Here is the deal, plastic water bottles are just awful for the environment. They produce an enormous amount of pollution.
Pollution:
According to National Geographic, Americans consume nearly 30 billion bottles of water a year. However, only 13 percent of those bottles are recycled, resulting in more plastic pollution in landfills and the ocean. Roughly 38 million plastic bottles, end up in dumps and landfills. This number does not even include the bottles from soda and the like. Another source puts the total number of plastic bottles, from soda and water, close to 60 million.
Plastic pollution is almost common knowledge, but do not forget the oil that is consumed in the process of producing bottles of water. After production, transportation, and everything else that gets the water into the bottle and to the store, it is estimated that 50 million barrels of oil are used per year.
Solutions:
The easy answer to the problem is to just drink tap water. It is cheaper, greener, and in some places cleaner. Unfortunately, some cities have water that tastes just awful, or contain some pollutants. Both of these problems are usually solved but just getting a filter put on the facet.
But is you are still not pleased with the taste, there are still ways to drink bottled water without all of the bottles. Just buy a water cooler, like one you would find in an office. The start up price maybe a bit high, but you are able to refill the five gallon water bottles at places like WalMart for only a couple of scents. After initially buying the water cooler, you have access to automatically cold, or hot water in your home.
(Please note that all information that did not come from my personal knowledge, was credited with a link to the source.)
