Kick the bottled-water habit!

Annie Leonard, creator of the wildly popular online video The Story of Stuff, not only has a new book out by the same name, but has partnered with some of North America's leading environmental groups on a new video: The Story of Bottled Water.

Like her earlier work, it uses simple, entertaining animation to explain a complicated issue: How "designer water" became a multi-billion dollar industry by putting a product we all have in our homes for almost free into a bottle that leaches toxic chemicals into our bodies and the environment, produces mountains of plastic waste, and costs up to 2,000 times more than water from the tap. (As Annie says, how about a $10,000 sandwich?)

Annie makes a pretty convincing case to kick
the bottled-water habit, showing us that in many cases it is just filtered tap water and isn't any cleaner than what's in your kitchen. And in tests across the country, people say it doesn't even taste better.

On April 27, Annie Leonard will be honored as a Breast Cancer Fund Hero at the Heroes Celebration in San Francisco.

Other honorees are Dr. Sarah Janssen, staff scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council, and Jeff Cresswell and Michelle Kalberer, co-owners of the stainless steel bottle company Klean Kanteen.

If you're in the Bay Area, please join us!