Cutting Water Bottles Out of Our Lives

[Cinjin]

I'd also like to see the US outlaw plastic grocery bags.  SOOO unnecessary, and think of the trash we wouldn't be making.

[Rev. Rye]

I never understood why people seem to need to take water everywhere, have a drink before you leave home! Most people don't live in a desert!

Or it could be because your thirst can get that sensitive.

Personally, on the water bottle question, I usually use this. I don't really use plastic bottles unless it's for a situation like a long trip (like family drives up to Wisconsin) or going to a concert at Ravinia, situations where I'm liable to exhaust the Stanley Steel's supply quickly, and those situations usually happen during the summer, so in such cases, I just freeze the bottles and let them thaw and take a sip when enough of it has thawed, because doing the same thing with the Stanley Steel is really fucking impractical.

Admittedly, I'm not too concerned about the impact on the environment, mostly because I honestly believe that whatever we do, even if we try as hard as humanly possible, we'll always find some way to fuck it up, even if it's just from our habit of increasing the world's population by a billion every twelve years, because that's what always happens when we find a way to save the environment: it turns out there's always something that's going to bone us. As soon as Tesla took off and electric chargers started popping up, I suspected they'd find some way to hurt the environment. And here it is. I guess I'm a fatalist that way.

[Shell B]

Yeah, we’ll find a way. Still, plastic waste is hella gross.

[Succubus]

Bottled water is the biggest scam ever. I drink from the tap ( and get the side-eye from coworkers when I do that at work) and our local water district mails out reports specifying exactly what's in the water. In fact, a number of bottled water brands simply bottle their water from "municipal sources" - aka tap water.
The kid gets tap water in a reusable bottle in her lunch box.
We take reusable water bottles filled with tap water on hikes and the rare trip out into the world where drinkable water might not be available.
Funny how we humans got on ok for millennia without commercial bottled water, now it seems people will shrivel up and die without it.

-Teresa

Indeed it is, followed closely by the huge marketing success, jug filters. The active component of a typical jug filter is a cartridge containing a few grammes of activated charcoal which will certainly remove chlorine but very little else. As pointed out up thread you can achieve the same results by leaving a jug of water on the bench for half an hour.
As for removing minerals, is this even desirable? Try drinking distilled water or reverse osmosis water, it's absolutely disgusting and as for making tea, forget it. But then of course this is not a problem for our cousins across the pond.

For cultured folk who are into quality beer, Burton On Trent India Pale Ale is the stuff of legend and this is largely due to the water. This applies to all the beers from that region not just IPA. Home brewers who live in soft water regions will usually add Burtonizing Salts to the water to stiffen it up a bit. This is a chart of water quality contents from various regions.
Note! Any forum members who are in any way connected to the Green Party/Friends Of The Earth, are advised to look away now!



OMGFG! How can people drink that stuff? People do, after its been beerized that is.

[Seraphina]

I'd also like to see the US outlaw plastic grocery bags.  SOOO unnecessary, and think of the trash we wouldn't be making.

Single use plastic grocery bags are banned here in California.

Stores still sell sturdier, re-usable plastic bags for 10 cents each. But my neighbor, who works in retail, said most customers don't bring in reusable bags, they just buy more of the 10 cent bags each shopping trip (or pile up their purchase and carry it out without bags lol) 

-Teresa

[Succubus]

I'm on the Burtonized water. So much ale to sup and so much piss to take.

Life is grand. Looking at me, you'd never guess I'd killed three people.

[The Grand Nudger]

I'd also like to see the US outlaw plastic grocery bags.  SOOO unnecessary, and think of the trash we wouldn't be making.

Interestingly enough, plastic bags are greener than paper.  

That's more a comment on us forestry and the efficiency of plastic bag manufacturing than the nature or paper vs plastic, tho. Plastic bags don't end up as trash...they end up as yet more plastic bags. They're uncommonly recyclable.

[GrandizerII]

I never understood why people seem to need to take water everywhere, have a drink before you leave home! Most people don't live in a desert!

Very hot weather in many places (like where I live). Doesn't have to be a literal desert.

[Succubus]

I'd also like to see the US outlaw plastic grocery bags.  SOOO unnecessary, and think of the trash we wouldn't be making.

Ravished By The Sheer Implausibility Of That Last Statement†

[Shell B]

I'd also like to see the US outlaw plastic grocery bags.  SOOO unnecessary, and think of the trash we wouldn't be making.

Interestingly enough, plastic bags are greener than paper.  

That's more a comment on us forestry and the efficiency of plastic bag manufacturing than the nature or paper vs plastic, tho. Plastic bags don't end up as trash...they end up as yet more plastic bags. They're uncommonly recyclable.

Now I know you’re talking out of your bum. Plastic bags very often become trash. Pollution, more specifically. It’s a huge problem in the oceans. Paper bags are also quite recyclable, but best are canvas bags and the like.