Reach for a Glass, not a Water Bottle
It's the height of summer here in Wilmette, and everything is still green, thanks to some major rain last week. With Rummage at Kenilworth Union on Saturday, we are thinking green this week, and today's topic is water bottles.
Not that many years ago, there was a vast number of drinking fountains in stores and on the street. In those days there seemed to be enough cleaning personnel in public places where the fountains were almost always fresh and inviting. Chicago was was a hard city in which to be thirsty. No longer.
The demise of the drinking fountain is undoubtedly one major reason for the fact that Americans used 22 billion little plastic bottles of water last year, and I can't think of a more wasteful habit. Water from Lake Michigan is some of the finest in the world.
Bottled water is no safer or cleaner than tap water; in fact 40% of bottled water started out as tap water. In fact, there are some real questions whether tap water may be actually of a higher quality than bottled water.
So do yourself a favor; get a glass out of the cupboard and turn on the tap!
Not that many years ago, there was a vast number of drinking fountains in stores and on the street. In those days there seemed to be enough cleaning personnel in public places where the fountains were almost always fresh and inviting. Chicago was was a hard city in which to be thirsty. No longer.
The demise of the drinking fountain is undoubtedly one major reason for the fact that Americans used 22 billion little plastic bottles of water last year, and I can't think of a more wasteful habit. Water from Lake Michigan is some of the finest in the world.
Bottled water is no safer or cleaner than tap water; in fact 40% of bottled water started out as tap water. In fact, there are some real questions whether tap water may be actually of a higher quality than bottled water.
So do yourself a favor; get a glass out of the cupboard and turn on the tap!
posted by Publia at 8:30 AM
3 Comments:
Good places to look for fresh water in the city of Chicago are the fire hydrants in front of Fire Houses, the water is potable. I grew up down the street from the Union Church (led by the wonderful Dr. Bowen whose son Mark is the orthopedic surgeon for the Bears) so I can give you one good hint. Go Early. I also seem to remember that there is a preview day, check that out. At one point in my life all of my stereo pieces were from the rummage sale at the Union Church. Good Luck!
I remember in my childhood drinking water directly from the lake from a couple of miles out; that was delicious! City water beats Wilmette water any day, no doubt due to where the intake lies. I never thought of hydrants . . .
Dr. Bowen has just retired, but I actually think he is working hard at Presbyterian Home. The very capable Ben Bishop, currently at the helm, left an executive position in business to enter the ministry, and was our executive minister under Doctor Bowen.
I definately will have to go early to Rummage, having ended up on the personnel list. Preview was last week. I'll bet you had a pretty good stereo!
Yeh, as a kid we always drank the water a few miles out in the lake as a Sunfish (sailboat) has no water. The Presbyterian home is a wonderful place (for a retirement home), one of my grandmothers lived there for the final few years of her life in her own "condo". I'm glad to hear that Dr. Bowen is working there, does he still take high schoolers on that annual Europe trip?
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