Thirty Percent Less Plastic

The latest thing in the bottled water industry is a bottle that uses 30% less plastic. Commercials proudly proclaim, "Little changes can make a big difference."

Does anyone actually buy into this and feel good about the little difference they're making when they use a bottle with 30% less plastic? It just seems so cynical to me, like the push towards ethanol based fuel instead of a movement to drive less.

I drink bottled water sometimes because I find I drink more water when I spend money on it. I'm not proud of this. I know the facts: tap water is more tightly regulated than bottled water, 90% of plastic water bottles end up in landfills, 17 million barrels of crude oil go into a years' worth of Americans' plastic water bottles.

I still drink bottled water sometimes, but I'm certainly not going to delude myself into thinking that I'm doing something for the planet by choosing a bottle with 30% less plastic.