Water Bottles and Terrorism.

Ok- so you understand why recycling is good. You might even vaguely understand why people, like me, carry around water bottles. What I'd like to do is make you aware of how buying water bottles supports terrorism. By buying water in a plastic bottle that has been mostly likely transported some distance you are a) most likely paying more per gallon for water then you are for gas and b) buying gas, and therefore making terrorist supporting states wealthier.

1) Massive amounts of fossil fuel are burnt by the extremely long distances bottled water often travels to satisfy needs of Americans to have European water. By some estimates, one quarter of all bottled water crosses a national border. Think how many trucks, planes and boats that Fiji water used because the clear, reservoir isn't good enough for some.

2) The packaging of water requires fossil fuel. Bottles are usually made from a plastic called polyethylene terephthalate (PET) which is derived from crude oil. In just creating the bottles, some 2.7 million barrels of oils used (1.5 domestically). Gives you a pause, doesn't it?

3) Drilling oil for the plastic and transportation of the water bottles realizes gases that contribute to global warming.

4) As little as 12% of water bottles are recycled, meaning their garbage must be burnt or transported requiring more oil.

5) Enormous amounts of nickels, benzenes, ethylbenzene and ethylene oxide and other toxic emissions are generated in the manufacturing of PET. In fact, according to the Berkeley Ecology Center, is 100 times the amount generated in the production of glass.

Convinced yet?