Caffeine may kick off my workday, but water keeps me going and hydrated. I've never drank from a single-use plastic water bottle at my desk...and the more you really think about plastic water bottles, the more it sounds silly and ridiculous.
For example, I spotted one of my coworkers drinking from a single-use 1 gallon plastic water jug. Pretty much a different one every other day. Since I'm known to be 'eco', I don't even think I had to ask him about it....he saw me notice and, let's face it, if you do sustainability all day every day people think you are the 'green police'. Usually I fight the perception and live by the Funny or Die "Green Team" creed of Will Farrell and John Reilly (if you have not seen this before, you're welcome). But this time, the eco case was so clear! Pun intended.
Anyways, he started defending the plastic waste and the taste....it took a few random conversations over a few months, but he made the transition. And if he can, you can too! Here's the basics of what I said to get you going:
For example, I spotted one of my coworkers drinking from a single-use 1 gallon plastic water jug. Pretty much a different one every other day. Since I'm known to be 'eco', I don't even think I had to ask him about it....he saw me notice and, let's face it, if you do sustainability all day every day people think you are the 'green police'. Usually I fight the perception and live by the Funny or Die "Green Team" creed of Will Farrell and John Reilly (if you have not seen this before, you're welcome). But this time, the eco case was so clear! Pun intended.
Anyways, he started defending the plastic waste and the taste....it took a few random conversations over a few months, but he made the transition. And if he can, you can too! Here's the basics of what I said to get you going:
1) Bottled water is expensive. Yes, really. Spending $5, 2-3 times per week might seem like a little...but when it comes to water, that's $15/week you don't have to spend at all. Studies have shown bottled water costs 2,000 times more than tap. It's crazy. Most reusable water bottles are $10-$25, that's if you have to buy one...but let's face it, you probably don't need to buy new. I bet you have one lying around from that time you camped. Or played sports. Or there's a forgotten reusable bottle in an office cupboard you can adopt. Or from a promotional giveaway. These are 3 of the 5 extra I have lying around....I daily drink from the cup with a straw (it's great!) Bring one to work and set it on your desk and fill 'er up. It'll remind you to hydrate just by existing in your workspace!
2) Tap tastes better, is safer, and most bottled water comes from the tap. Gotta love Cleveland. Fiji water came up with a campaign to promote their bottled water and picked on Cleveland's tap water. So Cleveland did a study and found more arsenic in bottled water. Blind taste tests also prove that people prefer tap in Boston and nationwide preferred NYC tap water to two kinds of bottled. You probably like the taste of bottled water better because of the psychological trick of it. More expensive tastes better even when it's the same food. But believing in the hype is giving into the man. And here in California, we like to burn the man. The demand for bottled water is as manufactured as the product itself. Because of the Safe Drinking Water Act, tap water is required to provide annual quality reports. Only 3 bottled water companies provide the same transparency. Over 50 percent of bottled water was from a municipal tap (look for "purified" on the label). As "explainer-in-chief", sustainability has Annie Leonard with the Story of Stuff project. This video is specific to bottled water and it'll drain your desire for the bottled stuff (pun intended, again!):
3) Plastic has piled up into a Texas-sized ocean garbage patch. I put this one last on purpose. Because if photos of sea-faring birds with plastic rings around their beaks got everybody motivated, this blog would not need to exist. But something to consider for every single plastic item you purchase or the packaging or for every purchase, really, is where it ends up. It keeps on existing after it goes into your trash can. There is no "away". With plastic, the answer is only 30% of plastic bottles are recycled, the rest end up in landfills or oceans where they stay for 700 years. (See Life Cycle of a Water Bottle). So much plastic has drained into our riverways and oceans that it's piled up in the Pacific Ocean to be twice the size of Texas. And because this massive ocean garbage patch falls far from any country, it's a no-man's-land that'll hang out for hundreds of years. I think we can all agree, plastic is not indigenous to the ocean. Do your part to make sure there's less of it.
Image courtesy of guardianlv.com
What's the reusable you drink your water from at work? Did this motivate you to make the switch? Cheers to you!
What's the reusable you drink your water from at work? Did this motivate you to make the switch? Cheers to you!
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