The best way to save money and help planet Earth? Drink tap water.

Most people don’t know that when you buy a bottle of water, the water accounts for only about $0.04 of the total cost. The rest of the cost of bottled water goes towards the packaging and transportation fees.

Statistics show that Coke — which produces the bottled water Dasani — and Pepsi — which produces Aquafina — are responsible for 24 percent of U.S. bottled water purchases. These companies also allegedly just fill their extremely well marketed bottles with the very water we can get for FREE each day — tap water.

And it’s not just these brands that are accused of such travesties, these just so happen to be the big names. Many brands including the most popular, Poland Spring, are believed to just be tap water hiding in a shiny plastic costume.

Americans consume roughly 90 bottles a year per person. That translates to 28 billion water bottles per year as a nation which costs roughly $15 billion out of American’s pockets and only 24 percent of these actually get recycled.

Approximately 8 out of every 10 plastic water bottles purchased ends up in a landfill after use and only about 13 percent are recycled. Many of these bottles can be reused at least a few more times without any risk to health, however due to convenience and the availability of water in the U.S. this rarely happens.

The leading cause for purchasing bottled water is that people are so often in a rush and don’t think about carrying a re-usable water bottle. Next time, take a little extra time before running out the door and try carrying something with you that will keep the money in your pocket and the plastic out of the landfills.

Make a change. #ThinkFWD.

-Jen Wolfe & Melissa Turley

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Team ThinkFWD is a group of fifteen students from Frank Sesno’s class at The George Washington University. See all of their videos here: Visit the Member Page