Bottled Water: Think Before You Drink
By now, you probably already know a lot of reasons to think twice about drinking bottled water, right? For one thing, about 86 percent of the 30+ billion plastic bottles of water gulped by thirsty American consumers every year are never recycled, even though most U.S. cities have recycling programs in place to turn them into everything from new bottles to carpet and clothing. For another, a lot of popular brands of bottled water are really little or no different than the tap water that comes out of your kitchen faucet without the hefty price tag.
On top of all that, tap water is generally safer than bottled water. Bottled water companies aren’t required to test for chemicals such as arsenic, bacteria such as E. Coli, viruses such as Giardia and Crypto-sporidium and other nasty comtaminants. Municipal water districts are.
Well, here’s one more reason to flush bottled water from your daily routine: it turns out that getting one liter of bottled water into your hands requires up to 2,000 times as much energy to produce, package and transport the stuff as it takes to provide you with the same amount of tap water.
Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images
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I used to work at the Mass. Dept. of Environmental Protection, in the Division of Water Supply, and that’s when I first learned that public water suppliers (where your tap water comes from) are required to test their water regularly, sometimes several times a day, while companies that supply bottled water are not subject to the same regulations. It was ironic, because we had a water cooler in the office that used those giant bottles of water. I was told that the water service was part of the lease with the landlord, so the Mass DEP’s Division of Water Supply could not opt out of having bottled water delivered. Of course, if no one drank it, they would stop delivering new bottles of water, but everyone drank it because it was easy and cold.
There’s a company called AQUAMANTRA that is releasing the first 100% Biodegradable and recyclable bottle to market this summer. This story is as it stands, however, the future is here and bottled water doesn’t have to be the bad guy any more. Its about companies working towards a solution instead of just banning something that doesn’t fit in the square hole. Its time for humanity to work together – check it out… I saw it on PR Newswire.
The bottled water industry has become a cash cow and other countries are swooping in on what they feel is a grand opportunity. Because bottled water companies are “not subject to the same regulations” as tap water – other countries are taking advantage of this. There is now another “new” water on the market whose name I won’t mention in order not to give it free publicity, but the water hails from Croatia. The first alarming thing I noticed was that there was an expiration date on the bottle. Since when does water expire!? The time that the water sits in plastic in the journey from another country, and the time it takes to cross many many miles to get here has got to be a problem in and of itself. Why are we importing water? Because the dollar is the bottom line. That the Dept. of Environmental Protection in the Division of Water Supply no less, is catering to the bottled water industry speaks volumes. But the bigger question is why are we allowing it?
WATER-without it no life
Plastic Water Bottles?
The huge water cooler ones? I use to take old one off and put new one in.
You would be surprise at the resiidue left at the bottom of that cooler.
sometimes brownish ,sometimes greenish.
Oh, you never saw it in the water.
And that place where the drinker dumped his cup?
I had to clean that many times. and no it wasn’t in my job discription. I wonder how many of those coolers are never or barely cleaned?
Those huge plastic water bottles? They came and took them away Were they reused? How do you sterilize plastic? For that matter how much of that plastic leaches?
some resercher by now has to know.
And those plastic by in a store 20 ouncce or more water bottles.
If I am not mistaken there are warnings about reusing those bottles even to put more water into them.
Yet, they still sell them at higher and higher prices.
Oh yes, I remember glass bottles. I use to be able to buy baseball cards just by taking back a few bottles and getting the deposit.
I never even cut my lip once.
And those returned bottles created jobs .
Many were santitised relabled and reused .
I believe it was before we swicthed to the non returnable glass bottles, that there was a process on site where the glass bottles could be crushed ,remelted and reformed to again become a soda bottle.
That was back in the 1960’s (Late)
I still remember when the soda companies started serving their products in plastic bottles.
Remembber? the big cost savings and how we the soda drinkers would realise it by cost savings ourselves?
Well is the anyone out their still waiting for the savings.
Recycling plastic is practically impossible (Nobody wants my old water bottle)
So we trash them and they outlive us by hundreds even thoussand of years
Yet is there anyone out there that had not have at least once this week drank from a plastic bottle of water?
You know that old comment about someone eatting feces and thinking it ice cream.
I use to laugh at that phrase ,but now I believe it is an absolute fact.
Hey, we have only ourselves too blame.
THAT IS MORE THE PITY
Your arguement that bottled water is less safe than tap water becuase of testing requirements is very weak. In Canada alone, there is the well known case of 2,000 residents in the Town of Walkerton becoming sick as a result of e-coli contamination from the Town’s water supply. Seven people died from the poisoning.
Can anyone name a similar incident that was the result of contaminanted bottled water?
First of all Canada has different regulations for testing their water supply. Yes I actually drank a bottle of water named Jana and became extremely ill. I checked the bottle afterwards and saw that it was shipped from thousands of miles away. I should have known better but took a gamble anyway, because it was cheap, in hindsight I should have strolled into a diner or coffee shop and asked for a fresh glass of water. Anyway, I promptly recycled the bottle when I was done and thankfully I didn’t die, but it wasn’t pretty. I haven’t heard of anyone becoming sick from NYC tap water. Our parents had no problem drinking it, I drank it as a kid, still drink it today and will continue to drink it, cook with it, shower with it, and brush my pearly whites with it. Fresh and cold everytime, and I know where it came from. For anyone whose worried, a filter is all you need.