Plastic water bottles are ever present, especially here on campus. Our bookstore, vending machines and restaurants stock multiple brands, sizes and shapes. And for a student, a quick stop and a dollar seems like an attractive way to have water on the go. But there is an alternative that could save this planet and your wallet: reusable water bottles.

If you buy one water bottle almost each day for a year, you could spend over $300. That’s over $1200 in a four year period. That’s one-third of a semester’s tuition, or a sweet HD TV. A durable, safe plastic or stainless steel bottle will set you back $10-20. Plastic bottles should be replaced every year or two, but a metal bottle will last forever.

If the economic factor isn’t enough to make you change your ways, consider this: Each year, the United States uses 1.5 million barrels of oil to make plastic bottles for bottled water, according to the Earth Policy Institute. That’s enough fuel to power 100,000 cars.

Additionally, MSNBC reports, of the nearly 50 billion bottles that are consumed each year, only about 23 percent, or 12 billion are recycled. That is 38 billion bottles that go to landfills every year. And since it can take 1,000 years for a plastic bottle to degrade in a landfill, those bottles are just going to pile up and sit there.

Nalgene and Brita have partnered together for Filter for Good (www.filterforgood.com), a campaign aimed at getting people to switch to reusable bottles. Those who pledge to make the change can get coupons for Brita water filters. In honor of Filter for Good, Nalgene has designed special HDPE (a safe, non-leaching plastic) bottles for an affordable $10. So far over 58 million people have taken the pledge.

Many people drink bottle water because they think it is cleaner and safer than tap water, yet there really is no evidence that supports the claim.

Both Aquafina and Dasani, two of America’s most popular bottled water brands, are just purified tap water. According to an article that appeared in The New York Times in 2007, tap water is regulated Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which requires multiple daily testing. Meanwhile, bottle water falls under the jurisdiction of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which only requires weekly testing. The results of the test are not shared with the EPA or with the public.

So there’s no telling what’s in that bottle of water you are drinking. And even if you wanted to find out, the FDA probably wouldn’t tell you.

According to The Green Guide (www.thegreenguide.com), the best reusable plastic bottles to buy are made from #1 polyethylene terephthalate (PET or PETE), #2 high density polyethylene, #4 low density polyethylene and #5 polypropylene. Most experts advise strongly against refilling disposable bottles, since they can leech chemicals and breed bacteria.

As a longtime user of reusable water bottles, I can attest that they require minimal effort to manage. Fill them up with filtered water, straight from the tap, or at the nearest water fountain, and you are good to go.

They transport easily and since many are made for outdoor situations, they tend to be extremely durable They do need to be occasionally cleaned out with soap and hot water, and/or bleach (depending on how paranoid you are), and should be replaced every year or two.

Switching away from disposable bottles seems like such a small sacrifice to make for such a big impact. It’s green for our planet, and means more green in your wallet. It’s a win-win situation.

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