The next time someone asks how much you can reduce your carbon footprint by drinking from a reusable bottle, you can tell them: its 46 times less than drinking bottled water. This is from a detailed study just released by the State of Oregon. And that’s for the best case scenario  – one where the disposable is made from light-weight plastic and is recycled. Plus, the environmental impacts go way beyond carbon emissions. There’s the non-renewable energy needed to produce and transport the bottle, the water wasted during manufacturing and the likelihood that the bottle will wind up as litter somewhere. We believe there will always be a time and a place for bottled water, but what this study clearly shows is that if you can avoid using it then you’ll be helping out the planet quite a bit. And if you can’t avoid bottled water entirely, please recycle. Another tidbit from the study: recycling reduces energy use by 24% and greenhouse gas emissions by 16%.