Tip #2: Save money (and the planet) by avoiding bottled water. Already heard it? Then get busy converting your friends and family to the anti-bottled-water campaign.

Grist has been beating the drum on this one FOREVER…

Ashley Braun preached the good word in January 2008, noting: “Production of plastic water bottles requires three times the water the bottle will eventually hold. That’s not even getting into the 17 million barrels of oil or the 2.5 million tons of carbon dioxide resulting from plastic bottle production.”

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If you’re worried about the quality of your tap water, then consider a filter system — it’ll save you lots of money and won’t send more plastic to the landfill.

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Elizabeth Royte wrote a whole book about the evils of bottled water. Last year she told Grist: “If we continue to ignore our municipal water supplies, and we don’t fix our infrastructure, more people will have to turn to bottled water. That’s the tragedy of it, it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. If we don’t fight for our public water supplies — for watershed protection, more money for advanced treatment technology, stopping polluters — the more we’re going to have to drink bottled water, and then we’ll have this horrible two-tiered system where only those who can afford to drink good water will have access to it — in bottles.”

And yes, our dear friend Umbra Fisk addresses the whole plastics/water bottle issue in a recent video:

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Missed Tip #1?

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