Bottled Water

The first principle of Leave No Trace is "Plan ahead and Prepare," and we encourage everyone to have plenty of food, water, sunscreen and appropriate clothing on their outdoor excursions. Although having water on outdoor excursions is extremely important, water bottled in single use plastic bottles is an expensive and unnecessary luxury that creates an enormous amount of waste. Even bottles that are sent to be recycled or disposed of properly often end up littering and polluting the places we love.     

Bottled water is of special concern for Leave No Trace, because many used plastic bottles end up tossed at the side of the trail, floating in a stream or left in the middle of our city parks.  

A simple solution to this problem is to purchase a widely-available metal or BPA-free plastic bottle that can be used over and over again. A Leave No Trace aluminum bottle comes free with a $35+ membership or is available for sale in our online store. Our water bottles are 20% off through the end of July, so hurry and get yours today! Get in the habit of having one with you at all times so that you can avoid the temptation of convenience of one-time use bottles and help reduce unnecessary plastic waste. 

Want to read more on why you should stop drinking bottled water? Check out this article from Lighter Footstep, which gives some excellent reasons for not drinking bottled water and encouraging others to do the same.

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UPDATE (7/09/09):  Australian town bans bottled water sales

SYDNEY (AP) — Residents of a rural Australian town hoping to protect the earth and their wallets have voted to ban the sale of bottled water, the first community in the country — and possibly the world — to take such a drastic step in the growing backlash against the industry.

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