Plastic Water Bottle Recycling

In the news lately there's been a lot of stories about bottled water. Not only is the water often just filtered tap water, it's an ecological nightmare. Bottled water creates an enormous amount of plastic waste, and the energy required to manufacture and recycle that material is generated by carbon-based energy sources.

Personally, I try not to drink bottled water. But when I am out kayaking on the Nashua or Squannacook Rivers I can attest to the fact that water bottles account for probably 25% of the containers I collect. There's a lot of irony in that.

First, someone buys bottled water because the water sources are polluted, and the heavy treatment of public water supplies makes the water taste badly. Then they take the water bottle out, where it becomes litter, and eventually ends up in the river where the problem compounds itself.

Filter your water at home, put it in a re-usable bottle and don't become part of the problem.