My ultra cool reusable water bottle

Wait. Déja vu, right? You saw that picture of the jar yesterday in my post entitled “my ultra cool reusable cup?” Guess what? My cup and my water bottle? They are the same thing! Two for the price of one. Double economy!

I dip with my jar into the nearest deli and ask them to fill it from the tap, or into a restaurant. I get all the water I want and not a single plastic bottle ends up in the trash. Of course, I could buy some sort of a nalgene bottle but then I wouldn't qualify for the “ultra cool"  description (and I'd be breaking the No Impact no buying anything new rule). Plus, by using the jar, in addition to getting to add the words ultra cool, as I said yesterday, I do a positive thing by taking something—the jar—out of the trash or recycling stream, saving energy (remember, what makes it ultra-cool is that it would have ended up in the landfill or the recycling truck--buying a new jar or a steel bottle for the purpose takes energy and materials).

Here are some reasons, taken from the Earth Policy Institute, that I avoid bottled water:

• Although in the industrial world bottled water is often no healthier than tap water, it can cost up to 10,000 times more. At as much as $2.50 per liter ($10 per gallon), bottled water costs more than gasoline.
• In contrast to tap water, which is distributed through an energy-efficient infrastructure, transporting bottled water long distances involves burning massive quantities of fossil fuels. Nearly a quarter of all bottled water crosses national borders to reach consumers, transported by boat, train, and truck.
• Making bottles to meet Americans’ demand for bottled water requires more than 1.5 million barrels of oil annually, enough to fuel some 100,000 U.S. cars for a year. Worldwide, some 2.7 million tons of plastic are used to bottle water each year.
• According to the Container Recycling Institute, 86 percent of plastic water bottles used in the United States become garbage or litter. Incinerating used bottles produces toxic byproducts such as chlorine gas and ash containing heavy metals. Buried water bottles can take up to 1,000 years to biodegrade.
• The rapid growth in this industry means that water extraction is concentrated in communities where bottling plants are located. Farmers, fishers, and others who depend on water for their livelihoods suffer from the concentrated water extraction when water tables drop quickly.
• Tap water is more strictly regulated for health standards than bottled water.

Need more convincing? Check out Lighter Footstep's Five Reasons to Not Drink Bottled Water.

By the way, Idyllopus, a writer who apparently would rather procrastinate by writing mean things about me on her blog than finish her next book (and I mean that in the most understanding way), posted this funny video about making your own reusable cup. She doesn't say where you can get the Toys R Us catalog if you have canceled your junkmail (PS sorry, Idyllopus, but I'm with your son on liking the second version of the video better).

Lousy Videoblog version 2 on making an Origami Cup
Uploaded by idyllopus

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Comments

[elena]

yikes, well, I like your response to her post, anyway.

[anonymous]

guess a mason jar's too heavy for the high road.

[Aimee]

I've never liked the taste of our tap water, but after reading your list, I'm going to make myself "suffer" through it. At home, at least - not at work! I work in a very old and out-of-date building in which the water recently tested unsafe to drink. Even though it's since been cleared for consumption, I'm not taking any chances! If I don't bring it from home, I'll drink from the water cooler...
Good post - thanks for the info!

[Allison]

Hi Colin,

Have you yet written about the Farm Bill that is now being considered in congress? I think you should; many of the rival bills have components about helping farmers sell locally, conservation, etc.

Cheers,
Allison

[Evan]

Hi Colin:

I'm emailing this post to everyone I know. This has been a topic of conversation in our house for over a week now. They discussed it on NPR last week. I'm glad this issue is finally hitting the mainstream.

Many thanks,
Evan

[Susan Och]

If a person wanted to actually make a dent in the amount of bottled water consumed in their community (as opposed to merely looking "ultra green"), they could lobby their local zoning officials to mandate drinking fountains in all buildings. There are probably ancient, unenforced laws on the books about this since access to clean water was essential to ending the waves of typhoid and cholera that used to hit American cities every summer.

A person could scour their neighborhood for public drinking fountains and publish the results online, either on a community association's website or on a dedicated blog.

A person could make a point of asking when the drinking fountain at the neighborhood library or train station or park pavillion is going to be fixed, And I mean fixed, not replaced with a water vending machine.

[Sharon Astyk]

I live in a place where community water is simply unavailable - there is no public water of any sort. Individuals and community arenas have wells. One of the projects I've been working on is getting our community to put manual pumps on the wells in public parks and schools. Why? Because whenever there's a crisis of almost any sort - flooding that contaminates water supplies in some locations, extended power outage, etc... the water itself or our ability to pump it is an immediate issue. We all saw the people in New Orleans waiting for delivery of bottled water - and dying of dehydration and heat stroke in the process.

We can and should store some water in each of our houses, but in a more extended crisis (power outages in the Northeast caused by severe blizzards or grid problems have been known to last 2 weeks - few people have that much water stored), we would be dependent on bottled water. But that's not necessary - there are simple, sustainable ways to get water out of the ground that use human power. Instead of waiting for helicopters that might not come, householders could get their water from their local school, community center or park.

In addition to the suggestions about public water fountains, those of who live in areas where the water table is fairly high (250 feet or less - that is, much of the east), might consider asking your school, park or other public resource to install a well with a manual pump, both for long term security, and also as a way of getting a drink ;-). This is, I think an important supplemental to the idea that water should be a public resource - and not only available to us when nothing bad is happening.

Two more points. For those with truly problematic water (we have sulfur in huge quantities), I recommend the Berkey Light gravity fed water filter. It is plastic (there's a metal one but the filters aren't quite as effective), but it will last a lifetime, and according to the advertising literature (I have no intention of ever trying it, but it is a compelling bit of persuasion), you can dump raw sewage in the top and drink what comes out the bottom. It is that effective, doesn't require power, and the filters last about 2 years.

Finally, I would not that the San Francisco Chronicle recently wrote a series of articles on the impact of global warming where they noted that by 2050, it may well be more profitable and more necessary for farmers to sell their water allotments to give people something to drink than it will be for them to raise food. Something to think about.

Sharon

[A Million Paths]

I just want to add to Aimee/Sharon that there was a recent write up in Grist about Ceramic filters. If they're rated high enough to get water borne diseases out of the water in the developing world, they're probably rated high enough for use in the US. They're plastic free. You can find out more here: http://www.grist.org/advice/ask/2007/06/27/H2O_filters/

[Dave]

The risk of breakage and injury from glass is real, and is something that shouldn't be ignored. Particularly if you are carrying this around on your bike.

The same arguments about reusing a glass jar that has been thrown out also hold for a plastic bottle that has been thrown out. The plastic bottle won't produce glass shards if (when) it falls on the ground.

Having to take a single trip in an ambulance because you get a deep cut will wipe out the (I think illusory) CO2 savings from using glass instead of plastic.

[Austin]

I use an old glass bottle at work (and get water out of the water filter) and love it. People still drink bottled water here, even though we have great tap water and great filtered water on top of that.
I don't know about carrying around a plastic bottle, as toxins can leech out of the plastic into the water. Why not simply wrap the glass jar in some fabric or something to avoid breakage, or getting cut if it does break?

[SKG]

Ditto Dave, Sharon, and Susan: "Each citizen should portage water!" is appealing on the surface, but it is not, in the end, very helpful, and if we must carry ultra-cool glass to avoid being seen with declasse plastic, it's not safe. On the other hand, citizens banding together to install public water fountains and thus obviate the need for personal water containers is a safe, smart, helpful idea.

Idyllopus's NIM-related dispatches make my complaints about deadly solipsism (of which the Ultra-Cool Reusable Water Bottle is the latest example) better than I have been able to do after months of trying, and they're fun, particularly the ones that feature Kant.

[Megan]

I've been coming to this website for inspiration for a while now but Colin, I think you should stay out of these blog spats. I'm tired of reading petty sarcastic remarks here and the pleas for first money and now attention are also getting old. A great way to keep people coming here to visit you is to stay on topic and not be nasty. I looked at Idyllpus's site and it doesn't make for positive, inspiring blogging which you embodied for so long. She'll have no traction if you ignore her. Please, please, stick with your wonderful opening act: stories about your family's adventures and information to help people change their lives.

[Plymouth]

More public water fountains is a great idea but it will never obviate the need for personal water containers! I hike, bike, and sit in long meetings where I can't just jump up at a moment's notice and find the nearest water fountain. I use a combination of reused glass and plastic bottles from drinks, my Platupus personal hydration system (liketime guarantee!), and a metal thermos (that last one mostly for coffee, not water). It's true that glass bottles have the potential for breakage but I've never had a problem with that. It's also true that plastic bottles leach icky plastic taste into the water (which may accompany icky chemicals that are bad for me). I've even noticed some drinks coming in screw-top metal containers that could be reused, though mostly these are small coffee drink type things. There are so many options.

[Eugene]

I use a filter system and it works great for me. Not a fan of tap water.

Great blog!

EV

[Shauna]

I have recently stumbled upon your blog, and am so inspired! My husband and I actually went through your blog to get some ideas of things we could to, as well. While we fall quite short of the No Impact standards, we do what we can and are gradually working on getting to a better place. :) We are even checking out the local farmer's market this weekend!

I just have to say, I'm curious: did you actually dig through other people's trash to find your ultra cool reusable water bottle?

[Leslie]

my complaints about deadly solipsism (of which the Ultra-Cool Reusable Water Bottle is the latest example)

SKG, what are you talking about?

I just don't get it. All I'm seeing and enjoying is down-to-earth sincerity and not just from Colin.

Snarky is so passe, so yesterday's news.

[Myra Henderson]

While I agree with your stand on bottled water, I question tap water's safety. Our water treatment systems were designed to remove bacteria. But what about the medicines and chemicals that can't be removed by them? More and more people are on all kinds of drugs/medicines and therefore passed on to the water stream via the bathroom. I don't buy bottled water but have a filter that removes chemicals and pesticides and medicines on my tap and use that with a nalgene bottle.

[SKG]

Doesn't snarky mean sarcastic? I'm not being that.

I believe that the separate efforts of individual people (carrying jars, buying light bulbs and composting) are good, but I don't believe that they can solve a problem that needs a group effort.

I like this blog because I keep finding in it ways for me to get off plastic. I don't happen to think the water jar is a good way, but more emphatically, I don't think *me getting off plastic,* however much better I'll feel once I achieve it, is going to matter much--it's just a way to sleep better because I won't be directly responsible for a pen cap or a six-pack ring getting into the stomach of an albatross or around the neck of a seal. I haven't solved the plastic problem, I've just washed my hands of it.

Inasmuch as private, self-directed effort like Colin's allows an individual to feel *too much* better (I've done my work: I eat organic food and use Dr. Bronners soap) and distracts from the more important community effort to get our elected government to move on industry and stop the plastic (and the petrol-fertilized food and virgin-forest Kleenex and so on and so on and so on) being made in the first place, it's dangerous. That is the deadly solipsism to which, without snark, I refer.

[Leslie]

SKG, I look at it from a completely different angle. I put a lot more weight on individual effort than group effort. You seem to have a fatalistic approach to individual effort. You think it doesn't count or won't make a difference. That approach leads to an ethical breakdown where people do wrong things because "everyone" does the wrong thing.

You bring up an interesting question, whether individual efforts alleviate feelings of complicity and lead individuals to feel they've done their share. For me it hasn't. From most of the posts on this blog it seems like people enthusiastically want to increase their efforts.

[Leslie]

SKG, Additionally, I agree that it is important for the individual to expand their efforts beyond their households. That is essentially what Colin is doing.

[Lorena]

Allison, thanks for bringing up the Food & Farm Bill! I wrote to both my Representatives to ask them to oppose Section 123 of Title I of the 2007 Farm Bill. Section 123 prevents states from passing laws to prohibit sale or use of products that the USDA has "1) inspected and passed; or 2) determined to be of non-regulated status."
This broad language would seriously undermine food safety programs and stop states and localities from regulating biotechnology. (I think it may be too late for my state, since I think a law has already been passed here that will preempt local governments from banning GM seeds/plants, but I didn’t want to just sit back and let them make this the case in all states without hearing from me about it first!)
The Association of Food and Drug Officials (AFDO), which represents state and local food safety officials, opposes Section 123, along with Consumers Union, the Sierra Club, the Humane Society of the United States, National Environmental Trust and more than 30 other groups.
I’m afraid they will put the interests of agribusiness ahead of the rights of states and individuals even though something as basic a human right as safe, healthy food is at risk. Will our water be next?
The vote is set to take place July 15th, I think.

[Lorena]

Myra, can I ask what filter you use? I've been buying gallon jugs of natural spring water for about a year now, since our city water contains chlorine and fluoride (and I don't know what else!). Does your filter (or any that you know of) remove these chemicals? I know my digestion is better since switching to spring water, but it sure makes for a lot of plastic jugs to haul to the recycling center, not to mention the expense.

[Lorena]

Colin, thank you for sharing your efforts with the rest of us! No matter what anyone says, you are an inspiration to those who care, and I believe you may even get the attention of those who just never thought about these things too much. Groups are made up of individuals! Maybe a few of us giving up plastic, for example won't "solve the plastic problem", but it sure is a great step in the right direction, and who says we are stopping there? Every journey begins with a single step...If not me, then who; if not now, then when? This is not so we feel smug and sleep better at night, this is how to effect real change - by starting with ourselves first. Thanks again for sharing how you are doing it, No Impact Man!

[Mandy]

Glass, while it may break, is still safer than Nalgenes: "bottles made of polycarbonate can leach the chemical bisphenol A when heated, washed, or exposed to acidic foods."
I think stainless steel is really the best way to go-- the impact of making one water bottle, that can be used for years, cooked in fire, frozen, and won't break, seems about as minimal as it gets.

[critic-naysayer]

"I'm tired of reading petty sarcastic remarks here and the pleas for first money and now attention are also getting old."

Megan, thanks for a voice of reason. I did, however, enjoy the link to Idyllopus. It is nice that someone out there is remembering the class issues and the many unanswered questions that Colin generates.