Can we kick this habit?
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Dear readers, this week we took a close look at our destructive dependence on bottled water...
Companies have had enormous commercial success selling us on the idea that water is better bottled, writes Stephen Robert Miller. In just a few decades, water went from a common resource many of us, especially those in the developed world, could access with minimal impact, to an incredibly popular packaged commodity with a serious environmental footprint.
Around the world, a million bottles of water are sold every minute, and although they’re almost entirely recyclable, most get tossed into landfills, clog up rivers, and sink to the bottom of the sea, taking anywhere from 500 to 1,000 years to degrade. In the U.S., more than 70% become waste.
With the impacts mounting, so too is the pressure for companies at the root of the problem to do better ― from improving extraction practices to innovating their packaging. But so long as overall production continues to ramp up, we’re still going to see emissions-intensive production and bottles, cans and cartons piling up in landfills and leaching into oceans.
“Bottled water is symbolic of much larger issues," said Elizabeth Royte, author of Bottlemania, "and quitting it should be a no-brainer for the vast majority of Americans."
What do you think? We'd love to hear from you. Cheers, Laura, Amanda and Kyla |
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