It's great that we're a lot more conscious of drinking water these days, and not just sodas and coffee and sports drinks, but that water consumption comes at a pretty hefty environmental cost, at least if we buy bottled water all the time. It's estimated that getting one liter of bottled drinking water into our hands requires seven liters of water and a quarter liter of oil, so there are a huge amount of wasted resources tied up in our bottled water habit, as well as an enormous plastic trash problem from all of those bottles and packaging.
It's quite silly to my way of thinking, as while there may be some appropriate times and locations for bottled water (emergency relief, sporting events, caching and reserves for if/when the SHTF), the majority of the time we can do just fine without it. After all, water is a basic human need, and we know we'll be thirsty at some points during the day, every day of our lives, so why would we NOT have a water bottle with us all the time, just as we wouldn't ever forget to have our keys or our phones or our wallets with us?
In addition to having a container for our water, we can also turn back to the tap and away from the fancy bottled water advertising. If you live in a modern city with an appropriate water treatment and delivery infrastructure, the water that comes out of your tap may be exactly the same as that in the bottles at the corner store, except at a huge markup in price. By choosing to refill your bottles and cups from the tap or a water fountain, instead of buying bottled water, it's not only much cheaper, but it's also more convenient and easy to drink more water.
Read more: http://www.treehugger.com/gadgets/stash-collapsible-water-bottle-your-pocket-and-turn-back-tap.html
