Taking a Stand for the Environment

Water is essential to life. Clean water is also important. Many of us choose to stay healthy by drinking purified water, which normally comes in easy to carry half-liter bottles. I drink about 4 of these bottles daily, and the same is true for many others too. Little do we know, while trying to stay healthy by drinking bottled water, we are actually depleting natural resources and hurting the environment. According to filterforgood.com, "Americans used about 50 billion plastic water bottles last year. However, the U.S.'s recycling rate for plastic is only 23 percent, which means 38 billion water bottles - more than $1 billion worth of plastic - are wasted each year." This is just one of the many facts about using bottled water. Even if the bottles are being recycled, plastic bottles waste the limited resources we have.

The bottom line is that you and I do not have to be part of the statistics. I am making pledge to stop (or at least limit) my consumption of bottled water as part of the Filter for Good Campaign found on www.filterforgood.com.

Here is how it works:
Buy a reusable water bottle and a filter for at home. Simply filter the tap water that comes to your house and fill up your bottle. Now you can enjoy clean, refreshing water with a lower impact on the environment. I have been doing this for a couple days, and even Milwaukee water tastes great when it is filtered. Personally, I bought a new "Filter for Good" Nalgene Bottle, dusted off the one I currently own (for a backup), and bought a Brita Filter. All I do is fill up my bottles in the morning, refill the filter, and put it back in the fridge for later.

I really think this is a great way to stay healthy and to help the environment. Who knows, maybe I'll use these filters at the races for my bottles so I don't need to bring as much water along!

If you want to know more, check out the website at: www.filterforgood.com and take the pledge.