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You're on vacation—it's time to kick back, and not sweat the small stuff, right? Well, not to be a buzzkill, but some of that small stuff has big, unseemly consequences when it's "not sweat" en masse. Take water bottles for instance—almost everyone who has ever gone on a European vacation, or to Australia or Hawaii, or wherever, relies on water bottles as the go-to source for water when you're out and about. You might not even have realized it, but think back—yup, that was a disposable plastic bottle of water clenched under your arm while you were meandering around the Coliseum that year.
And as you may know, there's a world of reasons to ditch bottled water—among them, the fact that around 90 percent of them are never recycled and end up in landfills. But you're just one person, you might argue; a few more bottles isn't going to make the Earth collapse. No, but it won't help keep it clean, either: consider Venice.
Case in Point: A Water Bottle-less Venice?
Every year, some 19 million tourists tromp through the renowned canal-laden historical locale. And just about each one of them litters the small city with multiple water bottles. Some quick calculations: that puts the yearly bottled water waste in the 50 million range. That's right: around 50,000,000 bottles could be hitting the trash cans and littering the streets of Venice—which means 45 million water bottles hit landfills in Venice every year. It got so bad that the tourism board had to urge tourists to drink from the city's water fountains. And Venice is just one smallish, relatively isolated city—and the trash that stacks up there is readily observable. Expand that trash-factor across Europe, and then just about every oft-toured locale in the world, and you have some large scale water bottle woes.
How to Drink Green Water When Traveling
For starters, bring a water bottle. Even better, bring a green water bottle. Bring along a filter (a Brita would do nicely) if you're not sure of the quality of the tap water in the country you'll be staying in. If you're really not sure, you can boil the water to kill any ne'er do well microbes that might be lurking. Travel sites like Go Green Travel Green can offer more tips for healthy water abroad, too. And if you do end up buying bottled water—make sure to recycle it.
Got more green travel queries? Check out our How to Go Green: Travel and Outdoors Guide.
More on Bottled Water:
Greenwash Watch: "Green" Bottled Water
Kick the Plastic Bottle Habit
Bottled Water Drinkers Are The New Smokers
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