Everywhere you go people are talking "green this" and "green that." We used to drink bottled water, but recently purchased an ionizing water machine which eliminates the need for us to purchase bottled water from the store.
We didn't even think about the impact this was having on the environment.
Many people buy water from the store regularly, and consequently, end up with the same problem we had that of many empty plastic bottles lying around. The question was what to do with them? Of course you could fill them up with tap water, with the idea of having water in case of a shortage, or in the event of an earthquake, and being unable to depend on the water.
As often happened around our house, most of those empty bottles went to the dump where they were possibly separated out and sent for recycling. However, if they weren't recycled because of lack of funds, then they were nothing more than a little balloon of air, in a non- decomposing shell.
Although the water where my husband works is "supposed" to be "safe" to drink, the water is so nasty tasting that his business provides small bottles of water for their employees to drink. A lot of employees open a bottle of water and only drink a sip or two to quench their thirst, and then leave it sitting around to be thrown away at the end of the day. Much unneeded waste takes place, of which no one has found an answer to that problem yet. But again, all those little bubbles of air and water are filling our landfills.
There are some who cart their 3 or 5 gallon container to the store and fill it up for a few cents, and this of course saves our landfills, as long as they continue that habit.
We tried filling our 5 gallon bottles too, but often we would forget the 5 gallon container, and we would buy several gallons of water again. Eventually, we were back to buying the 1 gallon waters because it was more convenient
Unfortunately, all those plastic bottles are building up in the landfills and as we are constantly being reminded - most plastic bottles do not break down over time. Therefore, our dumping grounds are filling up with balloon type garbage which will never decompose.
A health issue also arises from drinking bottled water. Some plastics which water is bottled into, leach poisons into the water, and that can't be good for us, especially if the bottled water is left in the car on hot days, so this heated bottled water also becomes carcinogenic to our bodies, or so I've heard.
My husband and I were talking about this the other day, and he reminded me of a very green idea here.
As I said beforr, we recently got an ionic water machine and so we no longer buy bottled water at the store. Of course, in buying the water, we were consuming quite a few gallons of water each month. Consequently, empty plastic gallon sized bottles were accumulating in the dumpster almost daily.
With the water filtering and ionizing machine, we consume much more water than we ever did before, because the water is so clear and pure tasting, and you can guzzle it. However, we are not littering the landfills with plastic bottles. We are saving a few bucks each month, to have our wonderful alkaline water and at the same time contributing to a more "green" environment..
We are helping make this planet a better place to live by not contributing to the accumulating number of plastics that hit the landfills.
As my husband said, "now that's a "green" idea."
Linda Baxter is
a piano teacher, and a stay at home mom of nine children, with a total of 22
grandchildren. She acted as General Contractor for building their
retirement home. She hired and paid subcontractors, was overseer of
all construction work (with the help of her husband, RL), and did
most of this from her “armchair”.and telephone. She freely
shares her experiences on her website, http://www.home-built4u.com,
hoping to help other potential owner/builders escape some of the
pitfalls she and RL experienced while being their own GC.
This author of this Article has choosen to make this article available with free reprint rights. Click here to copy this article.
» left by Sandra E. Graham(1,490) Sandra E. Graham from Paragould, Ar USA (110 days 23 hours ago.)
Great article, Linda, and a great idea. Our refrig. has water (filtered) through the door and our water comes from a well on our farm. Now whether the water is healthy or no, I'm not sure, but it tastes better than any bottled water that I have ever drank. Well water didn't kill my parents or grandparents, so I guess I'll spare the plastic dump pile as well. SEG
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