Five Top Notch Reasons Not to Buy Bottled Water

When I am not writing, I am at my weekend job, where I watch tons of people unload cases of brand name bottled water onto their carts not even considering what little they are getting in return for their hard earned dough. Over half of America purchases bottled water as their main source of drinking water and another 30 to 40 percent buy it about once or twice per week. Here are five top reasons not do so.

1. Low quality. Think you are getting fresh water bottled at the spring when buying bottled water? Think again. Almost all commercial brands of bottled water are not regulated by the minimum standards set forth by the FDA for health. Bottled water has the same contaminants as tap water. In fact, standards set by the EPA are actually higher for tap water than for bottled water. Furthermore, bottling companies are not often required by law to make test results on their water available to the public.

2. Monetary cost. NRDC studies show that it costs over 240 to 10,000 times more to purchase bottled water over tap. In fact, if you buy commercial brand bottled water, it costs about two thirds the price of regular tap water. Though income levels are generally lower for Hispanic, Black and Asian families, studies have shown that they are just as likely to buy bottled water as middle class. Since 2001, bottled water sales have increased by 70 percent worldwide and corporations are pouring in to cash out on America's naivety. A former CEO of Perrier, Inc. summed up how corporations really profit from the bottled water craze, "It struck me that all you had to do is take the water out of the ground...and then sell it for more than, wine, milk or for that matter, oil." If that does not indicate how the public is being deceived by the bottled water explosion in the last few years, I don't know what does.

3. Energy Cost. Energy output levels to produce tap water far exceed those of bottled water. In a recent California study conducted by Pacific Institute of Studies In Development Environment and Security, showed that the energy output level for bottled water is 2000 times that of tap water. The energy to pack, ship, market and retail is really just the cost of the bottle itself, making it worth many times over, the water in it.

4. Waste. Plastic bottles take upwards of ten decades just to begin to break down in landfills. Every hour Americans throw away on average about 2.5 million plastic bottles. They never fully degrade, they just "photo degrade" which means that in a million years it will still be decomposing. If every American would simply recycle one out ten plastic bottles, 230 million tons of plastic would be kept out of landfills.

5. Negative impact on the environment. Plastic bottles in landfill and oceans is soaring. The ocean's delicate eco-systems are beginning to feel the effect of plastic waste floating at sea level. The Atlantic has more plastic than plankton. The United Nations Environment sais plastic accounts for over 1 million deaths of birds and 100,000 deaths of marine mammals such as dolphins, whales and seals. Furthermore, estimates show more than 13,000 square kilometers of the ocean's surface are covered in plastic refuse.

Why are we spending our valuable time and money on consuming a product that has been proven to not improve health, costs more to create, pack, ship, market and distribute than the product itself, further aggravates the problem of already fragile eco-systems, and takes a beating on our wallets? Because we want cleaner water and a healthier environment.

www.nrdc.org/water/drinking/bw/chap2.asp

www.tiptheplanet.com/index.php?title=Plastic_bags

www.unep.org/regionalseas/marinelitter/about/.../default.asp