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5 reasons not to drink bottled water
It's expensive, wasteful and — contrary to popular belief — not any healthier for you than tap water.
Mon, Mar 15 2010 at 1:04 PM
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BOTTLES, BOTTLES EVERYWHERE: Bottled water produces up to 1.5 million tons of plastic waste per year. (Photo: quinn.anya/Flickr)
Bottled water is healthy water — or so marketers would have us believe. Just look at the labels or the bottled water ads: deep, pristine pools of spring water; majestic alpine peaks; healthy, active people gulping down icy bottled water between biking in the park and a trip to the yoga studio.
In reality, bottled water is just water. That fact isn't stopping people from buying a lot of it. Estimates variously place worldwide bottled water sales at between $50 and $100 billion each year, with the market expanding at the startling annual rate of 7 percent.
Bottled water is big business. But in terms of sustainability, bottled water is a dry well. It's costly, wasteful and distracts from the brass ring of public health: the construction and maintenance of safe municipal water systems.
Want some solid reasons to kick the bottled water habit? We've rounded up five to get you started.
1) Bottled water isn't a good value
Take, for instance, Pepsi's Aquafina or Coca-Cola's Dasani bottled water. Both are sold in 20 ounce sizes and can be purchased from vending machines alongside soft drinks — and at the same price. Assuming you can find a $1 machine, that works out to 5 cents an ounce. These two brands are essentially filtered tap water, bottled close to their distribution point. Most municipal water costs less than 1 cent per gallon.
Now consider another widely sold liquid: gasoline. It has to be pumped out of the ground in the form of crude oil, shipped to a refinery (often halfway across the world), and shipped again to your local filling station.
In the U.S., the average price per gallon is hovering around $3. There are 128 ounces in a gallon, which puts the current price of gasoline at a fraction over 2 cents an ounce.
And that's why there's no shortage of companies that want to get into the business. In terms of price versus production cost, bottled water puts Big Oil to shame.
2) No healthier than tap water
In theory, bottled water in the United States falls under the regulatory authority of the Food and Drug Administration. In practice, about 70 percent of bottled water never crosses state lines for sale, making it exempt from FDA oversight.
On the other hand, water systems in the developed world are well-regulated. In the U.S., for instance, municipal water falls under the purview of the Environmental Protection Agency, and is regularly inspected for bacteria and toxic chemicals. Want to know how your community scores? Check out the Environmental Working Group's National Tap Water Database.
While public safety groups correctly point out that many municipal water systems are aging and there remain hundreds of chemical contaminants for which no standards have been established, there's very little empirical evidence that suggests bottled water is any cleaner or better for you than its tap equivalent.
3) Bottled water means garbage
Bottled water produces up to 1.5 million tons of plastic waste per year. According to Food and Water Watch, that plastic requires up to 47 million gallons of oil per year to produce. And while the plastic used to bottle beverages is of high quality and in demand by recyclers, over 80 percent of plastic bottles are simply thrown away.
That assumes empty bottles actually make it to a garbage can. Plastic waste is now at such a volume that vast eddies of current-bound plastic trash now spin endlessly in the world's major oceans. This represents a great risk to marine life, killing birds and fish which mistake our garbage for food.
Thanks to its slow decay rate, the vast majority of all plastics ever produced still exist — somewhere.
4) Bottled water means less attention to public systems
Many people drink bottled water because they don't like the taste of their local tap water, or because they question its safety.
This is like running around with a slow leak in your tire, topping it off every few days rather than taking it to be patched. Only the very affluent can afford to switch their water consumption to bottled sources. Once distanced from public systems, these consumers have little incentive to support bond issues and other methods of upgrading municipal water treatment.
There's plenty of need. In California, for example, the American Society of Civil Engineers estimated the requirement of $17.5 billion in improvements to the state's drinking water infrastructure as recently as 2005. In the same year, the state lost 222 million gallons of drinkable water to leaky pipes.
5) The corporatization of water
In the documentary film Thirst, authors Alan Snitow and Deborah Kaufman demonstrated the rapid worldwide privatization of municipal water supplies, and the effect these purchases are having on local economies.
Water is being called the "Blue Gold" of the 21st century. Thanks to increasing urbanization and population, shifting climates and industrial pollution, fresh water is becoming humanity's most precious resource.
Multinational corporations are stepping in to purchase groundwater and distribution rights wherever they can, and the bottled water industry is an important component in their drive to commoditize what many feel is a basic human right: the access to safe and affordable water.
What can you do?
There's a simple alternative to bottled water: buy a stainless steel thermos, and use it. Don't like the way your local tap water tastes? Inexpensive carbon filters will turn most tap water sparkling fresh at a fraction of bottled water's cost.
Consider taking Food and Water Watch's No Bottled Water Pledge. Conserve water wherever possible, and stay on top of local water issues. Want to know more? Start with the Sierra Club's fact sheet on bottled water.
Bottoms up!
Copyright Lighter Footstep 2008
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How informative! A very well-done article. Kudos to you, Mr. Baskin! :)
Keep on writing!
Keeping water locked up, whether for bottled drinking water, other drinks such as sodas, beers &wines, covered resevoirs, in water system piping & drainage etc etc is outstandingly damaging to the climate.
i'm doing a debate on this topic at school and i think that, once you look at the facts, bottled water is worse than tap water, but i also think that this comes with the fact that we are americans and take these water bottles for granted. we are not going to change anytime soon but i guess we have to start somewhere....
wow
This is an outrage. But like everything else in the world it is about money. Just once why can't people stand up for our enviroment?
I'm looking for a poster that sends the message about plastic bottles reaching around the earth 55 times, does anyone know where to find one?
they take out the oxygen and all of the minerals which your body needs...what is left does not benefit us.
i like that you dislike bottled water (or thats what i think you said). but no minerals in bottled or tap doesnt hurt you at all. its mostly for taste and if you did get any its not nearly enough that you need. you get most from food. oxygen in water? H20 is oxygen and hydrogen. plain oxygen in water will always be there and will not benefit or hurt anyone...
sue him.......what ever happened to "free cold water" at water coolers?
what your boss is doing is completely unacceptable and i would imagine that it is hopefully violating some law or other regulation which protects workers against such exploitation. i would report this to his superior & i would attempt to get other employees united with the objection.
all of you that have questions.. watch tapped or thirsty.. it explains everything about bottled water.. to whats in it and how its produced to what it does to our bodies and to our enviornment
bottled water always tastes stale to me and i found out my friend drink nothing but i asked why, she said she always had. i cant understand it! we come from the first world and wash our dishes and ourselves in it, why not drink it?! if it tastes bad or smells weird then invest in a filter, its what the companies do and in the long run would be cheaper
Chlorine is only present under pressure as soon as you fill a glass wait 30 seconds and it will be gone gauranteed.
Great Article, I totally agree. Check out www.bottledwaterboycott.com Thanks people and let's keep Earth clean :)
i want to ask why are water bottles good not bad i need 5 reasons please
try reading the article...lol
Hello, I am new here, from Canada, want to learn more knowledge.
I have a whole house water softener system and I do not like to drink anything else. Well worth the money, you also save on how much you spend on cleaning because you don't need as much.
Amen
Tap water is full of fluoride and other chemicals that damage your body. Some big cities even have a variety of drugs that were found in the water. I think Pure Life water by Nestle which is treated with reverse osmosis is the safest way to go.
But can you even tell me what reverse osmosis is?
yes..but i wont..u google it
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