More water bottles recycled in 2008, but drinking bottled water is still a bad idea

The International Bottled Water Association issued a press release this week reporting that recycling rates for half liter plastic water bottles rose from 23.4 percent to 30.9 percent in 2008, according to two new studies by the National Association for PET Container Resources (NAPCOR): the 2008 Post Consumer PET Bottle Bale Composition Analysis and 2008 Report on PET Water Bottle Recycling.

“This big improvement in bottled water container recycling over the 30% mark, while encouraging, reminds us that still more needs to be done,” Association spokesman Tom Lauria
said in a press release.

We couldn't agree more.

While we're pleased that American consumers are more aggressively recycling bottled water containers, we'd like to see them trash bottled water all together. Recycling is the only option for dealing with the glut of single-serving water bottles already sitting on store shelves, in vending machines and in your refrigerators.

But let's not forget the other spokes of the three Rs - reduce, reuse and recycle.

Recycling was the way most of us are introduced to the green mindset. And it's a great way to deal with an existing waste problem. But individually and as citizens of the world, we need to put more emphasis on the other Rs - reducing and reusing. There's no reason to buy water in individual bottle servings when there are other equally convenient and affordable sources of water. And when we buy packaged goods, we need to seek out those in reusable and renewable packaging.

As consumers, we can speak very loudly with our dollars. If we don't spend money on one-time-use products and packaging, companies will stop offering them for sale and stop consuming precious resources to make them.

Photo by orphanjanes, licensed under Creative Commons