According to the Container Recycling Institute, 86% of plastic water bottles used in the US become garbage that ends up in landfills throughout the country. Considering that approximately 60 million plastic water bottles are used every day in the US, we can assume that nearly 18,834,000,000 end up in the landfill each year. Each bottle can take up to 700 years to decompose. (Source)
To me, what a huge waste of money … taxpayer money.. picking up plastic bottles, using up landfill space, leaking toxins into our waste stream, coupled with the carbon footprint of trucking tap water (yes, most bottled water is tap water)… UGH..
Fortunately more and more companies are taking the bottled water challenge and creating sustainable jobs by reusing those self same plastic bottles. Entrepreneurs, such as Mark Heiman and Alan Brown who are taking some of these bottles and creating fashionable clothing, I am heartened, less plastic in our landfill, job creation and a sustainable business model.
The company, L. Lur also gives back.. giving a part profits to Friendship Bridge, a non-profit, non-governmental organization whose mission is to provide microcredit and education to help impoverished women establish their own businesses and to help themselves, their families, and their communities to rise out of poverty. They also help support Miracles in Action, a non-profit organization whose mission is to provide Guatemalans living in extreme poverty with opportunities to help themselves through educational, vocational, and other sustainable development projects.
Personally speaking, I love the fact they are empowering women, and helping our below the border economy. If Mexico, central and south Americans were making money, we may not have the costly and illegal aliens problem in the US.