>>If you think plastic water bottles are an eco-hobgoblin, then you're not paying attention even slightly.
You obviously misunderstood what I meant by "eco-hobgoblin." I was referring to the media practice, either mercenary or political, of blaming a systemic failure on individuals who have little or no power in decision-making processes and have limited if any alternatives to the guilt imposed upon them.
Blaming people for using bottled water, absent another source of clean water, is a case in point. Do you think something as distant and abstract as "ecological damage" can compete against the threat of polluted public water supply?
If you live in a bad water area -- such as near a steel mill, an oil refinery, or a specialty chemical plant -- you can use a Brita Filter to save the planet or you can risk your kids getting lymphomas in their late twenties from dichloromethane poisoning. Which do you think people will opt for?
Like I said, it's infrastructure. Provide clean and safe water supplies and demand for those plastic bottles will drain away . . .
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