Are you still drinking out of plastic water bottles?

If your answer to this question is Yes, then you should entertain the option to stop. Plastic, that oh so cheap substance that is virtually in everything we buy and consume, is not good for you, not good for our planet, and nonrenewable. There are a plethora of options available for plastic bottle alternatives: Sigg bottles, Kleen Kanteen, Camelbak, Nalgene, and many other companies all sell reusable water bottles from $10 - $50 (depending on size, brand, style). And they are all free of BPA.

BPA, Bisphenol A, "is an endocrine disruptor, which can mimic the body's own hormones and may lead to negative health effects." Last year, The Endocrine Society published a study laying out the potential negative effects of BPA on humans, especially growing children. BPA is in nearly every plastic available, and when one drinks out of plastic water bottles, they are directly consuming BPA. Most water bottles are also packaged in PET, Polyethylene terephthalate, which makes up 1% of the United States' waste, and is currently recycled at less than a 25% rate.

If the health effects of BPA aren't enough to dissuade you, think about the waste. Oil, what plastic comes from, is a nonrenewable resource. The water in the water bottles has to come from somewhere too. Taking water from natural ecosystems is obviously abhorrent, but the fact that companies even have a right to water sources that should be intended for people in those areas is another. Where do property lines end?

Finally, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. It is riddled with plastic water bottles, and plastic waste. It is a "gyre of marine litter" that equates to the size of Texas that just floats in the middle of the Pacific, accumulating trash and essentially unstoppable and uncontrollable. If we stopped our plastic bottle usage, we could greatly reduce the chances of furthering the size of this garbage patch, and hopefully with more eliminated plastic usage, we can find a way to stop the patch from growing, and becoming a problem for those who live on islands in the Pacific.