Bottled Water

by: David Zinczenko


Imagine you’ve just been given a choice: You have to drink from one of two containers. One container is a cup from your own kitchen, and it contains a product that has passed strict state, federal and local guidelines for cleanliness and quality. Oh, and it’s free. The second container comes from a manufacturing plant somewhere, and its contents—while seemingly identical to your first choice—have not been subjected to the same strict national and local standards. It costs approximately four times more than gasoline. These products both look and taste nearly identical.

Which do you choose?

If you chose beverage A, congratulations: You just saved yourself a whole lot of money, and, perhaps, even contaminants, too. But if you picked beverage B, then you’ll be spending hundreds of unnecessary dollars on bottled water this year. Sure, bottled water is convenient, trendy, and may well be just as pure as what comes out of your tap. But it’s hardly a smart investment for your pocketbook, your body or our planet. "Eat This, Not That" decided to take a closer look at what’s behind the pristine images and elegant-sounding names printed on those bottles.

You may actually be drinking tap water.
Case in point: Dasani, a Coca-Cola product. Despite its exotic-sounding name, Dasani is simply purified tap water that’s had minerals added back in. For example, if your Dasani water was bottled at the Coca-Cola Bottling Company in Philadelphia, you’re drinking Philly tap water. But it’s not the only brand of water that relies on city pipes to provide its product. About 25 percent of all bottled water is taken from municipal water sources, including Pepsi’s Aquafina.

Bottled water isn’t always pure.
Scan the labels of the leading brands and you see variations on the words “pure” and “natural” and “pristine” over and over again. And when a Cornell University marketing class studied consumer perceptions of bottled water, they found that people thought it was cleaner, with less bacteria. But that may not actually be true. For example, in a 4-year review that included the testing of 1,000 bottles of water, the Natural Resources Defense Council—one the country’s most ardent environmental crusaders—found that “about 22 percent of the brands we tested contained, in at least one sample, chemical contaminants at levels above strict state health limits.”

It’s not clear where the plastic container ends and the drink begins.
Turns out, when certain plastics are heated at a high temperature, chemicals from the plastics may leach into container’s contents. So there’s been a flurry of speculation recently as to whether the amounts of these chemicals are actually harmful, and whether this is even a concern when it comes to water bottles—which aren’t likely to be placed in boiling water or even a microwave. While the jury is still out on realistic health ramifications, it seems that, yes, small amounts of chemicals from PET water bottles such as antimony—a semi-metal that’s thought to be toxic in large doses—can accumulate the longer bottled water is stored in a hot environment. Which, of course, is probably a good reason to avoid storing bottled water in your garage for six months—or better yet, to just reach for tap instead.

Our country’s high demand for oil isn’t just due to long commutes.
Most water bottles are composed of a plastic called polyethylene terepthalate (PET). Now, to make PET, you need crude oil. Specifically, 17 million barrels of oil are used in the production of PET water bottles ever year, estimate University of Louisville scientists. No wonder the per ounce cost of bottled water rivals that of gasoline. What’s more, 86 percent of 30 billion PET water bottles sold annually are tossed in the trash, instead of being recycled, according to data from the Container Recycling Institute. That’s a lot of waste—waste that will outlive you, your children, and your children’s children. You see, PET bottles take 400 to 1000 years to degrade. Which begs the question: If our current rate of consumption continues, where will we put all of this discarded plastic?

 

I never drink bottled water. I have signed a pledge to never drink it again.

 

At home we got this Aqua max machine.. Lol. To add carbonic acid to the water from the tap. That's how many Germans drink water.Carbonated I mean

 

I bought a few Ethos metal water containers and I try to not be lazy and fill my own from the tap to take when I workout. Also, Ethos is socially concious and donates part of their profit to water projects in underdeveloped countries around the world. http://www.ethoswater.com/ Good post TCO.

 

Lol never drink bottles water unless I'm not near my own kitchen tap and I fancy a drink of water then i will buy a small bottle.

I have a few friends who only drink bottled water, they seem to think they can tell the difference which is a loada rubbish, plus the impact that the containers have on the enviroment is just plain silly, yes they are recyclable but how many get recycled certainly not as many that are made.

 

Earlier this year, I saw an episode of "Penn & Teller" about the topic of bottled versus tap water and they came to the same conclusion as the writer of the article in Chosen's post.

I've been drinking tap water, neither boiled nor filtered, for well over 18 months and I can't tell the difference in flavor nor health benefits as compared to bottled water. But with absolute certainty, I can tell the difference in both the amount of waste I no longer see in my basket as well as the size of my wallet with the added expense of bottled water being removed.

 

There has also been some research lately that indicates that water in plastic bottles is contaminated by something in the plastic if it heated up in the bottle so people who let their water bottles sit in the truck or the car are drinking contaminated water. :smt102 I am not sure if its true or an urban legend but I switched to the stainless steel water bottles and filtered tap water.

 

Ethos rocks! I have seen some of their work first hand. They really walk their own walk!

 

I hate bottled water. I'm worried about the fluoride in my tap water. What water tap filter would you recommend?

 

I dont drink bottle water either, nothing wrong with the tap water and can always boil the water before you drinkin it, it will end up way better of this bottle water... that most of the times will be just tap water anyway

 

Hmm, interesting. Makes you think about all the things companies lie about just to make money. Lovely, huh? Filtered tap water for me only, please!

 

That's good to know.

 

I will continue to drink bottled water because it simply tastes better than tap.

Also, there's certain brands that taste far better than others. My least favorite would be Arrowhead.

Not to mention, companies like Penta make FANTASTIC water that will keep me going back to bottled water.

I'm a bit of a water connoisseur.

 

I drink filtered tap water. I had a friend who had a small water processing thing on his counter (cant recall the name of it) but it took absolutely everything out of the water including the minerals. IMHO select filtration is best because you need the trace minerals without the chemicals.

I just wanted to add, never ever evereverever under any circumstances drink the potable water (or coffee made with the potable water) off of airplanes. Mater of fact, dont drink the bottled water off airplanes unless it comes sealed to you because I have witnesses the FAs fill used water bottles off the tap. Nasty stuff guys.

 

I drink bottle water from time to time.
When I am in an area where I don´t trust the the tab water ( like Bangladesh)
or if there is to much chlorine, because I don´t like the taste ( I don´t like the taste of water in some US places sorry guys!)
Funny, there are diffrences in the taste.

Ok here in Germany we have many type of carbonatet and not carbonatet water. I think the taste diffrences come with the diffrent setting of minarals in the water.

But mostly I drink tea and hot water. So not so much into bottled water without a good reason.

 

When I'm at home, I always drink tap water. Manc water is the shit, man.
I don't like the taste of water in Yorkshire though, so when I'm at uni I don't really drink much tap water because it's in a hard water area and kind of tastes like crap.

But yeah, I'm a bit tight so I only pay for water when I have to. I won't be drinking tap water when I'm in Uruguay, you know.

 

The water I taste in Dallas is fairly generic. Generally at schools and gyms it tastes better because it's extra cold but East Texas has water that everyone says is among the best around.