WATER WE THINKING?!?! The Queen of Green strikes back at Plastic Water Bottles.
Sure, it’s easy. Grab a water bottle and go. They’re in your car, they’re at every sporting event, they sell them at schools. We pay or more for an icy cold grab and go water. Why? Because they taste better, right? Sure, the marketing companies have built a billion dollar industry telling you your tap water is bad and because they sell you a bottle with a lovely mountain stream on it, it’s got to be fresh and pure, right? How about no. Even though the labels gush about how it flows from the deep lush mountain streams, up to 40 percent of bottled water comes from an even less exotic source... US municipal water supplies. Put simply, folks, that’s your tap water. Oh sure, the companies selling it to you filter it and add minerals but remember the Environmental Protection Agency oversees municipal water quality while the Food and Drug Administration monitors bottled water and truth be told, the EPA codes are more stringent. Want a really creepy example: your tap water is tested for e-coli. Your bottled water isn’t. Back in 2006 Fiji Water Co. ran ads spouting bragging rights that their product didn’t come from Cleveland, Ohio. Cleveland took it to heart and had their municipal water tested against Fuji’s only to find that Fiji water was of lower quality! Oopsy-daisy marketing geniuses at Fiji! - Read More
Annually Americans consume 8.6 billion gallons of bottled water. It takes 1.85 gallons of water to produce the plastic for the bottle. Ironic, isn’t it? So it takes about 3 bottles of water to produce 1 bottle for your convenience. It’s just crazy when in essence, you have perfectly good water running through your faucet! And the sad thing is that statistics say somewhere between 10 -13% of plastic bottles are recycled. According to the Natural Resources Defense Council about 2 million tons of plastic water bottles every year end up in landfills instead of being recycled.
Water we thinking?!?!?!
Is it because we don’t like the taste of tap water? The “purest” water – distilled water with all minerals and salts removed – tastes flat. It’s the sodium, calcium, magnesium and chlorides that give water it’s flavor. The “off” taste of tap water is chlorine. If you refrigerate it in a container with a loose fitting lid the chlorine taste will be gone overnight. Or just purchase a home filtering system like Pur or Brita. These filter your tap water brilliantly for a fraction of the cost of bottled water. If you then invest in a good quality reuseable travel cup, you have exactly what you love about plastic bottled water – a grab and go water bottle!
Ok, I’ve given you the straight up skinny on bottled water and honestly, there is an upside. For the first time in a decade, bottled water sales have gone down. But we need to do more. Let’s send the water companies a message as clear as a glass of clean tap water: we’re not buying into your bottled water is hip and cool messages anymore! We’re done, thank you very much.