Bottled Water Alternatives

We're pretty sure everyone has heard by now that bottled water is bad for your health and bad for the environment, but somehow bottled water sales are still up. What?

At some point or another we've all twisted the cap to enjoy a bottle of pure, natural spring water (or is it glorified tap water) in a plastic bottle. Then we take that empty plastic bottle and put it in the recycle bin, don't we? 

Apparently not because 14 percent of the bottles are ending up in the recycling process, while the other 86 percent end up in landfills (that’s something like 26 billion bottles each year).  It's easy to see that we need to change our habits, but what are the best bottled water alternatives?

image: reusablebags.com

 Bottled Water Alternatives:

Just like using reusable shopping bags for groceries, there are numerous earth friendly alternatives available for water bottles  The best options are made from aluminum, stainless steel, or glass and do not have the contaminants found in the plastic version.  They are also reusable, easy to clean, and recyclable.  Most of these alternatives involve filtering water at home to fill your container, although a few companies sell quality bottled water in glass.

image: delight.com

 Aluminum and Stainless Steel

We have gone the route of using an undersink filter system (Aquasana) to fill our Sigg (aluminum) bottles.  They offer numerous designs to express individual style while eliminating the use of plastic. We have used our Sigg bottles repeatedly and they work great for us. Since they are metal, they do get little dings here and there, but that gives them character!

Other metal water bottles available include: Klean Kanteen (stainless steel), Green Planet (stainless steel), and Guyot (stainless steel), to name a few.

image: lovebottle.net

 Glass Options

For the glass version, we use the Aquasana bottle (it came free with the purchase of the water filter and it works great). Our latest glass bottle discovery is the "Love Bottle." We'll definitely be purchasing a couple of these soon.

Other glass options include: The Green Head, The WEBstaurant Store, and Glass Water Bottle. 

If you're still using bottled water, why not give one of these options a try? When you drink from your reusable water bottle, you can thank yourself for doing a big part to minimize pollution.  Financially you’ll benefit too – we have definitely saved money by having a filtration system and reusable bottles. Plus, we're drinking better water!  It's a win for our health and the environment.