Welcome to the ALL NEW "Monkey Baby ...going green" (Formerly known as the Monkey Baby Boutique blog). This site has been dormant for quite awhile as my life took a turn in a different direction. My children are growing up and I've been focusing on designing knitwear.
Recently I've done some thinking about continuing on with this site, and it has led me to a total makeover! I will continue to post tips on going green and creating a healthier you, healthier home and a healthier planet! But I will also be including information on sustainable knitwear created by myself and others. Please leave your comments and let me know what you think of the NEW look!


Thursday, June 26, 2008

Greening Our Water

Did you know that much of the world gets by on 2.5 gallons of water per day? But here in America we average using 400 gallons per day!
This is where Harvesting your greywater comes in. Water that has already been used but that is still clean enough for other jobs is called "greywater". This can include water from your sinks, showers, dishwashers, and clothes washers. Greywater can be recycled with simple practices such as emptying the fish tank into the garden instead of the sink. The bottom line? One way or another, we can all do our best to avoid putting water down the drain when we can use it for something else!

Another issue I would like to touch on is Bottled Water.

Bottled water has never gone down smoothly with many environmentalists, who view it as an extravagantly wasteful way of quenching a thirst. For the most part, bottled water is alot of hype. In most first-world countries tap water is provided by a government utility and is tested regularly. (You can actually look up your water in the National Tap Water Quality Database) Bottled water is not well regulated and studies have shown that it is not even particularly that pure. A four-year study of bottled water in the U.S. conducted by the NRDC found that about one-third of the 103 brands of bottled waters tested contained levels of contamination -- including synthetic organic chemicals, bacteria, and even arsenic. And believe it or not, most bottled water isn’t really “spring, artesian or mineral ” and is just regular tap water anyhow. Read the label to find the source the next time you pick up a bottle of water.
Infact bottled water is more expensive per gallon than gasoline and it also incurs a HUGE carbon footprint from the transportation, and then in the end to the discarded bottles. Making PET (polyethylene terephthalate, a plastic derived from crude oil) bottles for water consumes 1.5 million barrels of oil annually, that's enough to fuel 100,000 American cars for a year! Worldwide, 2.7 million tons of plastic are used to bottle water and 86% of plastic water bottles used in the United States become garbage or litter.
If you like to keep a bottle of water with you on the go, Switch to Filtered Tap Water and a Reusable Water Bottle. Let's Make Thousands of Plastic Water Bottles 'Disappear'!
CamelBak .75L Better Bottle with Classic Cap (BPA-Free)

Check out the
CamelBak .75L Better Bottle with Classic Cap (BPA-Free)

It's an awesome reusable bottle!

And if your water at home tastes funny, try the BestWater Filtration Systems. They improve taste and odor, reduce common contaminants, and even have a Reverse Osmosis System.
To learn more about your city’s water quality, check out National Tapwater Database.

Other Online Articles:

EPA: Getting Information about your Tap Water

Fast Company: Message in a Bottle

BBCUK: Dasani is Purified Tap Water

NRDC: Bottled Water: Pure Drink or Pure Hype?

Earth Policy Institute: Pouring Resources Down the Drain

NY Times: Water, Water Everywhere but Guilt by the Bottleful

NY Times: In Praise of Tap Water

ABC News: Is Bottled Water Better Than Tap?

1 comment:

Payaso said...

clean water should be provided by the gov't. but in our country we have to buy it per gallon that costs from 30-45 phil peso.

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