The Evolving Homemaker

Every Monday I will have information to share about events coming up, groups and non-profits you might be interested in, green ideas to implement, people that are amazing me in their efforts; basically any actions I think will show off  the true range and magnificence of MAMAVISM! It is so important for us to remember small changes make a big difference when done collectively.  Our wallets, our choices, companies we support, ways we reduce at home, all make an impact in the future world our children will inherit from us.

So giddy up!  Let’s take mamavism on the road!

Mamavism Monday:  Bottled Water

OK I hate myself.  Truly.

As someone who ‘thinks’ that she is an environmentalist, who majored in Environmental Politics, who has spent hours reading her favorite nature writers like Ed Abbey and Terry Tempest Williams, who thinks blind consumption stinks, and we have to make big changes in our daily choices if we want to leave a more positive and beautiful world for our kids than we have inherited…I have a confession.

I LOVE bottled water.

It isn’t because I don’t like tap water either, but because I really don’t like the taste of the water out of re-usable water canteens.  I drink our filtered tap water at home practically by the gallon, but when I am out, I have a real distaste for water I cart along that has been sitting in a metal or hard plastic for a few hours.  The smell alone is enough to deter me from the normal gulps I would swig at home or out of a non-reusable water vessel.

I am a hypocrite.

During world water week, I was reminded over and over how my habit is a terrible one.  After watching the video below and hearing that my plastic bottles, I at least diligently recycle, may be shipping out to India I knew a change was in order.  I actually didn’t really need to be reminded, I already knew the truth.  I just couldn’t stop myself.

But from here on out, I make a commitment to get used to the smell and taste of water of the re-usable kind.  It is totally one area that I completely have been a slacker and have heaps of room to improve.

No more glass bottled mineral water when I go out to eat, no more grabbed bottles at Whole Foods, no more Lime Perrier, sniff, sniff-since I don’t drink soda, beer, alcohol, tea, or coffee, it was my only ‘treat’ of the liquid sort-just no more.  Don’t even remind me of all the plastic water bottles the kids have gone through, only drinking a third of the amount.  And you really don’t want to use theirs later,  you never fully know what the floaties bobbing around in there actually are…

Today is the day.  I can do it.  Even if I miss my ‘treat’ of choice every so often.  The planet is smaller than it seems, it is now or never to lead by example!

Fast Facts:

• 86 percent of plastic water bottles used in the United States become garbage or litter.~Frankly Green.com
• Making plastic bottles to meet Americans’ demand for bottled water requires more than 17 million barrels of oil annually, enough to fuel 100,000 cars for a year.~Mother’s Acting Up
• Almost 40 percent of the PET bottles that were deposited for recycling in the United States in 2004 were actually exported, sometimes to as far away as China—adding to the resources used by this product. ~Earth Policy Institute

Spill it: Am I alone out there?  Or are there others of you who are willing to admit you have a lingering non-green habit or two?

Posted April 5th, 2010 under Environment and the Family, Mamavism. Tags: Mamavism, mamavism monday, mamvism monday: bottled water, plastic water bottles, water bottle statistics
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