Saturday, July 21, 2012

An Ecological Conundrum

I recently found myself facing a little puzzle. I wanted to buy a bottle of water, something I generally do not do, because I filter and usually keep plenty around, but I was out and badly needed more fluids. I looked at the two choices I had, half-liters for 17 cents or a liter and a half for 69 cents. I was puzzled at first by the price premium for the larger bottle, but decided to buy it because I figured it had less ecological impact. Further examination and thought revealed to me the mistake in my logic. A half-liter bottle need only be strong enough to hold up to handling about a pound of water, while a liter-and-a-half needs to hold up when subject to three pounds of water. The difference means that the small bottles are vastly thinner and though the two additional necks adds plastic to the equation, I figure the total works in ecological favor of the 3 smaller bottles. Never mind that two would have certainly sated my needs at the time. I'm now quite sure I made the wrong choice.

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