No More Empty Bottles!

This sustainable behavior change has been a struggle! Mainly due to the fact that i LOST by reusable water bottle. I was in the library and, since I haven’t been using it for that long, forgot to grab it off the table on my way out! This caused problems for me to sustain this behavior for the day. Here is how.

I didn’t actually realize that I had lost my reusable bottle until about two hours later (give or take). I was in econometrics in Pardee and got really thirsty. When I went to grab the water bottle from the usual compartment in my backpack, of course it wasn’t there! Damn! Over the past two weeks, I hadn’t really realized how much it sucks to not have water so easily available right when I wanted it. I knew i couldn’t go buy a water bottle after class, so I had to settle with the well below average Pardee water fountains. Looks like I will be taking a trip to Giant tomorrow to fix my problem.

I also have to confess a minor slip-up, somewhat due to my action of losing my water bottle. I was in lower farinon right before heading out to practice. I was scrambling to grab a quick bite to eat and was so thirsty and short on time. Without even realizing it until I had already paid, I bought my first water bottle in over two and a half weeks. I fully blame this action on my forgetful mind earlier in the day in the library.

Anyways, as a whole, the past couple weeks have been very positive. I have noticed permanent changes in my water bottle usage (or lack there of) since I purchased a reusable one and forced myself to buy into that idea. My room has also been much cleaner as a result of this behavior change because of the lack of water bottles. Also, I have saved about 30-40 dollars over the past two weeks that would have normally been spent on water bottles, if I had to guess. I am getting the sense that this may be a permanent change for me and that this project has opened the doors for me to use reusable water bottles as opposed to plastic ones in the future!

In the article below, McNally is a huge advocate of stopping plastic water bottle usage. She says that 88% of people throw them out! That is crazy! Even more interesting is that she says 40% of them are filled up from tap water. Hmm…