon with the only cost being the replacing of the filter. At some point, the bottles will wear out and I'll have to replace them with something better. Where did you get your Kleen Kanteen bottle?

I purchased them directly from their web site. Ebay has them in different sizes and packages as well.

I think I purchased two 40 oz bottles. They have worked great!!! Mine has some battle wounds such as scraped/dents. Just Yesterday i put some stickers on them.

The stickers didn't happen to be political in nature did they? Looking at your signature line makes me think so ;)You should see the back of my iPod.

I havn't purchased a plastic bottle forever myself. My soda intake is limited to aluminum cans, which all get recycled, but I should be drinking more water. I'll have to check out the water bottle you listed. Looks like a good product.

The sticker is the terrapass logo!;)

I've got atleast 30 plastic water bottles in the fridge right now. So needless to say, it is going to be hard to offset my consumption.

At work I usually drink lots of bottled water( 3 to 4 bottles every day) This year I made a pledge to not to bring or use any plastic water bottles at work. So far I've been using the reusable water bottles. I fill up every morning with my Brita water filter. The only hard thing is to remember to bring them home every day. So I purchased three of them to make it a little easier on me.

So if I drink 4 a day for 180 days ( I'm a school teacher and have to be there that many days according to the state of NJ ) that = 720 bottles not used:D
At 5 to 6 dollars a case - 25 bottles to a case roughly and 28 cases a year = a savings of 158 dollars.

Yes i know i have to pay for filter refills but its still a lot better for the environment-
:Banane33::Banane11::Banane33::Banane11:

I do something slightly different - I take a half gallon jug that they use for milk, and use it for water (most often when I go to the gym). Otherwise I drink cans.