A World of Reasons to Ditch Bottled Water

A lot of bottled water consumption is because of convenience. Like when you are out and your Nalgene bottle is empty...what to do, fill up at some nasty bathroom? Or get a bottled water.

...Bottled water can cost up to 10,000 times more per gallon than tap water...

That's a pretty astounding difference in prices. And yeah, bottled water is a problem.

Here's another: a AA battery delivers electricity at a cost 10,000 times higher than getting it from your wall plug. Plus AA batteries also have the pollution problem of taking more than 100 years to fester & decompose in our landfills.

A lot of bottled water consumption is because of convenience.

Really? How much. Provide some concrete data.

Like when you are out and your Nalgene bottle is empty...what to do, fill up at some nasty bathroom?

It's called a water fountain. Tap from a faucet is fine, too. If you're terribly concerned about that, wash the spigot with soap.

Or get a bottled water.

Yes, everyone in America died horrible deaths before the advent of widespread bottled water. You're so right.

I enjoy the convience of bottled water. I often refill the container with water a second time before I recycle the container.

Are we so lazy that we can't recycle the contianer????????

"A lot of bottled water consumption is because of convenience. Like when you are out and your Nalgene bottle is empty...what to do, fill up at some nasty bathroom? Or get a bottled water."

Actually, I bet convenience is a really small portion of bottle water consumption. Most of it, in my experience, is people buying crates of bottles at costco and wal mart.

Here's another: a AA battery delivers electricity at a cost 10,000 times higher than getting it from your wall plug.

It's actually about 1,200 to 1.

20 pack of AA Energizers at Walmart = $10.86
Each battery is 2.85 Ah @ 1.5 V = 4.275 Wh/battery
For the 20 pack, that comes to 85.5 Wh total, or 0.0855 kWh.
That translates to $127.02/kWh.

The rolling 12 month average average residential price for electricity in the US 10.47 cents per kWh.

Factor in taxes and fees, and that ratio would decline a bit further, since taxes, fees, and fixed costs (like connection fees) are generally much higher than sales taxes alone (which are also usually charged on an electric bill).

Capitalism offers absolutely no reason for you to say no to the convenience of bottled water. If you can afford it of course.

It's good to see how an environmental viewpoint can bring a little common sense back to things.

"Capitalism offers absolutely no reason for you to say no to the convenience of bottled water. If you can afford it of course."

If you externalize all the costs of bottle water, sure. But even then, it doesn't make much financial sense..

If you internalize the costs, it would be too expensive for most people.

The argument of how damaging bottled water is on the environment is lost on most people and only resounds with the green thinker. They are ignorant and want to stay that way. Except when you start making it about money, then they people pay attention.

So, here is my take on it. A cheaper spring water costs 2 cents resulting in about $2.50 a gallon. Average of 22 gallons is $55/year, but, that number 22 is averaged over all of america, and I don't drink bottled water, nor do most of you, so... What is the number the average bottled water drinker drinks?

1 liter a day would be very conservative resulting in 96 gallons a year, which is $240/year. Fantastic under the sink RO systems, cost $150. The filters cost worst case $100/year if you don't price shop at all. That means after 1 year your ahead, using conservative numbers. Buy a cheaper RO, you win in a few months. Need water for going out, bring it, buy a metal bottle like kleen kanteen. But really do your own math.

bah i meant 2 CENTS PER OUNCE above. damn fingers.

I have to agree with JiltedCitizen on this one, at least for my own personal bottled water consumption. Just last Friday I was doing research outside on a hot day (I am a hydrogeologist, and have been involved in lawsuits involving Perrier and Nestle over water bottling in my state), hours from home. My Nalgene ran empty because I lent some water to a coworker.

I will never drink water from the tap in a gas station bathroom, no matter if there were non-lotion soap available to me to clean it. So I bought a 1L bottle of water.

But then, I agree with Anonymous, my consumption of bottled water is probably not what drives the numbers. At home, I use a pitcher filter.

i use a klean canteen and can't remember have any difficulty filling it up. hopefully most people have enough ingenuity to keep their water bottles filled. it aint rocket science.

Worldwatch just released a new report on bottled water:

http://www.worldwatch.org/node/5063

"Global consumption of bottled water more than doubled between 1997 and 2005, securing the product’s place as the world’s fastest-growing commercial beverage. The United States remains the largest consumer of bottled water, but among the top ten countries, India has nearly tripled its consumption, while China more than doubled its consumption between 2000 and 2005."

Well you can't blame India or China for wanting bottled water. Their water might actually kill someone.

We use bottled water because of the fluoride issue. I really don't want my children, or myself for that matter, consuming the amounts of fluoride that is put into city water. I feel like we help the situation a little bit by using Culligan. No plastic for the landfills, at least. Their 5-gallon bottles are reused. Of course, the purification process and such are still an issue. If if wasn't for the fluoride issue, we'd drink tap (using a filter, because I don't like the way it tastes).

but fluoride is good for teeth--one of the major health advances of recent decades.

my dentist recently told me that she is seeing a huge upsurge in cavities in children because parents have taken to providing bottled water at home and so children aren't getting the protection of fluoride...

so maybe we need to be factoring in, as well, the medical waste and tooth filling components that are offset by most people drinking fluoridated tap water but are not found in bottled water....

We use bottled water because of the fluoride issue.

There are a number of filters which take out fluoride.

Bottled water is a $10 BILLION dollar industry in the United States alone. And it's all part of a grander strategy to privatize the world's water systems, including your tap.

So if your tap water tastes poorly, it might be that your city's water system is severly underfunded or is controlled by a corporation, not the same corporation that makes your bottled water, but you'd better believe they have the interest in controlling where and how you get your water.

And no one's yet commented that the corporate water industry spends untold millions to convince you through advertisement that their products are healthier.

On recycling water bottles: Don't take comfort in it. Over 88% of the those bottles are not remanufactured.

Great book to read about this: Thirst, Fighting the Corporate Theft of Our Water (Alan Snitow, Deborah Kaufman, Michael Fox)

If given a choice between getting something in glass, aluminum or plastic, which is the least harmful overall?

There's an AWFUL lot of facts/stats in this article with no sources.

This post, whether true or not, reads like a chain letter my mother would send me.

There was an article similar to this in the magazine "Fast Company" this month.

Heres the URL to the essay printed in the magazine: http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/117/features-message-in-a-bottle.html

"Thirty years ago, bottled water barely existed as a business in the United States. Last year, we spent more on Poland Spring, Fiji Water, Evian, Aquafina, and Dasani than we spent on iPods or movie tickets--$15 billion. It will be $16 billion this year."

"We pitch into landfills 38 billion water bottles a year--in excess of $1 billion worth of plastic."

"24% of the bottled water we buy is tap water repackaged by Coke and Pepsi."

"If the water we use at home cost what even cheap bottled water costs, our monthly water bills would run $9,000."

"Fiji Water produces more than a million bottles a day, while more than half the people in Fiji do not have reliable drinking water."

I'm a cashier at wal-mart, and whenever i get people buying bottled water, i usually try to tell them about the pros and cons of it.

doesn't address mineral water that comes in glass bottles

At home we drink only mineral water taken from mountain springs. It is because we believe that tap water has trace chemicals (especially insecticides) that are one of the causes of nerve diseases such as fibromyalgia, which has no known cure. Around 2% of the population suffers from fibromyalgia in industrialized countries. Everyone is at risk: it touches both young and old, men and women (although women seem to be especially at risk). There is no medication that has a durable effect on this disease: the best one up to now, Lyrica, has only a temporary and moderate effect. The disease is undetectable by the usual tests: it does not show up on blood tests, scanners, X-rays, etc. Its effect is chronic pain in the articulations and chronic fatigue, which last for years and years and make it difficult to hold a job and which are a major cause of depression.

Fibromyalgia did not exist before the industrial age. It has appeared along with modern industrial civilization. After studying the (quite sparse) literature on the subject in the Medline database and other sources, we suspect the disease is triggered by trace chemicals found in food and tap water, chemicals that come from agriculture using insecticides derived from nerve gases (remember the old Zyklon B - it has not gone away!). These chemicals act on the nervous systems of insects. We suspect that they can also perturb a molecular mechanism in the human brain related to pain.

Modern agriculture uses large quantities of insecticides routinely. It is almost impossible to avoid ingesting trace quantities of these chemicals, unless one lives in a mountainous area with little agriculture and eats only locally grown foods. We hope that medical science will one day find a cure. We hope that agriculture will start moving away from such deadly aids to productivity as pesticides and insecticides. In the meantime, beware of industrial chemicals. Even in trace quantities, they can be extremely dangerous!

Fluoride is the one of the reasons why the teeth of Americans are more healthy a better looking than those of the people of most other countries.

Though there are those towns with undrinkable water (and it's not the fault of fluoride) Florence, AZ is one of them. Not only is the water salty, it has the county wide recognition of being "lupus and cancer water." I would not even filter that stuff. In cases like that I'd much rather reach for a glass of Juice than a glass of tap.

Bottled water is HIGHLY regulated. The media goes after bottled water since its healthy and they're funded by alcohol and soda companies. Why is this site going after them?

I didn't see anyone in my house recently testing the water or out at the curb. Who knows what water picks up in century old plumbing from the source to my tap?!

More water is wasted in producing a can of soda or a bottle of beer.

"We better get rid of bottled water so our kids can go back to drinking soda." Nice message.

Just for the record, some of us drink bottled water because we live in the nation's capitol and don't feel like taking the "lead pipe" gamble when we're out and about.

I know that I use bottled water for the convenience, and I do recycle the bottles, but you can only do that for so long before it becomes unhealthy and the water from the 3 week old bottle tastes bad. I think that after reading this article, I'll finish off the bottles I have in my fridge, recycling them as long as I can, of course, and then just get some sports water bottles I can use for years. I hope the only times I'll have to use bottled water now is if I find myself on the road without my store bought water container. This was a real eye opener for me. I thought for sure more people would recycle bottles from their bottled water!

"an inexpensive faucet filter to remove trace chemicals and bacteria. " note that inexpensive filters may well *add* bacteria. Change the filter often (6months at the outside) or use a not so cheap filter (e.g. SunPure) which has a UV step to kill off the bacteria that breeds in the standard carbon filters.

As for fluroide, if you don't use the city water (or the city doesn't use fluroride, like San Jose Water) make sure you get drops from your kids doctor. I can see why people might want to make sure the dosage is correct (and tap water can't really be! nor will most bottled), but foregoing it entirely for children is a costly mistake. It's adults that may want to avoid it (since it's too late for our enamel ;>)

Bottled water isn't all it is cracked up to be. After attending a large lecture this past March for World Water Day, I ditched my Poland Spring for a durable Nalgene. I wish I remembered the links between bottled water and water scarcity.

I think the article below really ties together some important information:
http://www.nrdc.org/water/drinking/nbw.asp

I have to agree, from the people I know and my own experience, most bottled water is purchased out of conveniance, not because people think it is better for them.

There are so many products that millions use every day that are so much worse for the environment than bottled water I am a little puzzled why this has become such an issue all of a sudden. I drink bottled water becuase I care about my health and the water in my area tastes like crap, the published water analysis shows that it is right at the upper limit of allowable toxins. (and the tests are done at the plant not after its gone through all the old dirty pipes and out your tap) I tested the ppm of the water it was 800. I ran it through a brita filter and it was 750, not much better i'd say. I have an r o filter (the only way to get your water clean and down to 0 ppm) I think it is a good trend that people are buying less soda and fruit drinks and crap like that and buying bottled water instead. Of course the polution from the plastic bottles is a problem, but we had the same problem when they were buying cokes. It kind of irritates me that the radicals are siding up with the cola industry here. Societies move in baby steps and i'm happy that we're moving from one evil (sugary crap in plastic bottles) to a lesser evil (healthy clensing water in plastic bottles) Of course the ideal solution would be to deliver pure water through our water system to all the outlets, but until that hapens i'm going to still buy bottled water if i don't have access to a clean source. To claim that water from the tap is clean is a lie, to claim that bottled water is as dirty is also a lie, anyone who has taste buds and drinks bottled water can tell what the truth is. How about creating more places for people to recycle and cleaning up our water sources, and delivery systems. That seems more sensible to me.

When people ask me for water at home I sometimes substitute my filtered Poland Springs water for tap water with ice (they never know the difference)

Of course I'm blessed with a private well and good water quality, but still it's a mental thing for most.

Tap water contains chlorine and flouride which are toxic to the human body.

I think it's important to understand what corresponding drink bottled water substitutes for in people's lives. That is, are people drinking bottled water now instead of tap water, or are they drinking bottled water in place of soda? If it's the former, then the popularity of bottled water is a disaster, introducing new plastic bottles into landfills, etc. But if it's the latter, then it's not so clear. Bottling and shipping soda is just as damaging as bottling and shipping water - possibly even more so, and soda is definitely worse for public health than bottled water. So the environmental costs are the same between water and soda, but the water wins out with regards to public health.

For myself, I used to drink a lot of soda - if I was out and about, I'd grab a can of Coke. Nowadays I grab a bottle of water, instead. About as bad for the environment, but better for my health.

Does anyone have any studies they can point to showing which drink (tap water, soda) bottled water replaces in most people's lives?

the irony here is that google ads has pulled an ad for Fiji water :)

No one has even mentioned the dangers of the chemicals that the plastic bottles can add to that water...

Let us not forget the dreadful but REAL fact that many times bottled water has been taken (stolen?) from our country's Native American reservations. In the case of the Navajo Nation, for instance, water is pumped 2,000ft. to the surface where it is used to move coal to Los Angles via a slurry pipeline (Peabody Coal Mine). This is some of the worlds cleanest, purest water. After the coal has been moved, the water is filtered, bottled and sold to clueless citizens. The Natives receive no compensation for the H2O sale because of decades old contracts to which they are now bound. Where does bottled water come from? Who is profiting from the sales? These are legitimate questions as well...

The type of Fluoride used in water is a RAT Poison! It attacks your brain to make you stupid. It's a good mind control substance. Many countries have stop fluoridation of their water supply. Do you believe all the propaganda about bottled water causing increases in cavity? Most of the bottled water are filtered from municipal water. The filtering systems like reverse osmosis do not filter out fluoride because fluoride molecules are so small. This means that most of the bottled water have fluoride in them. If you want flouride -free water, get a Berkley Filter system with the Fluoride filter ($50 extra). I have no financial interest in the Berkey system--just a happy customer. Use www.infowars.com as a referral to get extras free.

I do curbside recycling so I'm out working in hot weather a lot. I take an insulated mug to work and refill it throughout the day at the fountain machines in convenience stores. I've never been charged for ice water and when I refill with a soft drink or Gatorade I usually get a discount for reusing my mug. When I used to buy bottled drinks I paid more and the drinks warmed up before I was done with them. So you see, by refilling my insulated mug I save money, I eliminate my need for one-time use containers, and my drinks stay cold longer. Now that's convenience!

My wife recycles paper, plastic, etc. I tell her that the extra trucks that pick up the stuff spew pollution into the air. The recycling factories that have parking lots full of cars spew more pollution in the air and use energy. The plants that use the recycled stuff have parking lots, need energy, and spew pollution into the air.

Go figure....but it makes everybody feel good about themselves.

jilted citizen and anthonares, i apologize for my hostile comment. what i should have said was that it is that it's not that hard to keep non-disposable water bottle filled, one must just be vigilant about it. it's great to rarely have to buy bottled water anymore.

kasey, it is nice to hear that you speak to customers about water at the check out line!

what disturbs me the most about bottled water is the commodification of water. i agree with jack ian lin's post 100%. thanks for the book link jack.

i think this debate is important because at least it gets people thinking about water, one of our most basic needs to stay alive. we've got governments adding poison to tap water, commodification of water, theft of water, water scarcity, etc. there has to be a point where the people take control of water and stop depending on these power structures for it. any ideas for that?

distill your water

people, don't you see that although most bottled water is crap, all tap water is poison!

It's full of pesticides, herbicides, industrial petrochemicals, industrial waste (including fluoride), dissolved toilet paper and tampons, rust, arsenic, lead, mercury, and other toxins.

Please buy a RO system ($250), then distill your RO water with a cheap ($130) counter-top distiller. you'll have water that is more pure than any bottled water you can buy.

Then, add Cell Food (Lumina Health) for additional dissolved O2, as well as organically bound minerals and high-density colloids. This will be the best thing you can do for your body, period.

This is cheaper than bottled water in the long run, and much better!

My tap water in SC smell very strong of Chlorine. How can I drink it? Filtering tap water does not remove chlorine.

Buckminster Fuller believed that people wouldn't methods until a better version FORCED change. I believe there should be a law banning the manufacture of single use plastic water bottles - the beverage industry must make and use glass or durable plastic bottles that can be recycled and refilled.

Fuel Ghoul has a post dedicated to this subject here
http://roberrific.typepad.com/drunkenmoose/2007/07/the-big-bottled.html

i just wonder why americans pay higher for bottled water and pay lower for gas???? a very big thing to ponder on..

Question - have any of you seen an life cycle analysis of bottled water versus filtered water coolers (i.e. the kind that are installed right in the office and hooked up to the water line)? I have an lca for bottled water vs tap water but I need an a analysis that adds that extra step of filtering the tap water through an office filtration system. I haven't found anything online so any thoughts would be great.

thanks,
Andy

interesting discussion. i have a well and not city water. i guess no one else who has posted so far has one. it's the best tasting water i've ever had. i'll even be putting up a couple of panels on the roof in a year or so to power the pump.

i suppose a well isn't an option for everyone but if you can do it and there aren't any soccer fields or pesticide spraying farms next door you might want to try it.

side benefit: in the summer, the water is still a nice icy cold at the time when you most want it.

Buying bottled water is such a waste. Its much healthier, cheaper and better for the environment to use a water filter. You can get one online for around a hundred bucks that works geat! Here's a site that lists some of the better ones: www.WaterFilterComparisons.com

This is a great subject and I believe you should run an in-depth article on the effects bottle water is having on the environment. This is one area which has a tremendous environmental impact and can be easily solved yet few people stop to think about when they purchase another 12 pack of water bottles. For example our company which builds green homes in Michigan started to address the issue of water filtration through inclusion of filtration systems and education of our clients about the positive effect they can have, only if they filter their own water and reuse same bottle multiple times.

I utilize a Nalgene bottle in my day-to day drinking needs. It has a startup of $6-$8, and is essentially free after that. It is dishwater safe and is extremely durable, thus reducing teh chances of it ending up in a landfill.

I fill my bottle with tap water... where ever I am. I have hike in many places with nasty water, including Methane water in New Mexico, water purified with Iodine, Sulfur water in Maine, and hevlilly chlorinated municpiple tap. All of these water sources were safe. I drank that water becasue i had to, or i would become dehydrated, and possibly die. I really don't care what tastes water has anymore, as long as i know that it is safe.
I guess what im saying is that i judt drink water. I have seen people at my college go through a case of .5L bottles in a weekend, as they reach for the Poland Spring bottle everytime they get thirsty. Yea they are conveinient, but so is a Nalgene, and faucets.

I work for one of the largest bottle makers in the Industry......And I really don't think that the bottles are the problem. Its the large sum of people that are not using the resources that the cities they live in provide for them and someone such as Pepsi or Absopure is providing water in its place. So the cities are loosing money. So they must put the word out that "Tap is Better". Yes, I do think you can save a little by using tap (with a filter, or not), But Its about Business, Demand and convienience to the customer.

As far as the recycling part. There are many locations that have recycle programs. Its up to us (The Customers) to get the bottles back to the recycling plants, via recycling programs within your local communities

I agree with Brandon's post-- it's not them, it's us. Improvements in recycling programs would definitely decrease the amount of bottles in landfills. There's actually a high demand for PET (what most water bottles are made of) but in many cities, mine included, there are very few ways to recycle.

and to those who suggest water fountains as an alternative, they are great if you can find one, except when the water is practically boiling in August or frozen in January, or the faucet is covered in dust from the baseball field or mold from lack of upkeep... I'd go for Fiji over fungus any day.

I like the article about The U.S. is known to have one of the cleanest and safest drinking water systems in the world. In too many parts of the world this luxury is not enjoyed. On a regular basis many people...including women and children...are known to die from drinking water contaminated with water born parasites and diseases....it would be an incredible act of love and compassion if we here in the U.S. could make an effort to reduce our bottled water consumption by a few bottles a week or month and give that money to charity. There are quite a few charitable organizations that are involved in well digging and providing water filters for impoverished communities around the world ( World Vision is one...1-888-511-6511 ) who do not have the money or resources available to do this themselves. In doing so we can potentially save lives and reduce suffering. We also do incredible good to the planet by reducing the oil consumption that goes into making plastic water bottles and by reducing the amount of landfill space that is used every year (reportedly 30 million water bottles and 41 million barrels of oil to transport and refrigerate that bottled water). We can make a difference.

I fill up my glass bottle wherever i am in sydney- cafe, home, work, wherever- we are so fortunate that we actually have clean water to drink. There is something unsettling about drinking from a bottle made from the black gunk that is polluting the planet so desperately well, food safe plastic or not.

But- glass is so heavy and cant be thrown around, does anyone know of a light weight durable glass bottle for sale?

yes, what are you supposed to drink in mexico? - if not bottled water?

WHAT ABOUT FLUORIDATED WATER?...DO MOST TAP WATER CONTAIN THAT?...I DO NOT WANT THAT IN ME.

Any solutions for my dilema? I gave up plastic bottles of water and got a Sigg bottle. However, my city tap water is highly softened and has large amounts of sodium in it. I have to restrict sodium due to my health. A reverse osmosis filter is the only thing that removes sodium, and they run about $1,000. Help

Reverse Osmosis filters remove fluoride from water.

Fluoride may may good for your teeth if applied topically but is not good to drink and should be removed from all drinking water. When fluoride is added to drinking water without our choice, consider how much you are ingesting. Consider all the food & juice that may also contain fluoride due to it being adding to city drinking water. The fluoride added is also industrial waste from fertilizer makers...a cheap way for them to dispose of what is otherwise known to be a toxic chemical.

Here's more info on fluoride:

http://www.fluoridealert.org/

Look, people drink bottled water for convenience. It's just very convenient to have ready bottles of water available, sterilized, already cold and ready to go.

Sure I could use a reusable bottle. But here's the steps I gotta go through: I have to fill it up, stick it in the refrigerator and wait for it to cool down, wash it every day (unless you want to drink your own backwash bacteria after it's been multiplying all day), then start all over again.

If I fill it and leave it in my gym bag for a day and it gets hot, then I gotta empty it out again and perhaps wash it, cause who knows what's been growing in it.

Not to mention that I'd need to buy multiple reusable bottles to have at least one available while the others are waiting to be washed in my dishwasher. AND there is the issue of running extra dishwasher cycles because of all my reusable bottles filling it up.

OR

I can grab a bottled water.

I don't know about you, but I'm willing to pay for the convenience.

quit arguing. I SAY NO TO PLASTIC WATER BOTTLES!!!

This is absolutely true. Not only do normal bottles of water take millions of gallons of oil to manufacture every year, but it is the same with the 5 gallon bottles that many small businesses may rely on to keep their staff hydrated, caffeinated, and generally happy. People have always accepted this because they have thought that there is no better solution, so this concept has evolved into being widely accepted as the most efficient and convenient way of getting water into the office. But now there is a better solution! Its called WATERBLU. WATERBLU is a distributor in the greater Los Angeles area for a company that produces reverse osmosis Point Of Use water purifiers, coolers, and dispensers, all in one machine, and all made right here in the USA. And the best part is, there are no bottles! The machine is hooked up to your water supply, so there are no bottles. This is just on the spot, purified, cold or hot water for you whenever you need it. www.waterblu-usa.com

Bottled water is all about convenience. The problem after that is twofold. Cost and effect on landfills. There are easy to use water filters that connect to your faucet and can supply filtered water at around 10 cents a gallon. We recycle the plastic bottles and fill them up with filtered water. The kids don't know the difference. My oldest uses a Nalgene bottle and refills every day on his way to school.

Bottled water is the most visible and pervasive attempt by corporations to control our water. By turning water into a brand through misleading advertising bottlers take our water and sell it back to us. Pepsi's Aquafina, features a beautiful snow-capped mountain on its label, even though its contents come from municipal tap. The harmful effects of bottled water can be seen anywhere from India, where Coke and Pepsi have drained community wells, leaving residents without water, to places like Mt. Shasta, CA and Mecosta County, MI where Nestle has used its political power to ink deals that put corporate profit ahead of human need. Here is more info on the water issue www.thinkoutsidethebottle.org.

I am very happy that there is bottled water. My daughter has Cystic Fibrosis and psudimonis is in tap water and can't be filtered out completly. Tap water filters are a good idea but who really changes their filters that often. I wouldn't trust it at anyone else's house. I've seen some pretty grungy green filters being changed at frinds houses. Plus they are made from a big hunk of plastic themselves including the filters which you have to by and replace often. I'm sticking with bottled water for those reasons.

I bought a dozen of the heavier plastic bottles to re-fill and reuse because I was told they were safer and did not leach chemical. It would save $ and be green. But my question is if I fill a bottle with filtered tap water how long is it good for and do I need to keep them in the frig or freezer.( I wash tem in dishwasher )we only use them when we are running around we use it in a glass from the fridge when we are home.

This is a great article about a very important environmental problem--bottled water. It's ridiculous that countless amounts of oil and energy are used to sell WATER when great tasting, healthy water is available free from the tap! Anyone who is interested in this cause should visit Tappening.com to learn more, or watch this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVM3mY3gMpg

Is there anything treehugger likes? Have you tasted city water lately? I'm more concerned about what the government puts in our tap water than what supposed harm can come from plastic water bottles. Damned if you do and damned if you don't.
Viva bottled water!

While I agree that plastic bottles are a problem. At least that is what Toronto, London and possibly Waterloo are carrying on about (I am a Waterloo resident) why stop at water? What about pop - a very useless product that requires large amounts of water as well as using plastic bottles, cans etc. As for the safety of tape water - chlorine promotes bladder cancer, can be a problem with people with respiratory problems and tastes disgusting. Why not spend the money on our tap water systems to give us quality water in the first place. Then people wouldn't need to buy bottled water. Place a tax on all plastic products (yes pop, juice etc) to pay for updating our water treatments systems. Lets take a moment to think outside of the box and look at what truly causes the problem and fix it. Debirag

Flouride is found to be highly toxic ,and a cause of grey markings on teeth. It was studies funded by the aluminum industry to support the practice of disposal of it's waste product....flouride.

Bottled water costs more per gallon than gas...yet where are the
complaints/comparisons nationally?

Buy a water filter...$$ comes out in the $$ you save as you "carry your own".

How can you "outlaw" bottled water...simply make the plastic SAFE ( what a concept!) and the prohibitive $$ will encourage consumers to purchase only when absolutely essential to our convenience. There WILL be a need for water that we cannot carry ourselves.

Our public schools don't allow water bottles....!?....but the tap/fountains is brown!

What happened to all the drinking fountains you used to find?

It seems that the estimates for the amount of oil used to produce water bottles varies widely. I just read a study by the Pacific Institute which claims that in 2006 Americans purchased 31.2 billion liters of water, and that it took 17 million barrels of oil to produce these bottles, plus the energy needed for transportation. I give talks on environmental protection and steps folks can take, and I want to have my facts straight. Can anybody tell me why there is such a large difference between the facts listed on this site and the Pacific Institute's figures? (note, their website is http://www.pacinst.org/topics/water_and_sustainability/bottled_water/bottled_water_and_energy.html).

Many people drink bottled water to avoid the forced public medication that is flouridation. The flouride that is put in public drinking water is a highly toxic chemical. Look up the manufacturer safety data sheet (MSDS) on sodium fouride or hexafluorosilicic acid both of which are forms of flouride used in city drinking water. They are very corrosive, toxic, deadly chemicals that collect over time in the bones and teeth even at very low levels of intake over time. Also, home filtration systems do not remove flouride unless they are of the expensive reverse osmosis type. Few families can afford such a water filtration system. The low cost filtration systems do not remove flourides.

i agree perfectly just yesterday i was planting seeds in a forest to grow trees

If you live in Vallejo, CA, Im sure you WOULD want to drink bottled water. This town smells like sh*t, so you could imagine what is beind either dumped into the bay or coming from it. I drink bottled water everyday. I get my water from Wal-Mart sometimes, BUt I dont use their water, I usually drink Crystal Geyser, Or Aquafina. I drink Alhambra on occasions. I hate distilled water though, and so I always drink spring. Spring is the best water you can find, Bottled or not! The people's beloved tap Im sure, Doesnt match up to a mountian spring! That is water in it's purest form.

Thanks for posting this article I found it really useful. I had no idea how much oil went into the construction of bottles and their transportation. Especially the amount of bottles that aren't even recycled. Definitely going to be carrying a waterbottle around with me from now on instead. Thanks!!!

Excellent post. I was inspired to make this month GO GREEN month on momtrends and give my readers (mostly parents) simple ways to save the planet. One idea was to trade in plastic for reusable bottles. I even have a giveaway to make it simple. Check it out here:

http://momtrends.blogspot.com/2009/04/down-with-plastic.html

Personally I think using a H2O filter and my SIgg bottle work great together. I hate wasting plastic and I don't really trust plastic products anymore. I believe that they leach all sorts of chemicals into what you are ingesting from them. I am in the military and just recently got back from the sandbox(Iraq) and we had to drink our water from plastic bottles that sit on giant pallets left outside in the hot hot heat due to the questionable unsafe local water supply. I am having lots of medical issues and I think that that is most of the blame because I was in really good shape when I left the USA. So please take that thought into consideration when you think about plastic bottled water.

Water is better for you than most people think.
Even water bottles know the facts of good old Erts naturul watter tings n' such'n's

I AGREE!!!!