It is time to stop buying bottled water

You end up with a bottle that needs to be recycled and often isn’t

85% of plastic water bottles become garbage.

The bottling companies find it easier and more profitable to let you throw the water containers away and buy a new one each time.

About 2 million of them are thrown away every hour.

Most bottles sold are actually small sized bottles, increasing the wastage

Marketing, that’s all it is. Like Madonna, it’s all hype.

The elemental problem with the purchase and continuation of the bottled water industry is the marketing of it; if bottled water were advertised simply as a means to hydration in the same way that juices, fruits themselves, tap water, etc. are seen by the general public, then it may soon be realised that the coincidental nature of the sounds of the words ‘l’evian’ and ‘live young’ are just that: a coincidence. Water that has trickled through mountains for hundreds of years will not be like ‘manna from heaven’ trickling from the edges of the holy grail, it’s just H2O.

We actually need some healthy water where taps can not provide that.

Why when it comes cheaply out the tap would you pay 1,000 times more? Volcanicity perhaps… 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 one 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 fraction over 2 cents an ounce.

And that’s why there’s no shortage of companies which want to get into the business. In terms of price versus production cost, bottled water puts Big Oil to shame.

The source of your bottled water is likely to be the same one that serves your home.
Coke revealed last year that the source of it´s highly publicized Dasani Brand water was London’s municipal water supply (with a 3000% markup).

PepsiCos Aquafina Brand bottled water is treated tap water coming from 11 different wells around the USA.

Mostly the only difference is that bottled water has added minerals and salts, which do not actually mean the water is healthier.

Drinking water is better for your teeth as it contains flourides. Bottled water does not.

It is often just straight from the tap and therefore no better for you than tap water. Case in point: The Coca-Cola company attempted to release Dasani water in the UK, which was just filtered tap water. It is still on sale in the USA. 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 which suggests bottled water is any cleaner or better for you than its tap equivalent.

The quality of water is very high in this country is very good. In foreign countries bottled water is only consumed because they cannot drink the tap water. There is no need to drink it.

Walking in the countryside, playing chess or swimming may improve one’s sense of well-being – but these activities have no detrimental consequences for the wider environment. This is not just a reference to the scientifically debatable concept of ‘carbon footprints’ &c. involved in bottle production and transit, but to the landfill and litter that the consumption of bottled water inevitably produces.

If it is the feeling of wellbeing one seeks, then purchase only one bottle, and re-fill it, as required from the tap, or perhaps a tabletop water filter. One doesn’t need to keep purchasing bottled water to feel good.

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.

We could, if we could be bothered, take water purification devices with us. The inconvenience suffered would be far preferable than seeing beautiful paradise islands overcome by plastic bottles, as has happened in Thailand to my knowledge and I’m sure other places too.

We have a responsibility when we travel, the responsibility to leave the place as we found it – as much as we possibly can. Dumping water bottles ruins an environment for decades to come. Taking our own means of purifying water is the responsible thing to do.

There is a growing movement against bottled water. All kinds of folks from newspaper columnists to religious groups to city governments (for example, San Francisco, Salt Lake City) are eschewing bottled water.

Here’s why:

86% of plastic water bottles used in the United States become garbage or litter. That means less than 15% are recycled.

Transporting heavy bottled water uses lots of oil for shipping. More oil is used to make the plastic for the bottles. That means more air and water pollution, and increased dependence on petroleum products.

40% of the bottled water is just over priced, high-falutin tap water. Read the label.