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July 12, 2005

Water Without Waste

The past two weeks the temperature has hovered near 100 degrees and apparently it's going to stay this way for about another 2 months. I do have to say since it hasn't been that humid the heat is much more manageable and I think I have also gotten used to it.

However this weather does create the need to drink a lot of water. Whenever we go out I will fill water bottles for myself and the kids, but it never seems to be enough. Plus I forget sometimes. So invariably I must stop and buy water. We have curbside recycling here but I do wonder if all of those plastic bottles really do get recycled.

I guess there is an alternative to regular plastic. It's corn. I read this about Biota Spring Water in this month's issue of Breathe:

It was the 95 billion nonrenewable plastic bottles dumped in US landfills last year that inspired Biota founder and chairman David Zutler to develop a recyclable packaging alternative. Made of corn resin, Biota's containers degrade into water, carbon dioxide and organic material after 80 days in a compost enviroment (standard plastic can take thousands of years).

If this water were available in San Antonio (it's not) I probably wouldn't buy it just because I imagine it to be more expensive. But what I have learned from the 95 million bottles put in landfills just in the last year is that I need to be more conscientious about making sure I have enough water packed in nondisposable containers in the first place.

Posted by Julee at July 12, 2005 10:44 PM

Comments

Yikes, I don't envy you those hot temps. I just read about some really great water bottles that do not leach plastic into the water--maybe over on Sustainablog or Enviropundit? I hate it when I can't remember. If I run across the link, I'll post it for you. I hate the thought of all of that plastic ending up in landfills, too. We recycle all of our #1 and #2 plastics and I'm making a concerted effort not to buy any plastics that can't be recycled, but I'd rather not buy them in the first place. I'm really trying to use containers that can be reused over and over again.

Posted by: Kate West at July 13, 2005 05:11 PM

Thanks for this info. I live in Colorado and should be able to get this water here. I am going to tell everyone about it!!!

Posted by: Amy at July 13, 2005 05:25 PM

Here in FL it is also miserably hot and humid much of the year... the heat indexes have been above 100 the past couple of weeks... I never leave home without ice water in my Tervis Tumbler (made only a few miles from my home)

Posted by: Lisa at July 13, 2005 06:08 PM