Tap Water
Poor bottled water. Banned in city buildings by the San Francisco Mayor, prohibited from use at public events by the city council of Ann Arbor, slated for elimination by department heads in Salt Lake City; it’s under attack from all sides. The non-profit, Food and Water Watch has launched a “Take Back the Tap” campaign. Think Outside the Bottle and The Bottled Water Blues.com are also working to convince consumers to stop buying the stuff. What is with that? What’s to hate about the handy little ridged cylindrical containers wrapped in pictures of jagged mountain ranges and filled with cool refreshing goodness?
Fear not, dear reader, I have done several minutes of internet research and I am here to inform you that there are at least two good reasons to “ban the bottle.” Are you ready for them?
Reason Number One: Environmental Impacts
According to the Pacific Institute, the process of making the plastic for water bottles consumes about 20 million barrels of oil per year. 20 million barrels of oil is a lot of oil. Eyes glazing. Statistics being employed. Systems shutting down. Nap time eminent. Wait! Wait! Don’t go to sleep yet. Here is another way to think about it. The energy cost required to make a bottle, transport it, and deal with its disposal (also according to the Pacific Institute) would be like filling ¼ of each bottle with oil (eww).
It also takes a whole lot of water to make a plastic bottle for you to inflate and deflate with your mouth, making loud cracking noises and irritating your cubicle-mates to no end. For every one liter bottle, five liters of water are required to make the thing. So, if we use the Pacific Institute metaphor as a model, that would be like filling up every bottle with five more bottles of itself!... umm never mind. Anyway, what other environmental impacts are there? Oh, just the usual: aquifer depletion, saltwater intrusion, habitat destruction, melting ice caps, tsunamis, incontinence, and restless leg syndrome. Plus the kajillions of empty bottles that end up in the trash. Many of them are floating around in your oceans right now. Maybe they will be occupied by hermit crabs who are looking for new digs with a better view.
Reason Number Two: Health
Bottled water is not, by definition, healthier than tap water. In fact, it may be less so. OK, OK granted there have been no recent stories about horrible bacterial contamination in bottled water. And, true enough, not all public water sources are completely trustworthy. Nevertheless, the idea that bottled water is more healthy or safer than the water from domestic sources is a scam perpetrated by people who want your money. In fact, up to 30 percent of bottled water is tap water (as opposed to, like, “natural spring water,” which comes from some specific, supposedly cleaner/ better top secret location). You may have heard that Aquafina (tap water, bottled by Pepsi… Coca Cola owns Dasani , also tap water), will begin printing the words “public water source” on its labels thanks to pressure from advocacy groups and politicians.
Federal regulations require only that bottled water be as good as tap water, not better, safer, or healthier. And, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council, bottled water is “subject to less rigorous testing and purity standards than those which apply to city tap water.” Additionally, there are many requirements for municipal tap water that are more stringent than those imposed on bottled water. For example, tap water can have no (zero, none, zilch) confirmed E. coli or fecal coliform bacteria levels. Whereas, the US Food and Drug Administration rules for bottled water allow for some E. coli and human poop contamination. Drink up!
Also, cities are required to send annual drinking water quality reports to residents. These reports (you get them in your bill) provide sample dates and detection ranges and explanations of the various contaminants cities are required to monitor. They tell you exactly how many parts per million there are of lead and nitrates and perchlorate in your water. Has Pepsi ever sent you that information? And apart from the contaminants in the water, there are the chemicals that can leach from the water bottles themselves, especially when they are re-used.
So, good citizens of the San Gabriel Mountain foothills, be healthy, save energy, conserve water, stop global warming - drink the water from your pipes. It comes from wells and natural springs. It is filtered and monitored and tested. It is good enough to bottle. Better even.
Poor bottled water. Banned in city buildings by the San Francisco Mayor, prohibited from use at public events by the city council of Ann Arbor, slated for elimination by department heads in Salt Lake City; it’s under attack from all sides. The non-profit, Food and Water Watch has launched a “Take Back the Tap” campaign. Think Outside the Bottle and The Bottled Water Blues.com are also working to convince consumers to stop buying the stuff. What is with that? What’s to hate about the handy little ridged cylindrical containers wrapped in pictures of jagged mountain ranges and filled with cool refreshing goodness?
Fear not, dear reader, I have done several minutes of internet research and I am here to inform you that there are at least two good reasons to “ban the bottle.” Are you ready for them?
Reason Number One: Environmental Impacts
According to the Pacific Institute, the process of making the plastic for water bottles consumes about 20 million barrels of oil per year. 20 million barrels of oil is a lot of oil. Eyes glazing. Statistics being employed. Systems shutting down. Nap time eminent. Wait! Wait! Don’t go to sleep yet. Here is another way to think about it. The energy cost required to make a bottle, transport it, and deal with its disposal (also according to the Pacific Institute) would be like filling ¼ of each bottle with oil (eww).
It also takes a whole lot of water to make a plastic bottle for you to inflate and deflate with your mouth, making loud cracking noises and irritating your cubicle-mates to no end. For every one liter bottle, five liters of water are required to make the thing. So, if we use the Pacific Institute metaphor as a model, that would be like filling up every bottle with five more bottles of itself!... umm never mind. Anyway, what other environmental impacts are there? Oh, just the usual: aquifer depletion, saltwater intrusion, habitat destruction, melting ice caps, tsunamis, incontinence, and restless leg syndrome. Plus the kajillions of empty bottles that end up in the trash. Many of them are floating around in your oceans right now. Maybe they will be occupied by hermit crabs who are looking for new digs with a better view.
Reason Number Two: Health
Bottled water is not, by definition, healthier than tap water. In fact, it may be less so. OK, OK granted there have been no recent stories about horrible bacterial contamination in bottled water. And, true enough, not all public water sources are completely trustworthy. Nevertheless, the idea that bottled water is more healthy or safer than the water from domestic sources is a scam perpetrated by people who want your money. In fact, up to 30 percent of bottled water is tap water (as opposed to, like, “natural spring water,” which comes from some specific, supposedly cleaner/ better top secret location). You may have heard that Aquafina (tap water, bottled by Pepsi… Coca Cola owns Dasani , also tap water), will begin printing the words “public water source” on its labels thanks to pressure from advocacy groups and politicians.
Federal regulations require only that bottled water be as good as tap water, not better, safer, or healthier. And, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council, bottled water is “subject to less rigorous testing and purity standards than those which apply to city tap water.” Additionally, there are many requirements for municipal tap water that are more stringent than those imposed on bottled water. For example, tap water can have no (zero, none, zilch) confirmed E. coli or fecal coliform bacteria levels. Whereas, the US Food and Drug Administration rules for bottled water allow for some E. coli and human poop contamination. Drink up!
Also, cities are required to send annual drinking water quality reports to residents. These reports (you get them in your bill) provide sample dates and detection ranges and explanations of the various contaminants cities are required to monitor. They tell you exactly how many parts per million there are of lead and nitrates and perchlorate in your water. Has Pepsi ever sent you that information? And apart from the contaminants in the water, there are the chemicals that can leach from the water bottles themselves, especially when they are re-used.
So, good citizens of the San Gabriel Mountain foothills, be healthy, save energy, conserve water, stop global warming - drink the water from your pipes. It comes from wells and natural springs. It is filtered and monitored and tested. It is good enough to bottle. Better even.
posted by kyle at 8:42 PM
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