Bottled Water

I like bottled water. In fact, bottled water is my choice of drink over pop. I always thought the only downside to drinking bottled water is its lack of fluoride. Fluoride helps prevent tooth decay and most cities add it to the water you drink from the faucet. It seems I'm in good company, as Americans drank more than 8.25 billion gallons of bottled water in 2006. Water sales topped $10.8 billion last year, virtually for a substance you can get free. This is amazing when most Americans can turn on the tap and get clean, refreshing water. The situation with water in the rest of the world is not as good. The UN estimates that 1.1 billion people don't have clean water, a number that could reach 5 billion by 2025. So we have it good in the US of A. But here's the other downside to bottled water. It takes oil to make the plastic bottles. Once again, a product requiring petroleum. Plastic bottles also rarely get recycled. I know I don't recycle them. The bottle goes in the trash. This throwing away of the plastic bottle results in putting 2 billion pounds into landfills every year. So what to do? Some cities are thinking about placing a tax on bottled water. Chicago, for instance, is thinking of a 25 cent surcharge on each bottle. When Chicagoans were told of the possibility of a tax placed on their bottled water, most said it wouldn't change their habit of sipping water from the bottle. One lady remarked, "I'll just have to buy a bigger bottle." Well, I'm just about to leave home and when I do, I'm going to grab a bottled water. Will there come a day when I won't be able to reach for one?
These are the days my friend,
Jim "Train"