Just bought my first SIGG re-useable water bottle! Like the one to the left, only in red. Had used Nalgene bottles before that until plastic got a bad rap. I relapsed back to disposable water bottles for the past month or so and felt awful every time I bought and disposed of (recycled) it. But now I'm good to go.
Using one yet?
There are some safer options when it comes to reusable plastic as National Geographic's Green Guide reports HERE. But as SIGG mentions on their site:
"Recycling your PET plastic water bottles is good… but using a reusable water bottle is much better for the environment. More than 90 percent of the environmental impacts from a disposable plastic bottle happen before the consumer opens it. Oil for plastic, oil for shipping, oil for refrigeration and, in a small % of bottles, oil for recycling – sadly most PET bottles go to landfills. As a rule of thumb, scientists say that you can fill a PET bottle ¼ of the way with oil to symbolize how much energy goes into every bottle."
Yikes.
Better news: Thanks to campaigns such as THINK OUTSIDE THE BOTTLE, there has finally been a decrease in growth (mind you it still grew 6%) of the bottled water market in the US over the past few months. At least, right?! Lets keep it going!!