An article from WorldGreen.Org:
5 Facts Bottled Water Corporations Don't Want You to Know
Everywhere
you go, you see bottled water for sale. It’s certainly convenient. But
is it really “better”? Here are five facts that say No, bottled water is
not the better choice.
5: There is no difference between tap water and most bottled water brands.
Scientific studies conducted on both the
taste and
safety
of bottled water consistently show that not only is bottled water no
safer than tap water in the U.S., but it tastes only as good as or worse
than its publicly sourced counterpart.
Now you might be wondering, “if that’s true, why does bottled water
sell so well?” I was hoping you’d ask. The reason is marketing.
Corporations spend millions on marketing campaigns to make you believe
that their “purified” product is better than tap water. Here’s the
really mind-blowing part:
almost half
of all bottled water is derived from tap water. That’s right. Big
corporations spend big bucks convincing you not to take advantage of a
safe and inexpensive resource so they can sell you the exact same thing
at a much higher price. Don’t fall victim to their advertising.
4: Bottled water costs 240 to almost 1,000 times more per gallon than tap water.
When you buy bottled water, you’re paying a huge markup. In 2009,
a study
found that one thousand gallons of tap water cost $1.60, or about one
tenth of a cent per gallon. In contrast, the average cost for one gallon
of bottled water was $0.90. This means that consumers who chose to buy
bottled water spent 900% more than they spend on what comes out of their
faucet, even though it might be the exact same thing.
Keep in mind that the $0.90 number is only an average. Think of the
premium people pay for “designer” water that costs more for smaller,
albeit cooler-shaped, bottles.
3: Bottled water negatively affects the environment.
One
of the marketing messages about bottled water is that it is a healthy,
natural alternative to other drinks. But there is nothing healthy about
the bottle.
17 million barrels
of oil fuel the bottled water industry, which is enough to run one
million cars for a whole year. Oil isn’t the only resource being guzzled
by bottled water; bottling water actually wastes water. It takes about
three times the amount of water in one bottle to produce and fill that
bottle. Good thing tap water is so cheap, or bottled water could be even
more expensive.
The plastic bottles pose another problem. Only about 12% of bottles
purchased in the U.S. are recycled. This leads to billions of pounds of
oil-based plastic sitting in landfills for thousands of years. Any of
the
35 billion plastic bottles thrown away in the U.S. every year that don’t end up in a landfill make their way to the ocean, where they cause even
bigger problems
for the environment, economy, and even human health. If your bottle is
one of the 12% that actually gets recycled, it can only be used for
non-food products. Even in the best-case scenario, tap water is more
environmentally responsible than bottled water.
More than just the industry’s bottles affect the environment. Water
is shipped all around the world, producing literally tons of greenhouse
gases. In the United States, we are privileged to have clean water and
don’t need to rely on bottled water. Yet, for some reason, we import
bottled water. In 2006, New York alone produced
3,800 tons
of greenhouse gases just to transport bottled water from Western
Europe. In the same year, California contributed 2,500 tons of
greenhouse gases importing water from Fiji.
2: Bottled water has lower safety standards than tap water.
In the U.S., bottled water is loosely regulated by the FDA, but tap
water is strictly regulated by the EPA. Municipalities are required to
produce quality reports on their tap water and must test for
contaminants such as e. coli multiple times each day. If the EPA’s
standards aren’t met, the low-quality tap water cannot be distributed.
Bottled water can fall far short of these standards and still be sold
because it’s much more loosely regulated. In fact, between
60% to 70% of bottled water isn’t regulated by the federal government at all because it’s bottled and sold in the same state.
A comprehensive
study on bottled water found that:
-About one-third of the tested bottled water was found to be significantly contaminated in at least one test.
-Almost one in four bottles, or 22%, violated strict applicable state limits for bottled water.
-Of the tested water bottles, nearly one in five showed
more bacteria than allowed under microbiological-purity guidelines.
-Nearly one fifth of the waters contained synthetic organic chemicals or chemicals used in manufacturing plastic.
It’s ironic that water bottling companies market their product as
safer than tap water when their product can’t meet tap water’s safety
standards.
1: There are many bottled-water alternatives!
The #1 thing that bottled-water corporations don’t want you to know
is that bottled water is unnecessary for most U.S. residents. Simply
purchasing a reusable water bottle and filling it at the tap cuts out
the need for the disposable plastic variety. Reusable bottles are just
as portable and sometimes offer features to make them even more
convenient. For example, some of them can keep your water cooler for
longer, while saving you money and having a significantly less negative
impact on the environment. If you still prefer filtered water, you can
purchase your own filters or water purifiers to fill your water bottles
with. Some reusable bottles even come with built-in water filters,
taking out all the work for you. Overall, disposable plastic water
bottles are easily replaceable. Our planet and the money in your wallet
are not.
Improve your health and the environment - get off the bottle!!
Aguaman Pure Water has
been servicing South Florida with state of the art filtered water
coolers since 1999. We have our systems in Doral, Brickell, Downtown
Miami, Coral Gables, Hollywood, Weston, Fort Lauderdale, Coral Springs,
Miramar, Boca Raton, Boynton Beach, West Palm Beach - everywhere in
the tri county area!! Our systems provide our customers with great
tasting, healthy water, cup after cup. Aguaman Pure Water has
National Water Quality Association certifiied water specialists level 4
and 5 on staff, so you can feel comfortable knowing that you will not
only get the most state of the art systems, but the knowledge to back
them up. We
have been for years converting our customers from bottled water
systems. Our customers include businesses from 2 employees to 2000. We
strongly believe that properly filtered water is a far superior method
of getting healthy water to bottled water, healthwise, costwise and
environmentally.
