Bottled Water Without The Guilt

Here's an advancement in the world of environmentally-friendly modern convenience. My husband and I have been watching the Food Network tonight, and we just saw something really unexpected and cool. I bet you'll be surprised when I say it's bottled water. I remember when bottled water first came into vogue, and my husband and I used to laugh and mock the people who would spend a dollar for a bottle of something that you could get out of the tap for practically free. (Back when a bottle only cost a dollar.) Well, in the ensuing years we have discovered that sometimes there's a lot to be said for the convenience of just grabbing a bottle when we're heading out the door for a hike, and have to admit that bottled water usually tastes better than the stuff coming through the city water system. Still, all those bottles have weighed on our consciences all these years, and I cringe at the landfills I'm sure are overflowing with the plastic we've used and discarded. Well, now there's an alternative I hope catches on in a big way. Have you ever heard of biodegradable plastic? There's a company in Colorado called Biota that bottles water in plastic made from corn, plastic that holds its form indefinitely on store shelves, but when exposed to high heat, high moisture and micro-organisms can actually be composted in 80 days. It burns cleanly, too, producing no soot. I knew it was just a matter of time before alternatives to petroleum based plastics started showing up. It's nice to be right.