Mockturtle, I have done what you are proposing (if I understand your post correctly), in garden beds (in ground) and in large tubs (75L or so capacity), in order to deal with our seemingly perpetual drought and the water restrictions. Sometimes the only water available for the garden is water collected in the house while waiting for the hot water to come through, so I need to make sure it gets where it's needed. I've used plastic bottles and make a lot of holes with a heavy darning needle around the bottom third, then I buried the bottles with the neck sticking just above the mulch (keep the lid on when not watering if you want to stop snails from moving in or mulch/soil falling in. I would water about twice a week, or as needed. Obviously this would be a pain to do on a large scale. On a small scale it worked for me very well. The spacing of the containers depends on the plant's water needs - tender veggies vs mediterranean herbs, for example. And of course newly planted seedlings/seeds need different treatment! As far as the rate of flow from the container to the soil, it will obviously be way faster than an olla! It will depend partly on hole size and number, and over time I found it slowed a bit as dirt clogged some of the holes. A fast rate is not necessarily a problem, unless your soil is super-sandy. Provided there is organic matter there to hold onto the water and keep it in general the vicinity of the plants, I don't think it matters whether the water is released over 5 minutes or over a few hours. In fact, although I still use this method in the large pots, I have modified it for the current garden that I have - For the in-ground beds I have cut the bottom out of my plastic bottles and use them basically like a short pipe going through the mulch and into the soil. This type of subsurface watering works perfectly for me. I have a clay soil which I am progressively amending with organic matter, so I'm not worried about excessive drainage. For me the buried container was simply a convenient delivery system for the water, and also a handy way of knowing exactly how much water I was giving at each watering. Carrying water to 3 raised beds twice a week or so wouldn't be too much work for me, but then all my watering is manual because of water restrictions and the fact that I don't own the property and don't want to invest in an irrigation system that might not be appropriate for the next location. YMMV

I have found that any paint peels eventually ...left out in the changing weather seasons! But, spray exterior clear sealers have helped me (like lizzardly said). I think lindasewandsew has good success on pots & such...I'll try to find a link. Might give it a try. Jeanne S. Here is a link that might be useful: another painted pot

From what I understand, aluminum is endlessly recyclable. Plastic can only be recycled a few times, and I don't believe it can ever be recycled into food grade plastic again. Also, the plastic label cannot be recycled. Shipping-wise, plastic is lighter, but aluminum uses more available space. They are both round, but plastic bottles are wasting space at the top where they dome in, as well as the space taken up by the stackable plastic shipping pieces. I don't know which allows for more fuel efficiency: less empty space resulting in more liquid shipped per truckload, or lighter containers resulting in less fuel needed for propulsion. I can't think of many ways to reuse aluminum cans, and can only think of a few for the plastic bottles. Any uses for either will last a long time, which means you won't be doing much in the reuse section of the 3 R's.

I use tap water in my Brita jug - change the filter monthly. Another study was done in Canada on bottled water and there are exceptionally high levels of bacteria, much more than in tap water. The bacteria is not life threatening though but they were recommending people with compromised systems and pregnant women might want to avoid it. Also some of the bottled water is bottled from tap water. When I found out one of the bottled waters used Lake Ontario water I didn't drink it again. LOL Windsor has really good tap water and only on the odd day early in the morning can I smell chlorine. I also prefer my coffee made with filtered Brita water and my tea water right from the tap. I can understand using bottled water though where the water quality is not good. Anne