We're Banning the Bottle!

Linden Hills Co-op is eliminating all still water in plastic bottles smaller than a gallon from its shelves as of November 1. The co-op’s Green Team’s mission is to propose changes that will help Linden Hills Co-op reduce waste, lower its carbon footprint, and lighten its environmental impact. Composed of staff from every store department, the co-op’s Green Team provided the facts and impetus that merchandising manager Peter Doolan needed to make this decision.

To help you transition from plastic disposable water bottles to something better, we’re offering free refills of your stainless steel or other personal-sized containers at our bulk water dispenser. The comments so far have been great!

Every year, the average US citizen spends over $400 on bottled water. This is 1,900 times the price of tap water, yet Americans still use an average of 28 billion bottles of water yearly. Of those 28 billion bottles, 22 billion end up in landfills (where it then takes 300 years for the plastic to biodegrade). The production of bottled water, according to the What’s Tappening website, uses as much as 17 million barrels of oil—enough to fuel a million cars for an entire year.

Strong support for this change also comes from the Federal and local government; in July, researchers with the Government Accountability Office and the Environmental Working Group urged Americans to make bottled water “a distant second choice” to tap water. And in Minneapolis, TapMpls.com is a city-funded effort to encourage citizens to take the pledge to drink tap water.

Using reusable water bottles may be a big lifestyle change for some of co-op shoppers, so to support them in making the switch, Linden Hills Co-op is offering free refills on any personal-size reusable water bottles from its reverse-osmosis water machine from now until December 2010. Drink up!