Waste not, thirst not

Americans’ dependence on bottled water is a slap in the face to the one billion people in the world who lack access to safe drinking water. We can filter tap water flowing directly into our homes, use water coolers or refill plastic containers. Instead, we threw away 38 million plastic water bottles last year. It took 1.5 million barrels of oil to produce those bottles—enough to fuel 100,000 cars for a year. Don’t forget about the carbon emissions to transport these bottles and all the discarded bottles that end up in landfills. Brita and Nalgene recently formed Filter for Good, a campaign urging us to reduce our personal waste by giving up bottled water.