Adding to the Bottle Graveyard

As expected, changing my behavior to stop using water bottles has been quite easy. I implemented my plan and bought  a refillable bottle to use in place of numerous disposable bottles. I forgot to grab it once before I left for class, but I just “suffered” until I could return home to grab it. However, I did not forget after that time.

Unfortunately, I misplaced my refillable bottle sometime last week. It was found a few days later. As to not withdraw my behavior change, I started using a bottle I found in my room and simply reused it. By the time I found the refillable bottle, the disposable one was probably very close to leaking. Close call. To prevent this from happening again, I have a designated spot for my bottle on my night stand and I make sure it is there before I go to bed (and hopefully not lose it throughout the night).

So, other than technical obsolescence, me changing my behavior seems like something I will continue past EVST100. Since the only impact this has on my life is a one-time purchase of a refillable water bottle, why not continue? It is a pretty easy change and sparing the related impacts is far more important than my minor personal convenience.

For this week, I found an article that points out a few disgusting facts about plastic water bottle usage. The most surprising fact is that it takes about 3 liters of water to produce one 1 liter bottle of water. That is probably the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. After reflecting on my previous bottle usage, I can directly see how my behavior effects the environment around me. For every bottle I consume, I literally consume 4 liters of water (3 for production, 1 for consumption). That’s 3 times more than I even knew about. After reading the other facts on the website, I no longer want to contribute to this awful problem.

Bottled Water is Wasteful. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://thewaterproject.org/bottled_water_wasteful.asp