I carry a bottle of water around with me, but it’s the same leach-free bottle that I’ve had for months. I wash it out and fill it with tap water instead of buying bottled water while I’m out in the city. Not only does it save money, it also limits the amount of plastic entering the consumer stream.

New American Dream lists five reasons to break the bottle water habit. Reason number 4?

Bottled water is full of oil. Making bottles to meet Americans’ demand for bottled water requires more than 1.5 million barrels of oil annually, enough to fuel some 100,000 cars for a year. (NY Times) To put it another way, the entire energy costs of the lifecycle of a bottle of water is equivalent, on average, to filling up a quarter of each bottle with oil. (Pacific Institute)

For more information about how you can break the bottle water habit, check out the New American Dream website.