Why Drinking Bottled Water is Bad for You and the Environment

[Michelle Goes Green]

I've seen more news lately about the bottled water industry and bottled water in general and with a new documentary about the bottled water industry, Tapped, I thought I'd share a post from my blog.

I find that a lot of people don't like or just don't trust the water that comes out of their tap. So instead of drinking that tap water, they spend a lot of their hard earned money on bottled water. You might say it still costs money to drink water from the tap but really it's only a few extra pennies on the water bill. If you're one like me who drinks tap water instead of bottled water, you can save quite a bit of money a year and also save the environment from hundreds of plastic bottles that don't get recycled.

Every state has a water treatment plant that ensures your tap water is safe to drink. The only problem with this though is what the water picks up through the pipes on the way to your home. You'll find that some pipes are pretty old and can add rust and bacteria to your drinking water.

To solve this problem, you use a water purifier like a Brita filter or a Pur filter. The Brita filter comes in a pitcher where you just fill it with tap water and it's purified via the installed filter. The Pur filter, on the other hand, can be easily installed on the your faucet itself to filter the water as it comes out of the tap. You do, however; need to change these filters every 1 to 3 months which will cost you around $100 a year.

So what about bottled water?

Maybe you bought that bottled water because of it's label telling you it's clean, spring water or water from an untouched sacred stream, but that's really not the case. The truth is that many of these bottled water companies get their water from the same place you do, from municipal water plants.

As with anything else you buy, you should check out the label for what you're really paying for. If the label says "purified," it probably came from the municipal water supply.

Aquafina, who is owned by Pepsi, is bottled at the Pepsi plant using purified municipal water. Same goes with Dasani, who is bottled by Coke, but they add a few minerals and a bit of salt to make you thirsty for more.

So what are you getting with bottled water? The same stuff you could be getting from home with a purified water treatment pitcher or filter.

If you're wondering what you can carry around in your backpack instead of bottled water, stainless steel bottles are a great option. I really like my Klean Kanteen bottle. It's one of the very first companies to put stainless steel bottles on the market. This family owned company even donates 1% of their profit to environmental causes. I think they really do make the best stainless steel bottle out there.

Tapped, a new documentary about the bottled water industry, goes behind-the-scenes to show the effects of this industry on our health, climate change, pollution and our reliance on oil. It's an eye-opening view of how bottled water has negatively impacted our environment.

So the next time you decide to drink bottled water, think about the money you spend, the impact you have on the environment and how much better off you and the earth will be by drinking from the tap.

[Simon]

I don't understand why people find it hip to drink expensive water which has traveled miles and been sitting in a fridge in some random shop for ages. I rather want fresh water from the tap.

[supergirl]

Yeah I totally agree with you Simonleuf. It's such a stupid fashion to be drinking branded water. How many countries on this planet have access to clean and drinkable tap water? It's a luxury that us westerners completely take for granted. Why would you pay all that money for a label? It's totally beyond me!

Like the first post mentions, the transportation of the water and even the manufacturing of the plastic alone are partially responsible for the rise in oil prices!

[Sweetpea]

I don't understand why people find it hip to drink expensive water which has traveled miles and been sitting in a fridge in some random shop for ages. I rather want fresh water from the tap.

There really is no such thing as fresh water though.

[thenextGeek]

Drinking bottled water is also the cause of the huge accumulation of plastic bottles all over the world. If people just stop and think about the damage that they are doing not only in their pockets, but to the environment as well then maybe the damage to our world may be greatly lessened. For me, I bring my own water every time I go to school. It helps me to live green and I get to save pennies at the same time.