Watered down

I have made it pretty clear that I don't like commercials. Some of them are funny, or have a catchy tune, but most of them simply make me angry. Nestle Pure Life bottled water is the front-runner right now. Its campaign revolves around the idea that our children are pure, and shouldn't we put something pure into their bodies? Plastic is not "pure" and therefore, unless the water they sell comes floating in the air, they are just plain lying. And my kids aren't that pure, anyway.

You can't argue with the terrible impact that bottled water has on the environment. Not only is the plastic unhealthy for our bodies and eternally lives in the landfills, but it takes energy to make the bottles and fuel to transport them. Those are all givens. Facts.

I could preach about how these discarded bottles are destroying our oceans and the numbers of animals killed from ingesting plastic. I could show picture after picture of the havoc these bottles wreak on our precious environment. I could restate the research that says tap water in our country is safe. Bottled water has no more health benefits than a glass filled at your sink. And if you're still concerned about that, or you don't like the taste of the water in your area, bottled water is not the solution. Buy a water filter. Save money. Save our planet.

It's amazing (and troubling) to me how these facts can mean so much to me, have changed the way I live my life and the daily choices that I make, and yet mean nothing to someone else. Do we all not live on the same planet? When I look at this picture I feel sick. How does someone else look at this picture and not feel anything? Denial? Apathy? I don't mean to sound judgmental. My purpose here certainly isn't to shame anyone. (If you want more information, go here.) But some people are informed. And somehow, even knowing what they know, choose to change nothing about the way they treat our Earth.

Frankly Green, a website I found while doing some research for this post, says: "The FDA, who regulates bottled water, states that 'Companies that market bottled water as being safer than tap water are defrauding the American public.'" Once again, as I implied in my Earth Day post, we're being bamboozled! Someone, somewhere came up with the idea of putting water in a bottle and selling it. Genius! the guy (or lady, of course) was thinking, What suckers! Paying good money for something they can get for free! I'll be a millionaire! So once again, huge companies are taking your money unnecessarily. But what breaks my heart is the fact that we're paying money to destroy the Earth.

"But I recycle my bottles." Ok, that's better than throwing them in the ocean or letting them sit in a landfill for the next 10,000 years. Good effort! But what if we didn't have the bottle to recycle in the first place? What if we were able to save the natural gas to make that bottle, and the fuel to drive it to every grocery store in our country. And while recycling is absolutely needed, it takes energy, too. If we can avoid it, shouldn't we? It isn't just the physical bottle that has an effect on our environment, it's the process, both in creating the bottle and in recycling it.

I shouldn't just be ragging on bottled water. Soda bottles are also a huge culprit. But we can get water for free. Unfortunately we can't get Diet Coke from our tap. (Booooo!) However, depending on how dedicated you are, there are ways around soda bottles and cans as well. My husband loves to get his fountain drinks from Kwik Trip (he's a classy guy) and every time he got one he brought home a big plastic cup. We always reuse them several times, but it dawned on me one day that he could just take one of the cups we have stockpiled in our cupboard instead of taking a new one each time. Because he loves me, and the Earth, he's started doing that. No bottles. No cans. No waste!

Protecting our planet and saving money often (almost always!) go hand in hand. It's impossible to never throw anything away. But there are ways, really simple ways, to make an impact. Allowing companies who only want your money to convince (brainwash, really) you into thinking that bottled water is the "better" choice is easy to avoid. Don't believe them. Better for whom? Not better for my kids, your health or the Earth. The way I see it, the only person it's better for is the CEO at Nestle.

Save money. Save Earth. Please stop drinking bottled water.