Disposable Water Bottles are (still) Evil.

I know you have probably heard it all, already but I figured it was worth a quick reminder after a recent incident at my work. To make a long story short, we buy bottled water for the office and recently made a purchase on Amazon (a local Seattle company) who carries bottled water from another local Company ("Olympic Rain"). The water arrived fast and was priced right, but it was shipped (around 120 pounds) - on ground transportation - from a warehouse in southern California.

This. is. awful.

I was assuming that because Amazon and Olympic Rain are both located in Seattle - that the water would naturally come from a warehouse in the Seattle area. Apparently what happened, however, is the water was shipped from Seattle (probably on ground transportation) to a warehouse in California, then stored until it was purchased, then shipped directly back to Seattle for our office to consume.

The amount of energy waste here is almost unfathomable.

Not only is a ton of energy used to make the bottles, pump the water, and send it to distribution centers across the country, but, a whole extra trip (of around 120 pounds) had to be made back to the origin of the product in the end - which is like rubbing salt in my environmental wounds.

So, lesson learned again - water bottles are still evil, energy sucking, environmental vampires.

I question how a situation like this could even make a profit for a company - environmental issues aside. Shipping hundreds of pounds of anything is not cheap - especially water. I wish my office had a water cooler or a sink, but it doesn't and this is the only way. Why does this make sense for any company to do? I just don't get it.