Santa Rosa Press Democrat: Breaking the Bottled Water Habit
Filed under: Earth 911 - September 12, 2008
The U.S. market for bottled water appears to be running dry, according to the Worldwatch Institute.
Citing a report from the Beverage Marketing Corp., the research organization said that the water industry will only see a 6.7 percent growth this year, the smallest increase in a decade.
Why the slowdown? Consumer consciousness about what happens to those plastic bottles in their afterlife can account for some of switch. Eight out of 10 plastic bottles become landfill waste and plastic bottles take 700 years before they begin to decompose, according to earth911.org.
Even with the slowdown, there is more convincing to be done and the Center for a New American Dream’s annual Break the Bottled Water Habit campaign can help.
How to works: Pledge to ban your bottled water habit at the organization’s Web site (www.newdream.org) then send the pledge to your friends. The person who signs up the most friends and writes the most convincing essay on why not to drink bottled water wins a bike and a trip to Montana’s Glacier National Park.
Worried about the quality of your tap water? Check it out before you take the pledge: