The troubling story behind the popular FIJI water was first brought to our attention recently by a note from our friend Nicole J. After reading the story that she shared with us on AOL's Daily Finance it reminded us that the biggest trouble of all is that we still insist on sporting plastic bottled water whenever we find ourselves out and about. It's not even the unique story of FIJI, which shouldn't surprise us, but the overall effect that all this use of plastic water bottles is having on our environment in the long term. We've had some heated arguments in our house about the best way to circumvent the 'need' for using the disposable bottle water like this.
First of all, I think that it's really important for the whole family to drink water, and to stay away from fruit juices. In my opinion the best water is from your tap if you use a reverse osmosis water filter system. If you haven't 'tasted' this kind of water yet try it and you will be amazed. This is quite an investment, but if you take a simple water test on your tap water you can see how yours measures up you can make the decision on how to filter your tap water.
Secondly, what ever happened to a plain glass of water! Why do people find the need to constantly tote around a bottle of water? When you take the kids to the park fill your SIGG (BPA-free see this story from Treehugger on how to tell if yours is BPA free or not) or Nalgene BPA free water bottle and tote it along with you! Easy and Cheap! I see people drinking these giant containers of liquid (usually these are overweight people in the first place) which is far to much liquid for your liver and kidneys to process, it totally overworks them and just leaves you sweating. Remember it's just 8 ounces a day.
On a recent visit to the Kit+Lili offices in Brooklyn, NY I noticed that they had a spring water cooler with a GLASS bottle for the whole office! I thought this was great! They said it costs more but still not that much more and you can feel better about it. Check with your water supply company, if they don't have glass they probably have BPA free containers at least.
And then there is the conversation about FIJI-the company... giving very little back to it's source, Fiji! Well that's enough for me to put a ban on FIJI all together! This may help you take your first step to being a plastic bottle free water drinker! HA!
After you read this story you might feel differently about your water intake, there is no real debate when it comes to the Herculean efforts (re: resources) that go into making that plastic water bottle and then shipping it to your local store - all for a bit of easy convenience! It goes without saying that your opinions might be important here - whether you agree or not.....