Bottled Water
Bottled water is nothing more than tap water, dolled up in a package that is easily portable for our fast-paced lifestyles. The three main problems associated with bottled water are production, shipping and the amount of bottles that end up in our waste stream.
*Americans buy an estimated 25 billion single-serving, plastic bottles of water per year. Eight out of 10 (22 billion) will end up in a landfill.
*1.5 million barrels of oil are used annually to produce water bottles for America alone. This is enough to fuel 100,000 U.S. cars a year.
Investing in a water filter and a reusable bottle will save you some serious cash. If you had a bottle-a-day habit, and each bottle cost $1.49, you would save $544 a year.
Source: Container Recycling Institute, Earth Policy Institute, reusablebags.com
Rechargeable Batteries
While batteries have added convenience to our lives, they are extremely harmful to our environment. Batteries contain several toxins that can leak into our soil poisoning our wildlife and contaminating our water supply.
*Every year in the U.S. more than 3 billion alkaline batteries are sent to the landfill.
*Rechargeable batteries can be used more than 100 times if charged properly.
Switching to rechargeable batteries throughout our house will save tons of money and lessen our negative impact on our environment.
Source: www.greenbatteries.com, Union of Concerned Scientists
