Jessibird
Not too long ago I asked some coworkers why they buy bottled water rather than using their tap water. “It’s healthier.” “It’s better for you.” I was skeptical of these vague statements, and when questioned, they couldn’t back them up.
Turns out they, and millions of Americans, may be wasting their money and creating tons of unnecessary waste by paying for bottled water.
This is not an isolated case, either; there are many similar brands.
Cons of using bottled water instead of tap:
1. Cost: about 7,000 times more expensive
2. Health: water from bottling plants not subject to same regulations and testing as city water – at best, it’s no healthier; at worst, it may be contaminated with bromate, a possible by-product of ozonation
3. Environment: less than 25% of bottles are recycled; the rest are thrown away – and about 20 million barrels of oil are used each year to make the plastic for new bottles
4. Lack of attention to municipal water: federal funds for public water have been cut, funds that should be allocated and used to strengthen public water systems, so we have sufficient safe, affordable drinking water for all
5. Erosion of democracy: corporations try to squelch and/or bypass citizen opposition to the privatization of water
My challenge to you: break the bottled water habit!
Some resources:
counter-top filter (I got mine at Staff of Life several years ago)
Brita filtering pitcher
reusable stainless steel bottle (I got one of these at New Leaf)
Do you think you need to buy bottled water? Tell us why!
Amen.
You forgot the fossil fuels burned transporting that water, sometimes around the world, when you could get fine water from the tap. My post about kicking the bottled water habit garnered a lot of feedback:
http://dannyman.toldme.com/2007/06/23/my-bottled-water/
Best Wishes,
-danny
Excellent point, Danny. I think I’ve heard of some campaign to eat locally; we should drink locally too.
Nice blog, I just checked it out. I like how it looks, and your posts are really interesting and well-written. Oh, just noticed that you were at WordCamp too! Cool!
Jessi,
I subscribed to all the WordCamp blogs. =) Thank you for your kind words.
Sincerely,
-danny
We made the switch about 6 months ago. We used to buy individually bottled sparkling waters, but worried about all of those plastic bottles (though we always recycle). Now we own a nice cadre of Nalgene reusable bottles.
As for tap water or not, many years ago we were traveling and purchased a bottle of water, which noted (in fine print) “Water from the Las Vegas Municipal Water System.” It eliminated any illusions I had about bottled water being anything more than tap water prepackaged for you.
That’s actually kinda cool that the label was honest, Westi! I’ve never seen that before.