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Going Green: Reduce Your Plastic Footprint

aeliasen
Employee
Employee
Did you know that in the United States 38 billion waters bottles are thrown away each year?  That’s a lot of plastic—more than $1 billion worth! At Southwest Airlines, we try to recycle and reduce our waste, which often saves costs too.  Here are some tips to help reduce your plastic footprint:
  1. Invest in a reusable water bottle and skip the bottled water.  Not only does this help reduce the number of bottles you use, but it’s also more cost efficient than purchasing bottled water.  In fact, the price of bottled water is up to 10,000 times the cost of tap water. The simple act of purchasing a reusable bottle will help reduce these costs and cut down on waste.
  2. Ask for tap instead of bottled when you’re dining out.  Both tap and bottled water must meet FDA and EPA standards, so there’s no need to worry about the quality of your water.  At least 40 percent of bottled water actually comes from tap, meaning you’re paying for the packaging and manufacturing.
  3. Always recycle plastic bottles.  Sometimes you have to grab bottled water.  Just make sure that bottle makes it to the recycling bin!  It's just as easy to recycle as it is to throw it in the trash, but recycling will prevent plastic bottles from ending up in a landfill.  It takes more than 450 years for one plastic bottle to break down if it’s not recycled.
Making the extra effort to follow these tips can make a huge difference.  How do you help reduce waste? Let us know by commenting below.