I've never understood why people like bottled water so much. Something about using your money to buy the same thing that comes out of a tap for free just never clicked with me.

And the city of Chicago agrees with me. On Jan. 1, a tax was implemented that will require people to pay 5 cents extra for any bottled water they buy. Though this doesn't seem like a whole lot, it definitely adds up. The Chicago Tribune noted that "the average cost of a 24-pack will go from $3.99 to $5.19, a 30 percent hike."

This significant price hike has been put in motion because most of the plastic used in these types of bottles does not comply with the restrictions set by the Container Recycling Institute — only 23 percent of bottled water bottles can be recycled.

As if tons of plastic going into landfills weren't enough, the plastic used in these bottles leaches harmful chemicals after their first use.

So what can you do? Should you carry on using bottled water and contribute unnecessarily to landfills, reuse the bottles (and according to some, slowly poison yourself), or should you find an alternative?

Unless you're strangely masochistic and/or don't care about the environment, finding an alternative is really the only way to go. Find a nice water bottle (or not nice — it doesn't really matter) which is made to be reused, and, well, reuse it.

If you're really worried about the purity of your tap water, buy a water filter. It's a cheaper alternative to buying lots of bottled water, and it doesn't leach chemicals or get thrown into landfills after every use. Also, most bottled water companies just use purified tap water anyway.

In this case, it is easy being green.