Here at Brighter Planet, we are working to build a truly innovative partnership network across the for-profit/non-profit divide. Our partnerships are based around the shared mission of confronting climate change and reducing human impact on the environment. One of our first partners, Center for New American Dream, recently launched Break the Bottled Water Habit, an exciting campaign focused on getting Americans to pledge to give up the bottle for good old tap water. The individual who gets the most people to sign-up for the pledge will win Brighter Planet’s Live, Learn, Experience Climate Change Prize. The prize includes a commuter bike, a few essential books on climate and sustainability, and a trip for two to Glacier National Park.

So what are you waiting for? Take the pledge and start to spread the word.

If you’re particularly attached to your Aquafina or Fiji bottles, consider these facts:

1. Waste, Energy, and Emissions: The Beverage Marketing Corporation reports that Americans consumed 31.2 billion liters of water in 2006 – nearly 9 liters per month for every man, woman, and child. Manufacturing all those bottles requires 900,000 tons of plastic, the equivalent of more than 17 million barrels of oil, and emit more than 2.5 million tons of carbon dioxide. Trucking around all those heavy bottles emits even more greenhouse gases. Beyond the climate impact there’s the massive waste – 86% of water bottles aren’t recycled - and water bottling is also, ironically, a very water-intensive endeavor. The Pacific Institute tells us that it takes three liters of water to produce one liter of bottled water!

2. Bottled water is full of oil. Making bottles to meet Americans’ demand for bottled water requires more than 1.5 million barrels of oil annually, enough to fuel some 100,000 cars for a year. (NY Times) To put it another way, the entire energy costs of the lifecycle of a bottle of water is equivalent, on average, to filling up a quarter of each bottle with oil. (Pacific Institute).

3. Disposable plastic water bottles are not meant for multiple uses. The #1 polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is fine for a single use, but reuse can lead to chemical leaching of toxins such as DEHA, a known carcinogen, and benzyl butyl phthalate (BBP), a potential hormone disrupter.

4. At least 40 percent of bottled water is tap water anyway. That’s right: you are paying a huge premium on water that you could have just gotten from your tap in the first place. (National Resources Defense Council)

So take the pledge, get yourself a few reusable containers, and spread the word.

-Robbie