Bottled Water is an Environmental Travesty

Think about this the next time you pop open a bottle of water: you are really helping to screw the environment. Yep, you and me. But after reading a couple of news bits, I will not buy bottled water again. I will use refillable containers and use a water store.

Check this out:

Bottled water is not safer. Both regulation and enforcement of bottled water safety is weaker than of tap water safety. Up to 70 per cent of all bottled water produced and sold within states is exempt from FDA regulation.

Bottled water is bad for the environment — wastes fossil fuels and water in production and transport. We’re moving 1 billion bottles of water a week in ships, trains, and trucks in the United States alone. That’s a weekly convoy equivalent to 37,800 18-wheelers delivering water.

It takes more than 47 million gallons of oil to produce plastic water bottles for americans every year. Eliminating those bottles would be like taking 100,000 cars off the road and 1 billion pounds of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. Each one of those bottles required nearly five times its volume in water to manufacture the plastic and may have caused the release of nickel, ethylene oxide and benzene.

When the water is drunk, the bottles become a major source of waste. Rather than being recycled, 86 per cent of them are thrown away. Breaking down these plastics can take thousands of years, while their components seep into our water supplies.

Bottled water is a waste of money. How much a gallon are you paying? A local water store runs 30 cents per gallon in your own refillable containers. Municipal tap water is far cheaper than that.

In 1976, the average American drank 1.6 gallons of bottled water a year. Last year, we each drank 28.3 gallons of bottled water — 18 half-liter bottles a month. We drink more bottled water than milk or coffee or beer. Only carbonated soft drinks are more popular than bottled water, at 52.9 Gallons annually.

If the water we use at home cost what even cheap bottled water costs, our monthly water bills would run $9,000. While bottled water tastes better than a lot of tap water, consumer reports has done taste tests of bottled water versus a NYC tap water base and, again and again, the NYC tap water wins out.

If you want some more information on how water helps rape the environment, you can go to this article at Fast Company.

[Submitted by Ensenada Jim]