And that's the rub: small bottles are made to be portable, disposable, and yes, recyclable, but when people are done with them, there isn't always a recycling bin handy. In fact, in 2003 just 12% of these types of bottles were recycled! Girlawhirl, who loves her big-city park and makes a point to walk or jog there at least once a week when it's nice outside, carries her empty water bottle with her because while there are plenty of trash cans available, anything recyclable that goes into them is heading for a landfill, not a recycling center.

It seems that the most organized place when it comes to recycling bins is the airport. There, Girlawhirl can always rest assured that the magazine she throws into the “paper” bin will get recycled as will the plastic bottle or iced tea cup that goes into the “bottles and cans” bin. And recently, she was at an event that sported such a plethora of recycling bins they had to post a person by each trash station to make sure that trash that was supposed to go into the “compost” container wasn't inadvertently thrown into the one marked “landfill.”

So is there a way to keep small water bottles off the street and out of landfills? That's up to each community, and there are many towns and cities that have adopted a 100% recycling program for plastic bottles. After all, in 2002 there were 15 billion plastic water bottles sold, and since then the water market has increased 7 to 9% every year.

Girlawhirl knows there are alternatives, like the new bottles that are made from PLA, a corn based plastic that looks and feels just like petroleum based bottles, but will decompose when composted. But even the PLA bottle is part of the problem if it gets mixed in with the trash and ends up in a landfill. Plus, there are just a few cities in the U.S. that use compost as part of their waste management.

So what's Girlawhirl doing?

• First and foremost she's stopped buying water in small bottles. She fills her own containers at home before she goes out, and when she's at the gym, she has a cool bottle made from PLA that comes with its own mini chlorine filter. She can hand wash and refill it with tap water up to 90 times before she sends it along to a Super Pal who has her very own composter, where it will decompose in about 80 days.

• At home, she buys the biggest container of water that she can manage to carry and fit in her refrigerator. And when it's empty, she makes sure it gets recycled. If she owned her apartment and didn't rent, she'd definitely have a water purifying system installed in her kitchen sink, so she wouldn't have to carry all of that water home.

• She sent an email to the parks and recreation department of her city with the suggestion that a couple of water bottle recycling bins be placed strategically by park entrances and exits and near places where people workout, like the tennis courts and jogging loop. Who knows? By the end of the summer there might just be a blue can right where she needs it.

And when she's on a trip, she doesn't feel bad at all about buying a bottle of water for the flight. After all, she can always find the right bin to throw it in on the way to baggage claim after she's landed.

For information on 100% plastic bottle recycling click here

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