Lighter Footstep: 5 Reasons Not to Drink Bottled Water
Editor's note: This week, Lighter Footstep editor Chris Baskind takes a look at reasons not to buy or drink bottled water. This post was originally published on June 19, 2007.
Bottled water is healthy water — right?
That's what the 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.
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 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.
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 which suggests bottled water is any cleaner or better for you than its tap equivalent.
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.
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.
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 sparking 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 © 2007 Lighter Footstep Media
Image credit: Wikimedia
Tags: bottled+water, Food, Health and Health Products, plastic, toxins, water
- Uncategorized
September 15th, 2007 at 10:53 pm
maybe i missed it somewhere but, doesnt anyone want to point
out the ridiculousness of transporting water(at 8 pounds per gallon) all over the place in these trucks burning diesel???
for what?? you think thats great for your environment? some of these “bottled at the source” are then trucked 500? or more miles…a semi can haul about what? 40,000 lbs- 5,000 gallons? your reservoirs get this stuff to you for damn near free using gravity…
if you care at all about the environment you wont buy this crap…and some of you are so pathetic as to buy stainless steel containers just so you “look cool”…what a joke..some of you people watch too much TV..
September 21st, 2007 at 11:49 am
I have never read such rubbish. Tap water is open to the elements during it’s processing therefore bactieria is able to grow. It has to have all sorts of chemicals added to it to make it “safe”. Bottled water especially if it is mineral water has nothing added just some minerals taken out, it is sealed for something like 5 years as it filters through the landscape and then is bottled immediatly.
You use the term ‘value’ to freely, I assume you mean the cost in money? I prefer bottled water because I prefer the standards that come with it. Wherever I am in the world I know what I am getting, I am not putting my choice in the hands of the local water authority.
October 21st, 2007 at 8:07 pm
That is NOT true in all cases!
October 26th, 2007 at 1:14 pm
Certain states and cities have better public water supply then others, but If you can afford it, I would recommend a food filter system or reputable bottled water.
October 31st, 2007 at 6:08 pm
I think there is pro an con using tap or bottled water. This articile seems quite subjective and lack some major points.
There is spring water an bottled water, these are 2 different product here.
I order spring water in 18 liters that are recycled many many time. I do agree that small bottle are totally a waste, but there are other ways.
Tap water contain fluoride, I know people don’t want to hear it but the gov doesn’t put fluoride in water for your healthy mouth but beacuse it’s the main ingredient in anti depresant medication. It’s part of technique to control masses.
Filter create a lot of pollution, and if you don’t change your filter on time you get all th filtered toxic back in your water.
If people would pay for their tap water, then the quality would be quite better, and the infrastructure quite nicer. Assuming that we have to right to have free drinkable water in these days is simply stupid. We will all have to pay for our water 10years from now, and that is because we have over consumed it.
Anyway, I like my spring water from quebec. If it would come in my tap I would pay for it. I use to have a brita filter but still didn’t had the satisfaction of spring water.
January 8th, 2008 at 7:05 am
[...] choice had, in just a matter of months, become recognized by many consumers as an eco-sin. (Click here for a Green Options post detailing the ways bottled water is costly, wasteful, and bad for public [...]
January 9th, 2008 at 11:09 am
I would like to see the results of the author drinking a bit of tap water in India, or in parts of Mexico.
Bottled water has its place.
January 9th, 2008 at 11:33 am
essentially filtered tap water. Yeah…let’s just gloss over filtration like it is meaningless.
January 11th, 2008 at 4:51 pm
The disturbing thing with this issue is how we, as consumers, are driven so much by what is convenient; not necessarily what is the wisest choice.
We constantly have sidestepped the ability to Filter our own water at any source. It is an expensive investment for the proper equipment but it is the right and responsible decision.
The real topic here is; WHY do we have to filter our drinking water? Our infrastructure and habits have perpetuated this contamination and the need for alternates in drinking water. If the buck keeps getting passed, we have but ourselves to blame for bottled companies opportunism.
I work with the educational and responsible choices demonstration with regard to safe water handling and filtration techniques. It is always remarkable to me how little people connect the dots with water. If we buy products, any product, it is probably using water in some fashion to make! This water is deposited somewhere, in someones back yard! The ability and responsibility rest on everyone, and especially every consumer of any product, to filter out what they have perpetuated.
If we are to believe that most companies are looking out for our best interests, especially with regard to the cross contamination and barrage of waste that infiltrates ground water sources, then we are truly deserving of the by product and misery of health ailments we are experiencing.
Just driving your car contaminates immeasurably the ground water sources where you live. If you are concerned about your drinking water, the water for your home and especially your children, contact a water filtration representative (preferably one that is reputable, like Kinetico) that can test your water and offer you the right choices for your situation.
The palstic bottle thing is also an issue and if truth be known is easily solved with alternatives such as stainless(expensive) and glass(breakable) but also with new technology in corn/sugar PLA’s.
It would do all of us well to get more complete information before we make our choices. The bottled water and drinking safe convenient water is essential; even though I personally do not support the bottled water industry on principle alone. It is a completely irresponsible use of resources; especially the water!
Please contact your public water education resources and your reputable water treatment company today and learn all there is to learn. It is our responsibility to forge the solutions for ourselves.
Good luck for us all.
February 5th, 2008 at 8:12 pm
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