Oregon becomes the first state to update it’s bottle law to include bottled water!  The new law takes effect on January first when anyone who purchases water in disposable containers will have to pay a 5 cent deposit to the store.  As with other bottle bills, stores will only have to redeem deposits on brands that they carry.

It’s time we all step up and push our legislators to make changes in our states.  Disposable plastic water bottles and sport drink bottles are an unneccessary load on our landfills and along our roadsides.

Congratulations, Oregon!

Thanks to lots of pressure from consumers, Brita will start recycling it’s filters through Preserve - the household products maker that recycles Stonyfield Farms yogurt cups.   Beginning in early January 2009, Whole Foods Market Stores will begin collecting them, or the filters can be shipped directly to Preserve.  According to a Clorox Company news release, 100 percent of each filter will be recycled into household products.  The filter ingredients will be “regenerated for alternative use or converted into energy.

This is great news for Brita users.  Mine’s been sitting on a shelf for about 8 months.  Because the plastic pitcher is not recyclable, I haven’t wanted to throw it away, so I’ve been hoping for a breakthrough on recycling the filters.  Although it’s no secret I have huge issues with many things plastic, I purchased the Brita long before my “plastic awakening” and haven’t quite known how to handle it.  I have resisted putting any plastic on our website, opting for non-leaching metal bottles instead.

Once I heard the news about the filters, I decided to email the company to find out if there’s BPA in the pitcher.  THERE’S NOT, so I think I’ll pull it back out and use it.  I really love my New Wave Enviro 10 Stage Filter, but unfortunately I can’t have it in my office!  So the Brita Pitcher is back in action - and I have some extra shelf space!

The New York Times reports there is a rise in the number of children developing kidney stones, and one of the contributing factors is that children are not drinking enough water.

According to the article, most kidney stones are a result of oxalate binding to calcium in the urine.  “…the two biggest risk factors for this binding process are not drinking enough fluids and eating too much salt; both increase the amount of calcium and oxalate in the urine.”  Drinking sports drinks and soda are not the answer.

When you start looking at some of the nutrition data for what our kids are eating, it’s pretty easy to understand why they’re getting so much sodium.  Between the prepackaged and fast foods that have become standard fare for today’s busy kids, we also do them a disservice by providing them with as many sports drinks as they desire, thinking that they’re a healthy alternative to soda.  The sodium content of a liter of Gatorade is about 450 milligrams - which may be healthy for an active, sweaty athlete!  It doesn’t really serve as a replacement for water, does it?

According to the Mayo Clinic, the average 9-13 year old child should consume 1500 milligrams of sodium a day.  Consider a trip to McDonalds for a QuarterPounder with cheese (1190 mgs.), a large fries (350 mgs.) and a medium Powerade (130 mgs.)…Wow!  That’s a whopping 1670 milligrams of sodium in one meal.   Check other McDonalds’ nutrition facts by clicking on the link.

Dr. Alicia Neu, medical director of pediatric nephrology and the pediatric stone clinic at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center in Baltimore says that “Drinking more water is the most important step in the prevention of kidney stones.”

Although obesity can be a contributing factor, Dr. Caleb Nelson, a urology instructor ad Harvard Medical School is quoted as saying “Of the school-age and adoescent kids we’ve seen, most of them appear to be reasonably fit, active kids.”

Encourage your child to be healthy with a personalized Klean Kanteen, or a really great Sigg bottle that fits their personality from H2Ox2.com.  Both are reusable and will provide years of safe and healthy drinking.

Want to see an innovative way to use all your old water bottles - now that you’ve Taken The Pledge and given them up?!?  Check out this website and see how some guy built a house from them.  Even better, see the chandelier that someone made from 1 liter bottles!  Plastic Bottle House

Rodin's Thinker understands the impact of a small, mindful choice!

Being mindful of our actions is something that I try to impress upon my kids. But it’s not just being mindful about the big things.  Small changes can add up to a huge difference.  If you’ve been buying one case of 1/2 Liter disposables for $6.00 a week, by switching to a reusable water bottle from H2Ox2.com, you would have…

Saved yourself $312.00. (I didn’t add in the 31 cents that the same amount tap water you would have   to pay for!)  If you don’t like your water, that will pay for a $118.00 filter and leave you lots of extra!

Saved 156 liters of oil! It takes 1/4 of a bottles volume in oil to produce it.

Saved at least 624 liters of water! To produce these bottles, estimates are that it takes between 2 and 3 times their volume in water waste.

Made a great choice - to deny our evergrowing landfills of more plastic waste.

Made a great choice to have one less bottle recycled!  While we support recycling, the better choice is to REDUCE!  Remember, they aren’t made into more plastic bottles…why do you think fleece is so cheap?

Think about it…Living a mindful life can be very inspiring.  It doesn’t take a huge change to make a huge difference.

The ecological impact that disposable PET bottles have on our environment is pretty simple and widespread.  The economical impact that giving up the disposables can bring is fantastic.  Did you know that bottled water costs about 1,000 times more than tap water and is not as well regulated.  Don’t like your tap water?  Buy an inexpensive filter.  It doesn’t take too many trips to Costco to stock up on bottled water to pay for a new filter.

For each gallon of water that’s bottled, estimates are that it takes an extra two bottles to process it.  So, it’s wasting money and water.  Top that with the amount of oil it takes to produce and distribute water bottles and you’d use enough to fuel 1 million cars in our country for a year.  Oh, and their production creates of 2.5 million tons of carbon dioxide.

Anyway you look at it, it just doesn’t add up.  Convenient and trendy - but certainly not fiscally or environmentally responsible.

Take the Pledge to Break the Bottled Water Habit.

I pledge to Break the Bottled Water Habit by Thinking Outside the Bottle and using a reusable water bottle instead of buying bottled water. I also pledge to support the efforts of local officials to stop spending public funds on bottled water and prioritize strong public water systems over bottled water profits.

Check out the Break the Bottled Habit website for useful tips and information to make your switch to reusable bottles even easier as well as even more reasons to stop buying them. Click here for your link.

Take a few minutes to make yourself heard.  We’ll give you 10% off of the bottle of your choice throughout October if you do Break the Bottle Habit! Just send us a comment and let us know you’ve done it and we’ll send you the coupon code!

The people at www.foodandwaterwatch.org have created the following tip sheet about why we should all use tap water instead of bottled.  Check out their extremely informative website and take their pledge to Take Back The Tap!   Follow this link to take the pledge:  http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizationsORG/fwwatch/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=569

Common Questions and Answers About Tap Water

Water is one of few common resources on which all of us depend for life, so it’s important for us to be responsible stewards. Read on to learn about some of the potential dangers hiding in your tap, what you can do about them, and how you can be drinking in a cleaner, healthier community.

Q: Why should I drink tap water instead of bottled water?

A: Over the course of a year, tap water costs hundreds or thousands less than bottled water and is just as clean and healthy as bottled water.

Q: How do I find out whether my tap water is safe?

A: Contact your local utility to request a copy of the Annual Water Quality Report, also referred to as the Consumer Confidence Report. This report is required by law to provide information about contaminant violations in the water system. EPA posts many of these results on its website.

Local health departments often provide testing services or have lists of accredited laboratories that do the testing.

Q: What can I do if my water is contaminated?

A: Select a filter that removes the particular contaminants that are present.

Q: Can a filter remove chlorine and fluoride?

A: When it comes to chlorine, the answer is “yes.” Most water filters remove or reduce this chemical disinfectant.
On the other hand, fluoride is more of a challenge. Typically, only reverse osmosis filters and distillation units reduce or remove it.

Q: My water tastes funny. What can I do about it?

A: Odd tasting water does not necessarily mean that it is unhealthy or contaminated. The taste could be due to chlorination or to the mineral content in the water, depending on the region of the state or country. A home filtration system is the best solution to this problem.

Q: What kind of reusable bottle should I use to carry tap water?

A: Many people have concerns about plastic food containers and beverage bottles because some chemicals in the plastic can leach into the contents. For this reason, Food & Water Watch recommends either stainless steel or lined aluminum bottles.

Q: Should I reuse disposable plastic bottles?

A: The disposable PET #1 plastic bottles in which beverages are sold cannot be properly cleaned and, over time, may leach plastic components into the water. Therefore, they should not be reused.

Q: What is a contaminant?

A: Water is very rarely pure H2O. It tends to grab particles from things it passes and brings them along for the ride. Whether flowing in a mountain stream or pouring out of your faucet, water usually contains more than just oxygen and two hydrogen atoms. Some of these piggybackers are harmless, but many are not.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which oversees the safety of tap water, currently regulates 87 different contaminants. The agency recognizes but does not regulate an additional 51 contaminants.

Our shipments today included reusable bottles to Hawaii and Alaska.  It really made me stop and think about what this means to us at H2Ox2.com.  Several things came to mind as to why I see people buying reusable bottles.

First and foremost, the issue of getting rid of all of the unnecessary plastic disposables and the drain on our natural resources is a growing.  Every person that carries a reusable bottle is sending a message - people notice my bottles and ask me questions every day about why I carry them.  (Sometimes they get more of an answer than they bargain for…but I’m working on that!)

It’s also very fashionable to be on the cutting edge of a trend - especially when you have such a great reason to show your concern for our earth - and yourself!

It’s ECONOMICAL!  If you stop spending $5.00 a week on disposable water bottles, you could buy yourself a nice new reusable metal bottle within a month.  (And help the environment!)

So, THANK YOU to everyone who has helped get H2Ox2.com off the ground by making the choice to purchase one of our bottles that we’re so proud to sell.   We’d love for you to share your reasons for carrying a reusable water bottle - and your experience of shopping with H2Ox2.com.

Share your reasons on our blog this week and we’ll give you 10%  off the item of your choice!  (Offer ends 9/15/08)

In May I flew to Florida and was afraid to take my Klean Kanteeen on the plane for fear that they’d throw it out when I went through airport security. This time, I put an empty Sigg in my carry on bag and held my breath. They shook it to make sure it was empty and sent me through. The bar on the other side of security was kind enough to fill it with water - vodka did cross my mind, as I’m a nervous flyer - and we were off to NYC. (My kids packed their bottles in their luggage - they didn’t want to take the chance of losing them in security.)

Hot - high 80’s hot - and humid and I really glad I had it. We’re big on making our kids do a lot of walking through cities so they can experience what they’re really like. You go through a lot of water when you walk 8 miles a day - and at $2.00 - $3.00 a bottle, it just doesn’t add up for me!

Just about every Starbucks we asked was happy to refill at no charge, and most other small restaurants and delis were, as well. Our one “no” came after trekking from Central Park to the Empire State Building. With no working drinking fountain and no refills, I finally broke down and shocked my family by chugging a $3.00 bottle of Aquafina. My second disposable in 8 months.

New York was much cleaner and friendlier than my last visit. Although I didn’t see any way to recycle anything plastic, they did have bins for newspapers and magazines on the street. All in all, I was glad not to contribute to their trash in my own small way - and save money, too!