Saving+the+Planet+One+Bottle+at+a+Time

== =Saving the Planet One Bottle at a Time=

Did you know?

 * Around 80% of all empty bottled water containers wind up on the side of the road or in a land - where they'll stay for over 1,000 years.
 * Most common plastics leak chemicals into the water supply as they "bio-degrade."
 * Around 15 and 17 million barrels of oil is used to make plastic water bottles - enough to fuel a million cars each year.
 * The United States uses 1.5 million barrels of oil each year for the manufacture of plastic water bottles.
 * The manufacturing process of plastic bottles releases toxic chemicals into the air.
 * The global distribution of bottled water, in transportation, processing and refrigeration of bottled water all creates yet another environmental hazard. The trucks, airplanes, and boats on which the water travels consume even more fossil fuels, while simultaneously causing air pollution and global warming.

Did you know?

 * Atlantic County's recycling rate is currently about 24%, and we are not meeting the state goal of 50%.
 * Based on A.C.U.A., Atlantic County collected and hauled almost 36,000 tons of recycling material in 2009. Of these total, approximately 500 tons were bottles. If the approximate weight of a plastic bottle is roughly 24grams, we recycled about 22,212,500 bottles. This means that 70,339,583 bottles are in landfills.
 * This means that the average bottle consumption per person, per year in Atlantic County is 341! This is double the national average!

Did you know?

 * What we believe is cleaner, better-treated water, really isn’t.
 * An estimated 25% or more of bottled water is really just tap water. (nrdc.org), so why are you buying water?
 * Tap water is very affordable compared to bottled water, which costs you a fortune - sometimes up to 10,000 times more than your tap water. Prices range from $5 to $10 per gallon, thus costing more than gasoline!
 * Tap water is thoroughly and repeatedly tested by local, state, and federal environmental agencies. However, bottled water does not go through the same rigorous testing. " A study on bottled water conducted by the National Resource Defense Council revealed that one in every three samples contained contamination levels that exceeded allowable limits. " (greeniacs.com)

[[image:bottle.png width="60" height="131" align="left"]]What can you do about it?

 * 1) ** STOP BUYING WATER IN PLASTIC BOTTLES and HELP SAVE OUR PLANET! **
 * 2) ** PURCHASE A REUSABLE BOTTLE from your favorite store! Check out our links for some options. **
 * 3) ** YOU CAN FILTER YOUR WATER if you have concerns about your water, or like the taste of filtered water better. Check out our links for some options. The best option is the single-bottle filtering system. **
 * 4) **TAKE THE WATER WARRIOR PLEDGE  TO USE REUSABLE BOTTLES AND SAVE OUR PLANET! **

Did you Realize?

 * IF EVERYONE IN Northfield Community School stopped buying bottled water (1250 teachers and students), we'd save 426,250 bottles and prevent 323,950 going to landfills and contaminating our environment
 * IF EVERYONE IN Northfield (approximately 8600) stopped buying bottled water, we'd save 2,932,600 bottles and prevent 2,287.776 going to landfills and contaminating our environment.
 * IF EVERYONE IN Atlantic County stopped buying bottled water, we'd save 92,552,083 bottles and prevent 70,339,583 going to landfills and contaminating our environment
 * IF EVERYONE IN NJ (approximately 8,707,739) stopped buying bottled water, we'd save 1,454,192,413 bottles and prevent 1,090,644,309 going to landfills and contaminating our environment.