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Get Off the Bottle Featured on Oct 15, 2007
Challenge
Do you drink bottled water? If you do, your challenge is to give it up for the next seven days.
Rally Impact
3701 people have reduced CO2 emissions by 5.49 tons by completing this challenge so far. That's equal to turning off the electricity of 5 homes for about 1 month!
Challenge Details
Have you become one of those fancy glam wannabes? Complete with a bottle of Evian and a little dog that looks like a rat with hair extensions? Get real. Don’t drink the bottled stuff this week. Save some pounds of carbon dioxide. And get the rat a haircut.
The Carbon Connection
Bottled water is big business. We Americans bought over 8 billion gallons of bottled water in 2006. Most of that water was sold in plastic bottles, commonly ranging in size from small 8-ounce bottles all the way up to those giant 5-gallon water cooler jugs. The carbon impact of drinking all that bottled water we drink may not seem obvious at first. But it all comes down to water and oil.
The plastic used in water bottles is not only made from fossil fuels, but fossil fuels are burned to create the energy needed to manufacture the plastic, form the bottles, and then fill them with water. And, as you know, burning fossil fuels releases carbon dioxide. Bottling all that water in 2006 released an estimated 2.5 million tons of CO2 into the atmosphere.
But that’s not the end of the story. Bottled water then gets transported by truck, train, plane, or ship from where it was bottled to where we buy it and drink it. That transportation also consumes fossil fuels and releases CO2. Even refrigerating bottles of water in the convenience store has a carbon impact since the electricity used by the store’s refrigerator is most likely produced by burning fossil fuels.
Getting It Done
Many people drink bottled water because it has become so widely available and convenient. But some people drink it because they mistrust their local tap water. Your local tap water is actually held to a much higher safety standard than bottled water.
Would you be surprised to know that some of the biggest names in American bottled water actually bottle and sell tap water? (You have to give those marketing departments credit. Which water would you buy—the one with the picture of a mountain stream on the label or one that shows the faucet in a kitchen sink?) So, skip the middle man and drink your own tap water! Not only will you be cutting down on carbon dioxide emissions linked to bottled water use, but you’ll also be saving money. Water from the tap costs you only pennies a day.
Here are a few ways to drink less bottled water:
- Buy a refillable water bottle or two. Better yet, reuse a water bottle you may have already bought.
- Keep one water bottle at work and one at home. Be sure to refill your bottles from the tap, not from a bottled water cooler.
- In a restaurant, ask for tap water instead of bottled water.
Rules of the Challenge
For this Challenge, we’re only talking about giving up bottled water for 7 days. But this is a repeatable Challenge. If you find that your local tap water is kinda tasty after all, you can always take this Challenge again and give up the bottled water for another week. Or maybe you and your team members will even decide to give up the bottles for good. At a savings of over 1000 pounds of CO2 per Rallyer per year, that’s not just water (or carbon) under the bridge!
Learn More
Pacific Institute, Bottled Water and Energy Fact Sheet
Cornell Chronicle Online, article on bottled water
EnergyStar Water Cooler Sales Guide
Let’s start with the known or estimated numbers:
- The average American adult drinks about a half gallon of bottled water per week.
- The processing, bottling, and transport of each gallon of bottled water requires 0.25 gallons of crude oil.
- Burning one gallon of crude oil releases 21.7 lbs of CO2 into Earth’s atmosphere.
Now put all that together to get the following equation:
As always, your numbers may vary. Do you normally drink more or less bottled water than the average American? How far does the bottled water you normally drink travel from its source to where you drink it? Remember, each step in the bottling process and each mile that those bottles travel adds more CO2 to the atmosphere.
Discuss Get Off the Bottle:
refilling the bottles was so easy, fun and moey saver i enjoye it
Refill is easy and convenient. It also provides a great feeling when I don’t have to dump a used plastic after consumption. I am now practicing this approach at work and at home. My next move is to refill with my mug and get rid of the plastic completely
We take the plastic bottles and refill them with tap water. I don’t know why people keep saying they’re one use only, just refill ‘em!!!
Instead of encouraging people to just drink tap water (while it may have stricter regulations, I believe bottled water companies put their water through a pretty stringent filtration process…and they eliminate chlorine and other potentially harmful chemicals that could be in our tap water), I would encourage the use of getting a filter for their tap water. I realize that stract regulations are put upon tap water but I just can’t believe that ingesting chlorine (and potentially other harmful chemicals) on a day-to-day basis is good for anyone.
When you use this challenge you can save two things water and carbon!!!!! It’s double the savings!!!!!!!!!!
We us a Brita filter…have been for years and it works great. But I was still buying bottled water when not home. I just got a great metal bottle. It keeps the H2O cold longer and no leaching of cancer causing poisons.
K, I started over. No more bottles!!!
probably. Oh well, I’ll just start the challenge over again
Hey, question: do you think that the big plastic bottles of juice that you can buy that the market count?
I use a Sigg brand water bottle. It keeps the water totally cold and is so much better for the environment!
my sister uses one in college, but water bottles are so much easier to grab… now because nalgene’s are “poisonous” or whatever you want to call them I got a water bottle like in that style but not from the nalgene company. its from barackobama.com!!! its great!
I bought a 40 oz stainless steel bottle from Kleen Kanteen and I never leave home without it. The mouth is large enough for ice cubes and I don’t have to worry about chemicals from Naglene leeching into the water. Stainless steel is the best!
I usually buy a bottle of water and then refill it at the work water fountain. Now, I will bring my work mug or my trusty Smokey the Bear water bottle:-)
omg…this challenge is so easy for me my entire family are into those cool metal water bottles so i can fill those up for school!
If your state does not encourage recycling by charging a fee when you buy soft drinks and beer, etc…encourage your legislators to consider it. You will not see bottles and cans lying around any more. I wish everyone didn’t use plastic bottles but this is a way to at least get them recycled.
I got me a new reusable 32oz. water bottle to use yesterday. So now I can stop with the bottled water that I had started using, just because it was convenient, after some unknown stuff started to grow in my old bottle. Time to enjoy a bike ride.
i buy refilled water from walmart because the quaility of local water is not so good. But i will try boiled tab water to drink.
Filters are a good way to reduce bottled water use. We have well water, so we bought a Pur filter pitcher – all you need to do is run tap water into the top, and then it filters down into the bottom. You can use it for drinking, to fill Nalgene bottles before working out, etc. and it lasts a while (ours is 3 years old!).
Yeah, but it takes power to break down all the recycled materials… So, yes- You’re saving materials, but not energy, to the best of my knowledge. (a reply for the comment below mine… if it still is by the time I send this.)
4 sum reason evry1 is so against bottled water… i don’t get it! besides the price, its rly not that bad. all u have 2 do is wen ur done RECYCLE THE DANG BOTTLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! is that so hard 2 understand?
I love my Nalgene bottle.
Pretty interesting actually. LOL My grandma thinks there is some kinda bacteria in sink water- as usual she is wrong
Does anyone know if using the reverse osmosis water stations affect the earth? Just curious… Arizona tap water is truthfully awful.
HEY!!!! i just did a debate in school about this. really, all bottled water is is tap water in a bottle. if u can get the same water from ur sink without using up the plastic that makes the bottles and the gas that it takes to deliver it, y arent we doing that already!!!
The plastic bottles are so unhealthy its gross. Every bottle in my home in a Kleen Kanteen (aluminum) and every pitcher is glass. It makes water taste better! :o)
Also, the plastic bottles contain many different oils and chemicals which will contaminate your water, even if its thin plastic.
I use a brita filter and steel or aluminum water bottle instead of a thick plastic bottle like Nalgene. Nalgene tends to contain PVC which will contaminate your water.
I was sitting in on a fifth grade science class where the teacher said that tap water is better for your teeth because it contains fluoride, and bottled water does not.
Also, I find it easier to drink tap water if I fill up a pitcher and keep it in my fridge. It’s always cold and it just tastes better.
The only time you’ll see me with a bottle is at work, where I use the same bottle every time.
Yeah, been doing this one for a while. And if your water isn’t cold enough for your liking (here it definitely is not), just stick it in the freezer for a few minutes. Just too easy.
I am addicted to bottled water and i really hope I can do this challenge:?
The best way to do this one, in my opinion, is right before you start get one bottle of water. When you drink all of the water, just keep putting tap water into it. If it gets nasty use hot water to clean it. Simple and eco-friendly. ROCK ON!
Just say no to bottled beverages. Your tap water is safe and cheap. If you don’t think it is safe call up your water provider and ask for water test results or look at your annual consumer confidence report- that’ll tell you. If you have your own well- test it, annualy.
already do, but sure.
I have to laugh at the companies that sell all of this bottled water…All they do is fill the stuff up out of the tap anyways, then sell it for WAY more than it should be worth. Talk about a ripoff…yet it actually sells.
Why pay for water when you can get it out of the tap yourself? Even buying a Brita filter will be cheaper!
if u do drink bottel water, is it still ok 2 recycle it. cuz dats wat i have been doin 4 da passed year. u get bank off of dat. all u do is save up any glass, plastic or soda cans n then take it 2 a recycling center n they pay u on how many pounds of cans u got. i got $40 off of 3 big black garbag bags of cans
gosh this one is simple enough
? I mean tastes just as good ?
Wow! This is really easy to do! I use a water filter that filters our tap-water. It wastes just as good, it’s just as easier, and it’s probably cheaper, too!
I love drinking water, but usually just drink it from a cup. For sports I use an old water bottle and it’s actually very easy to do.
I drink like, three bottled waters a day. I’m gonna use my brother’s water bottle for lacrosse. It’s big so I’ll just keep refilling it at home. It’ll most likely last me the whole day. Water’s water after all. So long as I’m hydrated.
We’re giving up our monthly deliveries of bottled water. Just can’t justify its cost to the environment. We were going through 15-20 gallons/month, or 3 or 4 of those 5-gallon jugs. We bought a Brita filter and pitcher instead. I have to confess to not liking the taste as much, but it’s an adjustment I’m willing to make. Our city’s drinking water comes from rivers polluted by farm runoff. In the spring time, when runoff is worst, the ammonia levels rise to dangerous levels. The solution? They pour chlorine into the water. Somehow that doesn’t make me feel better! The water coming out of the tap smells like a swimming pool locker room that time of year.
I am going to try to get my whole family to do this, since we always are drinking bottled water.
i’mmm gonna try (:
I’m gonna do this one this is my first ever challenge here! But we were learning about this in school. And the plastic water bottles that the water is in they are made from petrolum oil! GROSS! that can leech into the water!
man this’ll be a little difficult for me but i can just get a reusable bottle [:
this is gonna be tough for me being a bottled water addict..but i will definitely give it a try
water : )
I’m done with bottled water . . just drank the last of it and recycled that bottle. :)
Outside of the eco damage from producing the bottle and shipping the water there is a hidden political danger. The proliferation of bottled water makes people believe that municpal water is not as safe as it should be. When in truth municipal water is safer and cleaner. The water system in the US is monitored by testing rules and regulations proposed by the EPA. Bottled water is under the ruling of the food and drug administration and they don’t require as strict or as often testing. So as we need to upgrade the water supply infrastructure people have a tendancy not to approve funding with these misconceptions.
STOP DRINKING BOTTLED WATER BRING YOUR OWN
SO EASY TO DO – JUST FILL YOUR CONTAINER WITH TAP WATER AND KEEP IT IN YOUR HOME AAND OFFICE FRIDGE.
I hate drinking bottled water because it just seems so frivolous. I grew up drinking well water and no city water anywhere will ever scare me after that anyway. I just keep a few reusable water bottles around everywhere I need them. Too bad I don’t feel as frivolous about buying soft drinks (which I admit I do a couple of times a week)!
also, not all hard plastic leaches chemicals—there are different ratings for different types, and a big movement right now to ban the bad types.
i am ADAMANTLY opposed to bottled water—what a way to waste money and destroy the earth!
we have a revers osmosis/carbon filter on our kitchen sink, and we fill our Klean Kanteens here every day.
at the grocery store where i work, i gently point out to people who buy bottled water that the store has a water refill station where cleaner water (reverse osmosis/carbon filtered tap water, more closely regulated than any bottled water) is available for 30 cents a gallon—much cheaper than the $2 a gallon Dasani stuff that is just making Pepsico richer.
im kinda sketched out by the tap water thing yes, there is a high regulation policy of the tap, but is there anyway to get rid of all the hormones and antibiotics, and other drugs that people release into the water supply?
also my aunt is a chemist and did an independent study on bottled water and found the only water to really be “clean” is Crystal Geyser by CG Roxanne, can anyone verify this hmm i probably should ask her more about it
does anyone feel the same way i do?
My issue with tap water is the chlorine. It’s poison. So I had been using a Brita filter pitcher… but then they came out with that thing about BPA…. and my understanding is that BPA is present in that hard transparent plastic… like they make into Brita pitchers. Is it helpful to filter water and put it into a container that is leeching poison into it? I gotta wonder. I have a stainless steel water bottle that I keep at work, and fill it from a filtered water tap which replaced our old bottled water system. At home, I often drink tap water… but it gives me the heebie-jeebies. I am looking for something like the Brita pitcher in stainless. Anybody know of one?
My dentist told me yesterday that he has seen a steady rise in cavities in his young patients over the past 10 years. The reason? More kids are drinking bottled water, and bottled water has no fluoride.
we are using the Brita water filter for longtime .. almost 4 year.It is really a good investment and safe.
I drink a lot of water so I got a couple of indestructible water bottles at a camping store and a Brita water filter to give it that fresh taste.
Our favorite drink is seltzer water, but we gave it up once we started taking this challenge. Well, there is hope for us yet! Check out this cool product, we discovered over at a friend’s house: “Soda Club”http://www.sodaclubusa.com/default.htm. This little rig makes one liter of seltzer out of ordinary tap water. No new bottles, no needless transport of water. Nice with fresh lime!
I’ve been looking for the individual brita bottles also. I don’t think they sold well and they seemed to have disappeared. What I do now is refill my water bottles by my brita filter pitcher I keep in the frig. until they get nasty and cracked. It would be great if another alternative would be found because we will all soon be buried in plastic from all these water bottles thrown away. pasiefert@optonline.net
I live in a dorm and our water has an annoying amount of chlorine in it. Up until about a month ago, I was going through 24 packs of water probably every 2 weeks, but I have an insatiable appetite for water. It’s my favorite drink. So, I bought a water filter and it’s the best thing. For thirty dollars, I get three months of great tasting drinking water. Excellent idea.
I am Catholic and decided to give up bottled water for Lent. It works really well and I have almost broken the habit.
I reuse my plastic bottle (which I take with me everwhere) constantly.
Living in Southeast Alaska, our bottled water actually produces more CO2 emissions than most other states. We have to ship it here by barge, very unfortunate, and a very long way for that bottled water to travel. Time to buy a reusable bottle!
I (heart) my Sigg bottle. The only complaint I have is with the leaky sport lid that inevitably drips water all over me, but it’s no biggie to remove the lid to take a sip. Oh, and the fact that the opening is too narrow to put ice in the bottle. sigh. The things we go through for our planet.
I have a britta water jug for home and use my old Sobe glass water bottles for traveling. I have dropped them many times and NEVER had one break on me. They also fit very well into the water bottle holders on our bikes! Peace, Rebecca
I bought a water filter for my kitchen faucet and it is the best thing i have ever done. no more plastic!!
Chewy is on to something big…..kill your Nalgene bottle…the soft ones are better, the hard “pretty” ones are #7plastic, which has NO standards and will kill you. Happy Holidays…....
We have a million water bottles laying around the house, we have to get them out and put them into service with the kids.
do anchor tags work on here? editing comments doesn’t seem to be possible. steel bottles on amazon
lots of options on amazon: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw/105-6043388-1171634?url=search-alias%3Daps&;field-keywords=stainless+steel+water+bottle&x=0&y=0
avoid the leaching plastic altogether: http://www.kleankanteen.com/2products/klean-kanteen-27oz.html
Don’t need to buy no stinkin bottle – I use a Brita water filter I bought 15 years ago and glasses I get at Goodwill.
ever hear of phthalates? This is possibly one of the biggest no-no’s of late – particularly for kids and pregnant women.
My vice is Odwalla GreenFuel and I even home-mix that (or something like that) when I can.
To Jellyfish – I know this is negative – but it really is worth thinking about—try showing your wife the images of the floating plastic garbage patch. See what she does then. If that doesn’t get her, have a listen to Terry Gross (freshaire.com) about toxins (including phthalates)in every day products.
I carry a Camelback water bottle that’s got a straw that flips up. I find it’s very convenient, especially while driving.
check it out…
http://www.thinkoutsidethebottle.org/
Group pushes tap water over bottled http://www.bostonnow.com/node/63956
come on Royal Acorns.!only 100 more lbs to go!!
Good thoughts, thank you. What I am going to do then is this – we have a set schedule for when we get water, I believe it is once every four weeks. I will cut that delivery down to 11 times per year from 12. This will save on carbon from the one delivery and cut our plastic use by some amount too over the course of the year. I’ll see what more I can get away with and keep folks posted….
Jelly: Hmm tough call. With pregnancy, all bets are off! At least you could knock-off the bottled water yourself, and maybe she’ll follow your example later? Maybe a really cool Sigg or Kleen Kanteen bottle will help? Even if she still fills it from the big cooler bottle, at least she wont be using as many small plastic bottles when she is out and about. The CO2 comes from both the bottles and the transport of the water by truck.
I need help on this one. My wife is addicted to bottled water, we have the big bottles with the machine in our kitchen. She CAN taste the difference and does not like filtered or boiled tap water. I cannot taste the difference in waters, but my wife can, I swear. Do I tell her to just deal with it (she is pregnant with our third, so I would prefer not to) or is there a way to still drink bottled water and conserve somehow? would love to hear some suggestions….thanks.
Klean kanteen is the way to go for water containers, try to avoid any plastics that will leach BPA’s. They come in several sizes and the water actually tastes like water!
We recommend the Multi-Pure filter, too. We have had one for about eight years. If you have an ice maker in your freezer, you can connect it to that, too (plumber did that for us). I have a friend who has the Amway in-sink filter similar to the Multi-Pure, but they are not happy with it at all.
My biggest challenges is forgetting my Nalgene (at home, at the office, etc.) Love my Brita filter – quick n easy and I’ve had the container forever.
I recommend Multi-Pure brand filters. I had one installed a little over a year ago and in combination with a good stainless steel water bottle you really don’t need bottled water from stores.
just don’t ask me to give up coffee!
I have several Nalgene bottles that I use and have had for several years. Even my toddler has a Nalgene sippy cup!
I have already done this so it’s an easy one for me. The Brita container in my fridge is great.
Time to use my new 1 liter aluminum bottle.
Richminer: By R/O filter do you mean Reverse Osmosis? That seems like a great solution for an office… chilled clean water right out of the pipe. Do you have any info on the one you use in your office?
For a very funny and yet incredibly SCARY discussion about our global plastics pollution problem and the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (“twice the size of Texas and still growing!”), read this morning’s rant... er, article… by Mark Morford of SFGate.com. Yikes.
Our office of 130people or so consumes about 2500 bottles of water/month, CRAZY! We just handed out re-usable water bottles to everyone and we have an R/O filter they can use to refill them.
Honey, where’s my old Boy Scout canteen?
Hey Birdman, I like the idea of the Britta. I filled mine up earlier this evening.
Thanks for the prompt. I knew I should be refilling my existing water bottle rather than buying new ones, but have been too lazy. No more laziness for me!
Going to go get myself a frosty mug o’ tap water right now. It’s Saturday. What the heck? I might even draw two.
Hey folks, we’ve seen some people accept this challenge more than once today. We’ve had some UI issue that might have caused this. This is a “repeatable” weekly challenge so you can repeat it every week if you want, but not daily. BTW, if you make an error in accepting a challenge, you can always “un-accept” it on your “My Carbon” page. Thanks for bearing with us. More info on the game is Here
Those little bottles make a big impact but so do the big ones. We have a built in filter in our fridge that we hardly used. We also have a monster water cooler in our house which sucks up electricity, makes a lot of noise and is a pain in the neck to replace the humongous bottles. Worse yet is the huge truck that drives to our house monthly to drop the bottles off. My wife and I did a blind taste test some time ago and guess which water won! It was a pleasure telling Arrowhead to stop driving the truck to my house and we also saved 40 bucks a month at the same time.
What ever happened to those cool Britta filter bottles? Used to see them in every fridge and they were pretty useful. Somehow ours got washed away by a wave of plastic bottles. I’m gonna go find it and put it back into service.
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