Do you drink bottled water? Do you recycle the bottles or just toss them into the nearest bin or landscape? I see more bottled water trash on roadways and in parks than I see anything else. While attending the DC mini Live Earth concert I stood near the trash and recycling bins and watched people toss empty bottles into the trash when the recycling bin was two steps away!
So, I’ve been reading about bottled water and how much energy is required to produce it, how much waste is created, and how negatively it affects the environment. I know people who swear they can’t drink anything but the filtered tap water in those plastic bottles even when there are other, greener alternatives. I found this pretty cool Web site, Lighter Footstep and they have a niftly list of 5 Reasons Not to Drink Bottled Water. Here are some excerpts but I urge you to read and do your own research on the Devil that is bottled water:
- 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.”
- 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.”
- 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.”
- 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.”
- 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.”
Instead of buying bottled water, why not purchase a re-usable, recyclable water bottle and fill it from your Brita pitcher or just drink the water from your tap? My friend MsOrganicLady and her husband carry around stainless steel water bottles (like this one from Klean Kanteen) that they refill from various public water sources (home, friend’s home, restaurants, etc.). I carry a plastic recyclable bottle when I’m out and have no problem filling it from the grocery store water fountain or the tap in the ladies room.
Wanna take action? Sign the No Bottled Water Pledge and be part of the solution.
s.
Filed under: global climate change, green living
Thanks for the mention
We love our stainless steel bottles, I swear beverages taste better. As of August WE ARE NOT BUYING ANY LIQUIDS IN PLASTIC CONTAINERS, ONLY GLASS. We are conscience of foods and condiments too. It’s all about the packaging, the end product should be little to nothing. A quick note…a great organic juice that can be purchased from most groceries in the cold juice section, is NOBLE JUICE. Their containers are made from corn and are biodegrade in 100 days, vs. the conventional plastic that lasts for 100 years! I wash and reuse old plastic and glass containers I’ve saved and we refill them at home with fresh sun tea, water or other beverages and foods. It’s cheaper and it makes me feel good to reuse it rather than using it once and discarding it. Thanks again, loved the post. Love the new site and wow do I have a lot of catching up to do!
Michigan has a 10 cent deposit on bottled water, which has resulted in what they claim is a 90% recycle rate.
The stainless bottles are really cool. They need to be cheaper and small enough to fit into car receptacles to replace the grocery store water, though.
Btw, Amazon carries Klean Kanteen products, too — save sales tax and perhaps even shipping costs.
p.s. Mayor Daley hates bottled water, too.
I filter my water at home with a Brita, but I also buy bottled water when I’m out and about, and will continue to do so, for the convenience factor. I agree that there are a lot of issues to consider here- however I don’t agree that the bottled water industry should take such a beating, when there is a real issue of personal responsibility here. Recycling is an incredibly easy way we can all participate in keeping the earth cleaner, and yet so few individuals and companies do this. I think if more time and energy was put into initiating recycling programs than pointing fingers, we’d be in a much better situation here.
Hi Jane,
Do you work for the bottled water industry? Just curious.
Sure, recycling should be easy but it’s clearly not a priority for a lot of humans. I think the point you missed in my post is this: ” “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.”
47 MILLION GALLONS OF OIL PER YEAR to produce bottled water.
If you really want to be part of the solution, then take some “personal responsibility” and buy a reusable water container, such as those suggested in my post.
s.
Here’s more information about the scourge of bottled water on our environment (I love writing “scourge”) from the National Resources Defense Council (by way of msorganiclady:
“A study by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) found that some bottled water contains bacterial contaminants, synthetic organic chemicals including industrial solvents, and inorganic contaminants such as arsenic. The report, “Bottled Water: Pure Drink or Pure Hype?” cites “gaping holes” in both state and federal under-funded bottled water regulatory programs. NRDC presents evidence of “substantially misleading marketing of some bottled water.” This NRDC report also states “At the national level, the Food and Drug Administration is responsible for bottled water safety, but the FDA’s rules completely exempt waters that are packaged and sold within the same state, which account for between 60 and 70 percent of all bottled water sold in the United States (roughly one out of five states don’t regulate these waters either).”
NRDC continues, “Even when bottled waters are covered by the FDA’s rules, they are subject to less rigorous testing and purity standards than those which apply to city tap water.“
s.
I love the convenience of carrying water around with me, but I no longer purchase the water. Re-usable containers work just as well, are cheaper, and don’t place unnecessary burdens on resources or the environment. Win-win!
Speaking of msorganiclady, she just made and excellent post to her blog about Plastic In Our Oceans. Go read it. Right now. GO!
s.
i wonder sometimes if people do not know what the recycling labels on the plastic bottles mean or if they are just too lazy to drop them in recycling bins?