Water We Using Plastic For?

At least once a day I find myself picking up a plastic water bottle, drinking the entire thing, and simply discarding it.  Little do I realize, I am contributing to the 1,500 water bottles that are being used every second in the U.S., a pretty astounding number!  For my sustainable behavior challenge, I’ve decided to use a reusable water bottle for the rest of the semester, rather than contributing to the growing number of plastic water bottles used each day.  I think this is a necessary behavioral change for me to do seen as I drink a lot of water each day.  Rather than further harming the environment, I can make a simple daily lifestyle change (that is most likely more convenient to me) that is beneficial to the environment.  The only challenge I foresee myself facing is if I forget to bring my water bottle somewhere, and have the urge to purchase a plastic disposable one to replace it.  However, I think I should easily be able to overcome this challenge, because water fountains at Lafayette are very accessible and found in every building. Furthermore, rather than being lazy in my house and just drinking a bottle of water, I can simply grab a cup out of the cupboard, and fill it with tap water.  If an individual only drinks tap water for a year it costs nearly 50 cents for the entire year… Why aren’t more of us considering this aspect of not using plastic water bottles!  Over the next few weeks, I look forward to not only saving money on water bottles, but hopefully making a permanent change in my lifestyle.  Switching from disposable plastic water bottles to a single re-fillable water bottle seems to be a pretty easy way to improve the environment if I am consciously doing it.  Forcing myself to realize how much I abuse the use of plastic water bottles will help me overcome simply drinking a water bottle and throwing it away.  I think I will be able to achieve not drinking out of a plastic water bottle for the next few weeks, seen as I have already overcome the first challenge in purchasing a reusable water bottle.  I’m excited to take my first step to decrease my environmental impact.