Ditch The Plastic Water Bottles

I spent last weekend visiting Yosemite National Park with my husband and his family. Whenever we go on any kind of car trip I round up and fill our collection of reusable water bottles to take with us. Bringing our water in bottles and refiling them when we have the opportunity is second nature to us. My husband’s family regards this practice as somewhat peculiar, having themselves prepared by bringing along a case of disposable plastic water bottles. They continually politely offer us a bottle of water only to remember the last time we told them we don’t do plastic bottles. This inevitably leads to some discussion where we tell them how much time we spend picking up garbage at the beaches and this helps fuel our desire to eliminate plastic waste or some such story.

On this occasion I asked the if they had heard about the trash island, referring to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. According to National Geographic, “Scientists have collected up to 750,000 bits of microplastic in a single square kilometer of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch—that’s about 1.9 million bits per square mile. Most of this debris comes from plastic bags, bottle caps, plastic water bottles, and Styrofoam cups.” So far despite my feeble attempts to impart some justifications for ditching the plastic bottles they haven’t changed their habits. I’d like to think that my husband and I are at least providing some food for thought though, and I was happy to see that my husband and his mom came out of the gift shop with matching Yosemite Nalgene bottles, so I’m hopeful.

It makes me very happy to see businesses getting on board with eliminating single use plastics from their product offerings and I am personally more likely to patronize a business that is environmentally friendly. Whether its restaurants replacing Styrofoam or plastic to-go cutlery, grocery stores eliminating plastic bags or restaurants replacing single use plastic water bottles I think we are slowly shifting away from harmful plastics. I may have mentioned before, for hotels one of my favorite new amenity opportunities is a water bottle filling station. This sends a clear message on your business’s values to your guests, provides a complimentary amenity and an opportunity to sell guests a branded reusable bottle.

What are you doing in your life, or your business to eliminate plastic waste? I would love to hear from you.