Bottled or Tap?
Posted on 22. Jul, 2010 by Vanessa in Vanessa
We’ve all heard the debate before… is bottled water better, safer, cheaper, more convenient than tap water? I personally believe that plastic water bottles are a complete waste, and having a re-usable water bottle is not only better for the environment but also the water from the taps taste better. Yet somehow, companies have been able to convince us that tap water is harmful, and everyone needs bottled water. Some people argue that plastic bottles are more convenient, and they recycle the water bottles so it doesn’t harm the environment. For the most part, I keep my mouth shut, and allow people to have their opinions. It wasn’t until today when I saw a 5-year-old girl refuse water her mother offered from the tap because she claimed,
“Tap water is poisonous and only bottled water is safe”
I realized that the media can mislead and brainwash even the youngest of our society, and that this has gone too far. So, I did some research and found out some interesting facts:
1) Bottled water costs about 2000 times more than tap water.
2) 1/3 of all bottled water in the U.S actually comes from the tap.
3) 80% of all recyclable plastic water bottles end up in the landfill, and are NOT recycled.
4) 22% of bottled water brands contained chemical contaminants at levels above the standard limits.
5) 17 million barrels of oil are used yearly to produce the plastic bottles alone.
6) It takes 3 times the amount of water to produce the bottle as it does to fill it.
7) There is at least 3 billion pounds of waste created from water bottles on the earth.
Still not convinced? Want to learn more? Click on the link I posted below and watch the phenomenal “Story of Bottled Water”, created by the same person who made “The Story of Stuff” (watch that too if you get the chance).
Joel
Jul 24th, 2010
Yeeha Venessa…well said. I remember most of us laughing at bottle water when it came out in the late eighties …oh how things changed! And arguing with a fellow university student in 1991 { a struggling model } who convinced herself that only bottled water was pure enough to keep her skin clear for modeling…it would actually cleanse her system of the impurities that entered into her body…oh how things have changed. The real audacity to the campaign waged by the big 4 water companies { Coke and Pepsi being two of them …and they are the two that use tap water } is that they played on human fear…and fear makes us irrational…whether it be about strangers and crime rates, water usage, or aids victims who we thought to isolate. The only thing we have to fear is fear itself…