I do not consider myself a "tree hugger" by any means, but I felt that since today is Earth Day that I should write something about saving our precious environment. There is a situation that many of you might already be aware of in regards to plastic water bottles. Here is a link to a short article which explains some of the issues and there are hundreds of similar articles if you do a search.

To summarize, Americans drink an estimated 70 million bottles of water everyday. This creates two separate problems for the environment. First, the production of the plastic water bottles uses millions of barrels of oil which is obviously wasting what has become a precious commodity based on the price of gasoline these days. Second, it is estimated that less than 25% of all of those plastic bottles are actually recycled, thus allowing billions of bottles to end up in our landfills each year.

It takes a plastic bottle 700 years before it even begins to decompose, so I hope you can see the pending disaster this could be leading to. This does not even take into account the billions of dollars that Americans unnecessarily spend on bottled water each year. I have come across an item just coming to market which can help alleviate all of these issues.

It is a filtered water bottle from Fit & Fresh. It is a reusable water bottle that has an anti-microbial filter inside of it. This bottle allows you to fill it with regular tap water, yet the filter gives it comparable quality to that you would get from bottled water. The filter is replaceable and each filter purifies at least 75 gallons of water. This is the equivalent of 500 bottles of water and theoretically keeps those 500 plastic bottles out of our landfills. It also makes the production of the plastic bottles unnecessary which saves nonrenewable resources and saves you money from not having to purchase bottled water.

Here is a link to a video on the Fit & Fresh filtered water bottle which reiterates all of these facts. This seems like common sense to me. Saves money and the environment! The bottle is just arriving in stores now and sells for just $12.99 which includes the bottle and one filter. That one filter will save you from buying 500 bottles of water which even at 20 cents a piece would cost you $100. I know this item is available at some regional department stores including Carson Pirie Scott, Boston Store, Younkers, Herbergers, Bergners, Elder Beerman and Bon Ton.

I know I am going to give it a try. It is probably only a small step, but every little step gets us closer to where we need to be. I feel it is worth the effort to help save this planet for our children and our children's children.  Hope you consider taking this small step with me. With that, I will wrap up this short Earth Day issue of Kickin' it Old School. Thanks for reading. I will be back with more pop culture fodder for you all very soon. Until then, be sure to click on the Archives in the upper left hand column to read past articles. Peace and much love.

Check this out: I thought this cartoon was appropriate...

Quote of the day: "The smallest act of kindness is worth more than the grandest intention." -Oscar Wilde

Download this: "I Try" by Ben Taylor - This is a cover of the Macy Gray song which I enjoy better than the original