When choosing water bottles, think green
By Buddy Gough
Only three percent of the water on earth exists as freshwater, and two percent is locked up in the polar ice caps, leaving a mere one percent in lakes, streams and aquifers for human use. Yet, this vital resource has been declining in quantity and quality in many parts of the world, including Texas.

As a result, individuals are constantly exhorted to get involved in water conservation in ways large and small. From supporting The Nature Conservancy in Texas' efforts to protect critical water sources to innumerable tips anyone can use to conserve water at home and work, on the road and in the outdoors, you, too can help.

An indirect and unfortunate consequence of declining water quality has been the explosion in the sales of drinking water bottled in plastic. When it comes to water bottles, plastic is the problem and reuseable, non-plastic drinking containers are the remedy.

According to a report from the Container Recycling Institute, the sales of personal-size, one-use containers increased more than 100 percent from 2002 to 2005. The increase included the manufacturing of an estimated 144 billion new beverage containers in 2005 alone.

The discarding of those billions of plastic bottles present a major littering problem in outdoors where they can remain in the environment for years without degrading. The same applies to bottles dumped in trash containers and buried in landfills.

Additionally, the manufacturing of the plastic bottles from petroleum-based products involves tremendous energy consumption, which in 2005 amounted to the equivalent of 53.5 million barrels of oil and 4.6 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions.

Between protecting the environment and reducing energy consumption and greenhouse gases, a switch to containers made of aluminum or steel makes sense for everyone, including hikers and other outdoors enthusiasts who routinely carry reuseable plastic containers.

Many attractive metal drinking containers capable of becoming long-lasting companions are available from many sources.

For more green living tips, go to nature.org/texas.