In View of Earth Day

It's easy for me to be on the band wagon for boycotting bottled water because I hopped on back in 1992 before there ever was a band wagon.

(It's nice to see others finally catching up to me.)

I just couldn't see any sense in wasting money on the small bottles that were becoming popular when gallon jugs are so much less expensive.

(Talk about throwing money away.)

No matter how poor your tap water is, with filtering devices, reverse osmosis, and bottled water available in gallon jugs and larger, there is no good reason to pollute by repeatedly purchasing those individual bottles. If you drink all of the recommended 64 oz. per day from 16.9 oz. bottles (3.79 bottles per day), at $7 per case of 24 bottles, it's costing you $1.11 per day ($7 / (24 bottles / 3.79 bottles per day)). It may not sound like much, but it adds up to $405.15 a year ($1.11 * 365 days). At $12 a case, it's $1.90 a day or $693.50 a year.

And if you go the convenience route and pay $1 per bottle, at 3.79 bottles, it costs $3.79 per day or $1383.35 per year.

(For one person!)

If you buy your own reusable bottle and fill it from gallon jugs costing $1 per gallon, the water costs 50¢ per day or $182.50 per year, cutting your cost to at least less than half simply by buying water in a larger container.

The store where I usually shop charges 64¢ per gallon, not $1, so it costs only 32¢ a day or $116.80 per year.

(Are you seeing how good it is to go Green?)

It gets better. By drinking reverse osmosis water at 25¢ a gallon, it costs only 12.5¢ a day or $45.63 a year.

And, after the initial cost of a faucet-mount filter or a filtering pitcher from such companies as Brita, Clear2O, and Pur, the only recurring cost is for replacement filters as long as you don't get something that requires a stupid battery that you don't really need, especially one that's not replaceable which requires you to buy a whole 'nother filtering device merely because the battery's dead.

(Beware the Evil Marketing Tactic!)

I buy filters in the 4-pack that costs $21 which works out to $5.25 per filter. Since each filter lasts about three months for me, that means only $21 per year for good-tasting water and a lot less waste than buying water in 16.9 oz. bottles.

And, if your tap water is fine, forget about bottled water entirely and forget about filtering. Just get a reusable bottle to fill and refill so you can drink your good tap water while you're out and about.

What would you do with an extra $400 to $1400 per person in your household? Save it? Invest it? Go on vacation? Buy something you've always wanted or the family needs and has been doing without?

Go Green by boycotting individual-sized bottles of water and enjoy the benefits for you and our environment!