It’s a funny thing to look back and say to oneself that the way that things “used” to be done is far better than the way that we are doing them now. I never thought I would be old enough to even think, let alone say, such a thing! But, when it comes to bottled water I do declare that this has become my line of thinking!
When we were kids my mom would pack my lunch box every day and fill my super cool matching thermos with something for me to drink. That crazy thermos kept the hot things at least warm and the cold things cold. There were no worries unless it was somehow forgotten and then I would have to do the unthinkable and buy a milk!
Now as time as gone by not only has the idea of a lunch “box” left, but somehow so has the idea of that thermos. Instead my handy dandy thermos has been replaced with a disposable plastic water bottle. Now, I must say that the idea of having a water bottle that you could simply throw away after use is indeed a bit more impressive than my super cool thermos, but one does have to wonder just where that water bottle ends up. I happen to know that my thermos ended up at home with me each evening to be washed and reused the next day.
Since the year 2000 bottled water consumption has gone from 4.7 billion gallons per year to 8.7 billion gallons. I would say that is an impressive rise in consumption and probably explains the demise of my super cool thermos. Why pack a thermos when you can have a healthy, disposable and convenient drink at your fingertips!
Bottled water is now the most dynamic sector of all the food and beverage industry and consumption in the world continues to increase by more than 10% each year, despite the fact that its price is much higher than that of tap water. The average bottled water costs anywhere from $.25 to $2 per bottle. Tap water sits at a cost of less than $0.01. I’d say that’s quite the difference!
There’s quite a difference in our trash as well. Although most of us don’t think twice about tossing our disposable bottled water into the trash, (it is disposable after all), and the sad truth is that each year more than 10 billion plastic water bottles can be found in our garbage dumps and landfils. That’s a huge difference compared to my reusable thermos!
If you think about it logically I used that thermos for a total of 180 school days. If I took disposable bottled water each day that would be 180 water bottles just for me, not to mention the total it would be for my class of thirty students! That would cost my mom alone on average about $180 versus $1.80 for tap water. How crazy is that!!
Despite the fact that bottled water is now the second largest beverage type in the market (number one being soda) I must say that I don’t think it is even a close second to my thermos! Sadly, that super cool thermos is a thing of the past. However, we can make use of its memory in purchasing a reusable water bottle for our water consumption! We save not only money in our own pockets, but we also save on the millions, well billions really, of disposable water bottles that truly trash up our environment. By doing so we are not going completely back to the way that things “used” to be, but we are using what we have learned from our today and yesterday to create a better tomorrow.