Water Water Everywhere

And another thing. A colleague told me that if I leave the cap on my plastic water bottle it will not be considered recyclable. I didn't understand what difference cap on cap off made and she couldn't explain it but I became immediately fixated on taking the cap off the water bottles before tossing them in the recycling bin. Soon I discovered I was contributing to global warming by using too many plastic water bottles. So at work I refilled my generic plastic water bottle from the office filtration system several times a day and only allowed myself a new water bottle every other week. I was doing my part and feeling good about it. Then I discovered -- from a different colleague -- that I was steadily and not so slowing poisoning myself by not only reusing my plastic water bottle but by drinking from it to begin with. I switched to a Nalgene bottle and found out my bottle was too new to be safe. I switched to an aluminum bottle and observed my memory and most of my mind leave me because everyone except me -- and maybe I, too, before I began drinking from an aluminum 'bottle' -- knew that aluminum contributes to Alzheimer's Disease. I had no more purchasable options which was good because I had spent most of my money on containers in which to carry my water. Apparently I went several days at work without drinking any water. The toxins put into my system by aluminum and plastic lessened. Luckily just as dehydration began to break down vital and even not so important bodily functions, my mind and my memory began their return. I reached blindly across my desk. My hand fell on my long unused coffee cup. Of course, I had stopped drinking coffee some time before when I discovered that it either raised or lowered my blood pressure and healed or destroyed either my liver or my kidneys. Dusty coffee cup in hand, I staggered to the filtered, reverse infused water thing near my desk, filled my cup and drank from it. Dehydration and memory loss simultaneously vanished. I refilled my cup and drank again. My cup. It had been on my desk all along. A gift from some other long ago colleague, the cup is glass. It can be washed. It can be reused. Of course, it carries with it certain risks of its own. It has no lid. I could accidentally -- or deliberately depending on which paper work is on my desk -- tip it over and spill its contents. I could drop it. It could break. Either of those scenarios might result in my feeling stupid and clumsy and even, at the very worst, cutting my fingers picking up broken glass. Even if my fingers require stitches, no polar bears will drown, no brain cells will be destroyed, and no recycling sorter will have to decide whether cap on or cap off is better for the environment.