Do you often find yourself grabbing a bottle of water before heading out to run errands or work out? Do you believe that the bottled water tastes better? Do you pack a few bottles to take with you when traveling and keep your refrigerator well stocked with it?

If so, you are not alone. If you flip through entertainment magazines, you will frequently see celebrities walking around with bottled water. This beverage is a staple at large networking events or trade shows.

According to Beverage Marketing Corporation, Americans consumed 8.8 billion gallons of bottled water in 2007. On average, people in the U.S. are drinking more bottled water than any other beverage, except for soft drinks.

While most agree that drinking lots of water is beneficial and while the trend of drinking bottled water continues to be on the upswing, there is also increasing concerns the impact that producing bottled water has on the environment. Is bottled water bad for the environment? And, what are some cheaper and better alternates to choosing bottled water?

While drinking plenty of water is good for us, the production and distribution of bottled water, particular the individual sized ones that are so popular is, in many ways, wasteful.

One component is the actual plastic bottles themselves. To manufacture the 29 billion plastic bottles that are used each year by US consumers, fossil fuels are used. And if you are curious as to how much, it requires what would be equivalent to over 17 million barrels of crude oil.

As if that were not enough cause for concern, the bottled water must then be distributed. A lot of fossil fuel is required to pump and then process the bottled water. It then often has to be transported many miles away to reach its final destination, which is often a refrigerated one.

The fossil fuel used to do those things is equivalent to a staggering 50 million barrels of oil. To give you a picture of just how much oil that would be, it is the amount needed for 3 million cars to run for one year.

If you, like millions of other, focus on going green, then one way to easily contribute to the cause is to slow down the amount of bottled water you are drinking!

One great way to do this is to drink tap water. Increasing studies are indicating that tap water is not bad for you. If you prefer to filter your water, there are countless options. One easy way is to purchase two Brita pitchers - one for your home and one for your office. You may prefer to buy a filter that goes on your sink faucet.

Another way to cut down on bottled water consumption is to keep an individual-sized bottle and refill that with tap or filtered water. You still have the convenience of a portable container for your water and can continue taking bottled water to the gym or other places, but you are not using so much plastic or contributing to the distribution of more bottles of water. This provides a great option if your workplace has water fountains, as you can just fill your bottle up there.

As more city council members and other public officials, as well as restaurateurs, find out about the tremendous costs to fund our bottled water habits, you may find incentives to pursue other options. Certain cities are starting to add additional taxes to bottled water. Others are closely examining their bottled water usage, and encouraging their residents to drink tap water.

Perhaps with all of this increased focus on how bottled water impacts the environment, the trend will start swinging the other way a bit toward less consumption. No doubt that bottled water is extremely convenient, but by taking steps to try a few alternatives, you can help ease some of the wastefulness associated with the bottled water industry.

Sources:

http://www.bottledwater.org/public/marketin.htm http://www.earth-policy.org/Updates/2007/Update68.htm