You make your habits and then your habits make you.
Isn’t it an inspired quote?
A habit I am working on at the moment is always carrying a water bottle – or two actually – a small one in my handbag and a bigger one in my basket.
I am making a me that doesn’t buy bottled water.
There is only habit standing between me and non-bottled-water-buying me. My home water from the tank is so much nicer, actually sweet. And plastic water bottles are one of thoes thoughtless inanities for which we are trading the future of the planet.
Mostly I carry plain tank water in my bottle. But if I have to fill it with town water for any reason, the taste can be enhanced with a little squeeze of citrus juice – lemon, lime, tangerine, finger lime. Or a sprig of mint or peppermint. If I am taking a packed lunch, a cold water bottle keeps it all cool.
There is more than habit standing between me and all the other cold bottled drinks that make up a multi-trillion dollar industry. To me they are emblematic of the kind of thinking that has got us here in this dangerous place. They are one of my (I admit it – several) pet hates about our food industries.
We can do without them without any reduction in standard of living. We are better off without them – they’re just numbers, sugar, packaging, and marketing. And yet, for something we’d be better off without, we pay billions of tons of plastic, carbon, metals, and (I know it doesn’t come in tons but it’s the same kind of thing) visual space. When we could just catch and drink rain.
It would be funny in an absurd way if it weren’t so utterly tragic.
When I declared 2010 the Year of No Disposables (what, I’m not the UN? I can still declare a Year!) I got myself a SIGG bottle, I love it so much. I don’t think I’ve forgotten to take it with me since I got it.
I’m also working on carrying re-usable coffee cup with lid that my brother gave me for Christmas, hanky, and small camping towel in little mesh bag to dry my hands on instead of using paper towel or hand dryers. This last is easy in one way, because it is clipped to my handbag, but I keep forgetting at work to take bag with me to the toilet… in non-work clothes I usually just dry my hands on my clothes, but can’t do that on work clothes 🙂
The coffee cup one I’ve got down pat, but the camping towel – what a good idea! I’m thinking even one of those microfibre dish cloths might be the go.
The camping towel is v handy because it comes on a lanyard, so it clips to my bag – but it’s pretty much the same as those microfibre dish cloths.
I did, however (to my great annoyance, as I had bought one at full price) notice that Kathmandu have them on special for $5 at the moment… http://www.kathmandu.com.au/search.aspx?q=hikers+towel
I actually hate bottled water worse than soft drinks. At least soft drinks are selling SOMETHING, even if it’s something I dislike. Bottled water is just an exercise in the ridiculous. Have you seen this? http://storyofstuff.org/bottledwater/ I made my sister watch it because she is always buying bottled water and it makes me crazy! Not only do we have about 20 bottles lying around the house, but the whole concept is one I am completley not ok with.
Note to self: work on getting that water tank installed, sooner rather than later.