3819126027_8dc298f84e-1.jpg

Remember this moment? (Skip to 1:50) Well, I'm having one of my own. Just picture me standing at a podium with helmet hair like The Gipper, a stern look glinting in my eyes, saying, "Atlanta airport, get some recycling bins!"

If you're anything like me, here's how you feel about plastic bottles of water.

 

Cons:

Takes 1,000 years to break down in a landfill

Has a hefty carbon footprint and is made with petroleum

Leaches harmful chemicals into your water over time

 

Pros:

Convenient

Convenient

Convenient

In the past year or so, I've tried to wean myself "off the bottle." In my day-to-day life, it was easy to adjust. I bought a cute Sigg metal thermos and the communal water cooler at work is great. But traveling without bottled water is extremely hard--particularly abroad.

Generally speaking I now travel with my thermos so that I can drink tap water in my destination, but I forgot it on a recent trip and soon found myself parched in the Atlanta airport. In desperation I scoured the airport for a glass bottle of water but had no luck. I broke down and bought a plastic bottle of water, vowing to recycle it properly. Guess what? Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson Airport, the world's busiest airport, has no recycling bins. A recycling program is one of their goals for this year, and I hope it's still in the works.

The Atlanta airport aside, I can generally avoid plastic bottles when I travel domestically or to a country with safe drinking water. But what can an adventurous traveler do to go green in countries without safe tap water and recycling programs in place? I have reserached this question and honestly I don't have a "magic bullet" solution.

Go Green, Travel Green did a nice round-up of your options, but most of them include boiling your water or chemically disinfecting it with iodine. And the CDC has a few things to say on this topic too. To me, those aren't very practical options--particularly if you're staying in a hotel. What's the next best thing?

Here's how to reduce your "water footprint" while visiting a country with unsafe drinking water.

1) Buy in bulk. Visit a grocery store, buy big containers of bottled water, and then pour a daily portion into a resusable metal thermos. Bigger bottles have smaller footprints.

2) After you use your plastic containers, recycle them. If you can't find a recycling bin, squash the jugs and put them back in your luggage to be recycled at home.

And/or

3) Buy water in glass or aluminum bottles. Aluminum cans and bottles have a much smaller footprint and are becoming increasingly common. As with the plastic containers, it's important to recycle them.

Do you have any tips? I'm all ears!