Water we doing?

   Today at the gym I noticed the counter on the water bottle refilling station. It was nearly at "13,000 plastic water bottles saved by this dispenser". That means that in the less than three months that I've been visiting this gym, which is not an especially large or high-traffic gym, over 6,000 plastic water bottles have been saved. 6,000! From a SMALL gym!
   It's staggering to think about how all these bottles add up, all over the U.S. And the more you read about the negative impacts of single-use plastics, the more ludicrous it becomes. The world needs to end its obsession with convenience in favor of thoughtfulness.
   A quick search turned up this link: http://pacinst.org/publication/bottled-water-and-energy-a-fact-sheet/
   Just this alone is maddening: it's estimated that it takes 3 liters of water to produce 1 liter of bottled water. Every second of every day, 1,200 people open a plastic bottle of water in the United States. Wow.
   As this article says, "Recycling is not a form of redemption." Here's more great information: http://www.refinery29.com/plastic-water-bottle-bad-environmental-effects