Claire, I'd love to make the switch to reuseables, but the boys are so naughty...just take a look in the yard and see the bottles that lay out there until I get tired of it and pick them up..reusables, regular plastic you name it..they think if they toss them into my rose garden I won't notice them!!!

I do try to get them to refill the plastic water bottles a few times before they go in the recycling bag though.

I recently purchased 2 Sigg bottles--also coated aluminum.

I was looking at stainless but most are manufactured in China which is a whole 'nother issue. Sigg bottles have been around for years and are made in Switzerland--from all my googling, it seem that the plastic liner is supposedly safe and doesn't contain bisphenol a. I really like the leakproof sport tops on the ones I bought.

I've been trying to buy some smaller ones that fit into the kids lunch boxes/bags, but most of the small Sigg bottles have rather babyish designs.

I need to throw out our Nalgene bottles...

First--we have bad water here. I struggle with keeping up with water issues all the time as evidence by the $550 bill yesterday to fix the bacteria in my water.

Bottled water is essential for us but I don't like deaing with the plastic bottles for the reasons mentioned above.

Two weeks ago, I opted for the Britta Pitcher and filter system to supply us with drinking and cooking water. I love it. DH doesn't know a fillet mignon from a hot dog, but he drinks a lot of water and is sensitive to the taste of various brands of bottled water. I did the blind taste test for him and he was very impressed with the filtered water.

So to answer your question, yes, this has allowed me to switch from bottled water to reusable bottles. I'm loving this too! No more 5 gallon water delivery or cases of little bottles to lug around and fill the recycle.

*As a bonus, I read step-by-step directions on how to refill the filters yourself in order to save the $5 @ filter. I do the same thing with the Swifter mop so I'm sure I can handle this too.

I have some Rubbermaid bottles that I fill from the cooler at work or home and put my lemonade mix in. I do keep a 6 pack of water in my car, but otherwise I re-use my reusable bottles. I will have to get rid of the Nalgene I guess, which I use when I'm walking or hiking, and get something else. But they are cool looking.

It's nice to hear that switching is an option for some of us! namabafo, I looked seriously at the Sigg bottles, and was concerned when I found my OGGI option was made in China. The lining/lids look exactly the same as Sigg, and I decided to ''take a risk''. (I've also wondered if Switzerland outsources their manufacturing process like everyone else.) Since I believe in moderation, I'm opting not to worry too much about this, as I do like the refillable bottles and they are identical to the Sigg bottles in almost every way.

mustangs, I'm glad to hear the filtered water pitcher is working out for you. I think anything we do to help purify the water we use is helpful to our longevity.

terri, maybe you can have them pick out a cool water bottle that's just theirs. Retraining them may be tough at this point, but I think it's definitely worth it in the long run! Hopefully, naughty boys can turn into responsible, respectful people who care about the planet...

Claire, Agreed!!
BTW, Nancy says so too..she called me just to tell me! lol

We don't use bottled water. Ours is good thank goodness. Yes all that plastic..and all that money, when we already pay for water. I have a refillable one I use for the car or beach.

I rarely use bottled water. I have been drinking tap water all my life with no ill effects, so I will continue.

I do have a huge mug that I fill several times at work from the ice/water machine we have, but it was a cheapie from the dollar store.

Terri, you are too funny!

Linda

I use the Brita stuff for coffee, but the bottled for drinking. I don't know if it's our plumbing or what, but cold water always comes out yellow for some time after you turn on the water. Psychologically, I just can't do it. Some people drink water here at work out of a filtered line in our refrigerator, but that doesn't work for me either. I drink much more water with the bottled stuff, which is a good thing and that has to override the worries over the bottle thing. They go into a bin for a man in my complex who recycles for money.

Only way I'd do non-bottled is if I got one of those coolers with the see through thing on top. That's some good water!

Linda, Nancy told me to stand beside the bottle until they came and got it..LOL

LOL Terri!

We are always refilling water containers here, spring water is what comes out of the faucets. We have a flowing well that also empties into the lake 24/7. I've often joked about going into the water bottling business.

Nancy

We have terrible water. We have a water filtration system for the house and a reverse osmosis system for drinking water, which I love. So, I don't buy very much bottled water.

Terri, without telling your boys what's up, ask them what methods they would implement to ''retrain'' someone from one bad habit to a good one. It might be interesting to see what they come up with! Then, you could issue a Challenge (with a positive reward of course) to see how their own methods worked on them. It would be an interesting experiment at the very least...

(I realized that for my system to work best for me, I really need two bottles, so I always have one in reserve. I had to order an extra, but I have no excuses now. I'm also drinking more water because it's so easy now to grab and go. The clips are great too when you need to be hands-free.)

Sometimes I buy bottled water, but usually when we are having guests. I don't throw away the bottles I use, I clean them and fill them several times. Then they can get recycled. I have well water and it is good to drink.

Sue

We've distilled our drinking water for 25 years or more. We've always used reusable mugs, bottles, thermos.... I can't believe what people pay for bottled water and the waste with the containers! Add to that - the water isn't all that "special".

-Grainlady

Here is a link that might be useful: Amazon.com / Water Distiller

A big rectangle Brita pitcher takes up one whole side of my frig...probably a 2 gallon sized thingy. It's filled daily as we drink lots of water here.
Years ago, at the tail end of cancer recovery I couldn't stand the taste of drinking out of plastic anything. And in fact had it in my mind that by using it I was slowly being poisoned. I tried to toss it all out but DH dug a few big ole blue cups out of the trash bin...whatever. LOL! I won't have anything to do with them, especially anything that has been in the HOT car. ICK.

Terri:
Claire:
How about an offer they can't refuse ? If you don't pick up the bottles, you don't eat !!!

Or how about, I'll give you five across your lips.
LOU

Lou, my kids wouldn't know what a smack across the mouth is..oh wait there was that one time when my oldest was 5 and just plain popped off..and it was instinct..but the little ones..nope..

Claire, good option..I will present it to them. I can tell you right now, they will come up with completely different answers...

Sue, I reuse the bottles a few times.

We have well water too..but it's not very good...so we drink out of the fridge.. It's yucky when I replace the filter...icky gross... I do make Kool aid and cook with tap water. But for drinking water, tea or coffee it's filtered from the fridge.

Grainlady, thanks for that link..I'll send it to my mom..and save it for me too.. I have less trouble with my ankle(s) swelling if I drink only distilled.

I have municipal water, which I don't care for, it contains a lot of minerals and has that odd taste. However, people drive from several miles around for the "mineral water" that comes from the local flowing wells, go figure.

Dad has a well at the farm and that's the water I really like. As for bottled, well, Dad's tap water comes from the same aquafer that Ice Mountain taps to bottle water (only about 10 miles away too). So yes, a foreign company is bottling OUR water and then selling it back to us in non-biodegradable plastic bottles and we're buying it and filling up the landfills with the containers. Sigh.

I've had a couple of Thermos brand containers for 20 years or so, LOL, and some Rubbermaid bottles with flip tops. The girls had insulated covers for the bottles so the water stayed cold. They would fill the bottle halfway full the night before, then in the morning fill the bottle the rest of the way with water and go, letting the ice slowly melt and keep the water cool for basketball practice, track meets, soccer, volleyball, whatever they were doing.

My own water I bring home from the farm in one of those big coolers with a spigot. I refill when I go to the farm but if I run out, I just drink my tap water and get my minerals.

I already pay for city water, so I especially hate to buy bottled water. If I'm travelling somewhere and stop for a drink it nearly kills me to buy a bottle of water, I try to keep a thermos of water or iced tea in the Jeep with me.

Many Native American Grandmothers would be proud of us right now, they're in the process of doing the 600+ mile "water walk" around Lake Michigan. Water is the symbol of women, fire the symbol of men, so the women are walking with a bucket of water to remind us that water is a sacred gift and to be used wisely. I tried to link the story at the Grand Rapids Press, but of course, I couldn't.

Annie

Annie, thanks for the ''real life lesson'' of how we're buying back our own water, with the extra waste tacked onto that.

I really liked the story or our Native American Grandmothers Water Walk around Lake Michigan. I've always believed it's our most precious natural resource (much more than oil!) since we wouldn't be able to do anything without it.

...here is something I found on the Water Walk.

Here is a link that might be useful: Mother Earth Water Walk

Scott, if you water is coming out yellow, it means that you have very old pipes and the plumbing in your building should be changed. We got new plumbing under our house recently, and the water is much better now, but I still filter it for drinking. I have a couple of 2.5 gallon plastic water bottles for earthquake emergency, but otherwise I don't buy bottled water. When traveling, I take a sports bottle with me - I have several and usually use one of them for vodka.

The water in L.A. is supposed to be very good, but if the plumbing to your house is decrepit, it won't be as good as it could. My parents have artesian water, and my great grandfather dug the first artesian wells in the area (He was a water-witcher). My family owned the water works until the town incorporated in the 1960s. Before that, my grandmother had to collect the water bills, and she didn't care if people paid their bills or not. Therefore my father had to do the bill collecting for her.

Lars

Even with recycling, approx. 10 million barrels of oil are used annually in the manufacture of containers for bottled water. It's just one more item to increase the demand for oil by U.S. consumers.

Yes, I have a SIGG aluminum bottle that I carry back and forth to work with me. I'm lucky to have well water that tastes fabulous and I can't see paying for bottled water that more often than not is from a municipal water supply, plus the oil and plastic waste issues . . . I wish I could get my DD onboard with me on this.

I quit buying bottled water last summer and bought two Nalgene bottles thinking I was doing something good. Well, now I realise it may be good for the earth, but not for me. I bought two SIGG aluminum bottles several weeks ago that I really like. One to keep in the fridge and one to keep on the beverage bar. Our tap water is okay, but the softened water is awful. I reuse a glass milk bottle for water to drink upstairs.

Well...Here's another thing I do. I fill this every day and keep it out on my counter to be refilled as necessary. The water to the ice machine is filtered as well, so if it starts getting low, I just dump more ice in to keep it going. The next batch is getting a sprig of lemon verbena to go with the sliced orange.
{{gwi:1513651}}

I've never bought bottled water, but I'm really spoiled by the quality of water here in Oregon I guess. I do use a Nalgene bottle every day and have for 15 years. While I realize that there are some concerns about the BPA leeching out of the PC, it's not really something I worry about too much. The chemicals I deal with on a daily basis at work and home are far more toxic...

Bri

Yes, I think you're right Lars, and I think new piping is coming eventually. That probably will make things better to where I can use the Brita for most everything, and solve some other water related annoyances that go on as well.

There are several brands of water sold here in glass bottles with the beer bottle type of cap. Once opened you have to use another lid to close it again. Most of our German friends and neighbours won't touch water from a plastic bottle and only buy that sold in glass. So they buy it in large crates of 12 or 24 bottles which are returnable. I'm told they are accustomed to doing that in Germany. I often hear the clanking of glass bottles when our neighbour fills her car to take the empties back to the supermarket. Some companies will deliver these heavy crates door to door here in town. I would prefer water from glass bottles if they weren't so darn heavy and as we drink a lot of water each day I think we'd have problems carrying it all into the house.

Our tap water is safe to drink but tastes of minerals so we only use it for washing and cooking. I buy drinking water in 1 1/2 liter containers made of PET (polyethylene terephthalate), a thermoplastic polymer that is recyclable and goes into special bins found on street corners around the town. I buy a local brand that comes from a natural spring (manantial) up the mountain not far from where we live. On the side of each bottle is the laboratory analysis of the water along with the permit number from the Health Ministry. When I go to Pilates I take with me a smaller bottle of the same type which I refill each time I go.

We also keep a Brita filter jug filled in the bedroom.

SharonCb

Bri--from what I've read, the BPA is more of a problem with children--that's whay they are taking baby bottles off the shelf. I guess that 93% of adults already have BPA in their bodies.

It's funny that I had avoided bottled water for years, actually preferring tap water, but slowly fell into the trap of how convieninet it was. Esp. when I'd go to events and a bottle of water was $3-4 that I paid $.17 for at home(by the case).

I never really liked plastic sports bottles as they never felt 'clean' to me, but I love my Siggs...we just spent a week at Disney and I just refilled my water bottles at the drinking fountains.

I figure our family can probably keep at least 500 plastic bottles out of the waste stream each year (2 kids x 180 lunches at school) + all the times we grabbed a botttle for the ride somewhere...

I only buy bottled water when I have to. Then I save the plastic bottle and use it over and over again for my own lunches until it's pretty well "had it". Our school recycles bottles and cans for computer money, due to the "Bottle Deposit" required in California.

When I refill the water bottle, it's from our own tap water, filtered into the refrigerator. YAY!

I've thought about the Sigg bottle (might have one in our old backpacking equipment) and other metal bottles, but have not made the switch yet.

DonnaR/CA

I spent $1.99 for a glass bottle of VOSS water from Norway - I figured I would spend at least that much for a plastic water bottle, and I got the bonus of the bottle being pre-filled with water. I have to keep a bottle of water with me at all times, and I've really liked the VOSS bottle. I even got one for my mom.

Tinaneu, those VOSS bottles are very cool. I only wish glass bottles weren't so heavy, but I think they'd be a great alternative if you don't have to carry it around much. I like what Sharon had to say about Europeans using glass bottles, and if I could find one with an easy/reliable lid, I might even consider it. We used to buy reusable bottles with soda when I was a kid, and were always taking them back for a deposit. In fact, we did that with milk bottles too, and still can if we choose to buy milk that way. I may look into that as an alternative, since we have a World Market in the area. Thanks for the tip!

I turned on the faucet today and got black (like ink) flowing out. I tried every faucet and flushed every toilet, same thing. So Britta filters couldn't even help.

I love the VOSS bottles too. I recycled them to my laundry room for laundry products. I spray painted the tops.

Mustangs, Oh, I LOVE what you do with things! You are the only person I know who could use an empty Ariel box as staging for your (fabulous) laundry room. Thanks for that!

What's in the bottles?

I grew up with some of the best well water. I'm not opposed to drinking "city water" as long as I can't taste it. Unfortunately, the delicious well water is long gone, so I have a Brita pitcher at home. I actually just recently bought a second one at a yard sale to use at work. It's more of a pain to take it to the sink to fill it than just reach in my cabinet and grab a bottle. But I feel so much better about drinking it.

Mustangs, I'd love to learn about refilling the filters. I buy them at Costco so they're a pretty good deal, but would still love to save more. :-)

Having lived in rural areas for most of my life, water quality is high on my concern list. As a child, our farm well water was the best IMO. The last 30 years, have been surrounded by folks who use excess pesticides, fertilizers and at times, even dump old motor oil in fence rows. Nearly all rural wells are contaminated with chemicals usual water tests do not detect. In one area, no infants were to have the water in formula due to all the excess agricultural fertilizer in the water.

Currently, we invested in a filter(whole house) and distillation (for food prep and drinking), system for our city water source. We are shocked at the debris picked up by the filter. Before we installed this system, our skin was constantly itchy and excessively dry despite natural lotions. The water smelled like an open chlorax jug at times. No more. When we travel locally, we take our own water in SS mugs or glass jars.

Have heard of some scientists who now suggest double distilled water for all drinking and cooking.

Quite interesting that most breweries use complex water filtration systems to maintain quality.

Wonder how soon safe water will cost more than gasoline?
cella jane

Blue~my mom started double filtering her water(not distilled), then she adds some stuff to it too..minerals.
I didn't ask her why. LOL

Hubby and I looked at a Reverse Osmosis system at Costco yesterday.

All this reminds me, I need to order some fridge filters.

cella jane, when I lived in the San Joaquin valley, we laughed at those who told us we had great drinking water there. (That was 20 years ago.) No way was I going to drink that water with the concentration of pesticides used on the farms. I remember trying to feed birds there, and there weren't any! With the exception of feeding the hummingbirds that were there nine months out of the year, we saw very few birds. We also travel with our own water, and when we run out on the road, buy distilled.

Terri, I adore my RO water. Even my dog loves it and knows the difference; she used to sometimes drink the pond water. She's grown picky in her mid-life!

Jmzm, Below s the link for instructions.

Claire, Thanks for the comments! The bottles contain:
Perwoll Black Magic for keeping black and dark-colored from fadeing and pilling.
Lestoil for greasy stains.
Woolite for delicates

Here is a link that might be useful: Refill Refills