Who knew so much damage could come from drinking water?

Sure, you thought your reusable bottle was cool, trendy, and environmentally friendly, but in reality, it was doing more harm than good...to the environment AND your health.

Never fear, the CamelBak supers are here to rescue you!

Ever wanted to live green by purchasing some reusable shopping bags for those grocery store runs but don't want to pay $15 for each of them?

Publix has your solution...reusable grocery bags for .99 cents!!

Some of my and my wife's friends gave us our Christmas presents in a couple of these bags and then my wife came home with another one after a trip to the store. When she showed me the receipt (and that is the actual receipt pictured), I couldn't believe it!

I love technology. Sometimes, however, it's a double-edged sword. Take microwaves, for example. They make our meal prep ever so much more speedy, but are they killing us at the same time?

It's true, you very well may be embalming yourself while still alive by heating food in plastic containers.

But how can we be sure if this long time legend is fact or fiction? Let's explore.

What if bottles, bags, and other plastic products could be made from biodegradable materials? Oh, wait, they can be!

Have you heard of biodegradable plastic products made from a substance called PLA?

PLA (polylactic acid) is a resin that is mostly made from, you better believe it, corn (although it can be made from other starchy sources such as potatoes).

As Elizabeth Royte from the Smithsonian Magazine puts it, "[This is] an industrial resin poised to become--if you can believe all the hype--the future of plastic in a post-petroleum world".

That said, are PLA products safe? Are they really biodegradable? Do they really save energy and money?

Plastic has been making lots of news recently. Have you noticed?

The city of San Francisco just passed a ban on plastic bags (photo courtesy of Steve Rhodes on flickr).

MetaEfficient.com just reported that major furniture retailer Ikea announced they will charge 5 cents per "disposable" plastic bag.

But while that's all fine and good, do you know why plastic bags are so bad for the environment?

In the last post we talked about the dangers of drinking bottled water. Now that we know why to never again put the neurotoxin filled petroleum-derived containers to our lips, let's talk about what alternatives exist. There are three pretty effective ways to do this. Two of them are easy and inexpensive, the other is a little more involved and will cost a little bit on the front end.

But before we talk about how to get clean and fresh tasting water at home, we have to talk about what we're going to put it in.