Water

Its amazing to see the number of ways we can buy water now a days. Bottled, flavored, vitamin and minerals added, sugar added etc. Millions of plastic water bottles are used everyday around the world. And these water bottles are often made of flimsy plastics. The plastics used in the water bottles are often questioned for its quality and a lots of warning is out there today about freezing the bottles or prolonged use of the water bottles.

Today, stop or reduce using bottled water. There are so many ways to reduce the usage of these bottles. Buy bigger water containers and refill a good quality reusable bottle. Use bottle filters (Fill& go from Brita is a good one)

With summer approaching and temperatures soaring, always be sure you have a reusable bottle handy at all times, so you don't end up buying bottled water when you get thirsty.

If you really like flavored water, try using some organic fruit extracts to flavor your water.

Polystyrene (styrofoam)

Styrofoam (a trademark name for Polystrene) is a type of plastic, made from petroleum products and a harmful toxin called Benzene is used in it as well.

Styrofoam - probably the most common use we see as packing peanuts and other packing materials. This is actually a very hazardous material, and if ingested by animals, it can prove to be very harmful to their digestive system. Not mention, the years it takes to breakdown this material - so not a landfill material at all.

Polystyrene is NOT a good material to package food products. It can be toxic and is in fact banned in several states in the the US from being used as food packing material.

So, make sure you dispose the polystyrene material responsibly in the proper recycling program. Make sure you do not dump these in the trash. There are several ways to recycle polystyrene

1. Recycle bin
2. Donate to craft stores - they use a lot of this in their projects
3. Avoid packing peanuts and use alternative materials when possible
4. There are some mail back options available now that take polystyrene back

So, today, pack up all those packing peanuts, and get rid of them the right way!

Get a bottle

Reduce the usage of bottled water. Instead, buy a bigger dispenser of water (make sure you recycle these as well) , or even better, buy a water filter. Get a reusable, safe, glass or plastic bottle and refill when needed.

I know, you are thinking, I recycle my bottles, that should be good enough.. right? Wrong, by unnecessarily using bottled water on a regular basis, you are only contributing to the plastic dumping and possibly in landfills too. Its better just not to use plastics as much as possible. Replace bottled water with your own reusable bottle is a great start.

Toss that bottled water into a reusable water bottle now and try to reduce the use of bottle water, starting today!