I never thought much about water until we moved to a house with a well. The water tasted OK, but not great, so we installed a water softener. That helped a little but not enough, so we began buying bottled water. As the boys got older and we switched to a healthier diet, we were going through those bottles like … well, you know. The recycling bin was almost constantly full of empties as we went through two cases a week. I started thinking about water after watching “An Inconvenient Truth” and the Live Earth concert. Even though we recycled the bottles, it still took a great deal of energy and oil to make, fill and deliver them. It seemed silly to pay $10 a week for water when, in our case, it came out of the tap at home for free. The final straw was when Aquafina announced that their bottles contained filtered tap water. I was paying them to do something I could do myself! We had been recycling but it was time to reduce and reuse, too. According to FilterForGood’s Web site (www.filterforgood.com/learn_the_facts), 1.5 million barrels of oil are used to make water bottles for consumption in the U.S. Last year, Americans threw away 38 billion plastic water bottles; only 23 percent were recycled. “Refilling our own personal water bottle with filtered water from the tap requires far less energy and wastes almost no resources relative to bottled water,” says Josh Dorfman, author of “The Lazy Environmentalist: Your Guide to Easy, Stylish, Green Living.” “It’s an easy thing to accomplish with potentially big results.” Besides saving resources, refillable water bottles keep a lot of trash out of landfills. A press release from FilterForGood states, “if everyone in Illinois were to use a reusable bottle for one week, 39.6 million bottles would be saved. For one month, that would be 171.8 million bottles and for one year it would be 2.1 billion bottles saved.” In Iowa, if everyone were to give up bottled water for one week, 9.3 million bottles would be saved. In one month, 40.5 million bottles would be saved, and in a year the savings would equal 485.8 million bottles. Why is bottled water so popular? It’s a combination of convenience and perceived health benefits. And the advertising from bottled water companies can lead consumers to believe their products are safer than the water from the tap. But that’s simply not true, says Dr. Gina Solomon, a senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental advocacy group. Last spring she told The New York Times, “There is no reason to believe that bottled water is safer than tap water.” In fact, tap water in the U.S. is regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency, which requires multiple daily tests for bacteria and makes results available to the public. The Food and Drug Administration, which regulates bottled water, only requires weekly testing and does not share its findings with the EPA or the public. There are many options for improving your own tap water (if you don’t like the taste of it, particularly if it comes from a well) and doing away with the bottles. These options range from whole house filters to sport bottles with filters (there’s even a YouTube video on how to make a homemade water filter). My family opted for a filter that fits on the kitchen sink. It swivels out of the way when we need unfiltered water (say, for wetting a sponge) and the filter is easy to change. We bought reusable plastic bottles and we also have CamelBaks (basically an overgrown water bottle in a backpack) that we use while riding our dirt bikes. Making the switch to do-it-yourself bottled water isn’t hard; the toughest part is deciding what system to use. A good place to start is the FilterForGood Web site at www.filterforgood.com, where you also can take the pledge to reduce the amount of bottled water you buy. You can buy water bottles on the site, too — for every FilterForGood refillable bottle purchased between now and the end of the year, Nalgene and Brita will donate $4 (up to $25,000) to the Blue Planet Run Foundation, a non-profit organization working to provide safe drinking water to 200 million people by 2027. Water filtration pitchers and bottles are good, inexpensive choices for singles. Filtration bottles are excellent for people with active outdoor lifestyles; some allow users to drink river or lake water in minutes, without boiling or adding decontaminants. Faucet filters are better for families who don’t have to worry about rust or other contaminants. (As they are easy to install and take with you, these are great options for renters, too.) Whole house filters would be best for homeowners who don’t already have treated water. Ask friends and family for recommendations and read the consumer feedback on Web sites like Amazon.com to find a filter that will work for you. We made the switch to D-I-Y bottled water a few months ago and we haven’t had any problems. (I had to change the filter on our faucet unit a few weeks ago and it was a snap.) We keep a large pitcher of filtered water in the refrigerator for visitors and for those days when nobody else refills the bottles. (Since we’ve been filtering our own water, I’ve also noticed that the dogs’ water bowl doesn’t get as slimy as it used to. ) Now that the water tastes better, we’ve also cut down on the amount of pop and Kool-Aid we drink. If only getting my kids to eat more vegetables was this easy. How’s your tap water? The Safe Drinking Water Act mandates that all water suppliers send an annual update to their customers regarding the quality of their drinking water. Many suppliers also provide water quality reports online for various communities, including:
