Earth Friendly Beverages

It’s summer, it’s hot, and I bet your household is going through water like crazy. Here are some tips to make sure that you stay hydrated and green at the same time.

The best thing to drink is tap water - so far as greenness goes. Now, this assumes your tap water is safe. Many people have perfectly fine tap water; but the bottled water and water filter folks want you to think otherwise. You can check the quality of your drinking water by checking with your local water authority. Visit this link to start learning more about how to find out if your water is safe.

Don’t forget to use refillable and recyclable water bottles for your water. See reviews on some typical bottle choices:

• SIGG Water Bottle
• Klean Kanteen Water Bottle

If your tap water is no good, tastes funny, or you’re paranoid, your next best bet is to get a company to bring you water in reusable jugs. You do need to make sure the company you choose is close by, or all that gas wasted creates another issue. After water delivery, water filters are an ok choice. There are some major problems with water filters. I’ve never found any that are recyclable, and they come with some major packaging flaws. Still almost anything is preferable to bottled water. Studies show that most people don’t recycle their bottles, even if they have the means.

Other tips:

• Choose beverages bottled by local companies.
• Buy clear plastic bottles as opposed to colored (not all cities recycle colored).
• When recycling your bottles, remove the lids. Those hard plastic lids cannot be recycled, and some recycling centers will toss whole bottles rather than remove a lid. Sad but true.
• Buy the biggest beverages you can and use cups. Smaller jars, bottles, juice boxes, and so on, only create more trash and take more energy to produce.
• Lose the straws. Do you really need that extra plastic? Most likely not.