If you have been reading this blog for a while, you may remember a previous post I made about a short little talk I gave at a forum on my campus. The forum was about trying to ban plastic one-use water bottles on campus, and you may be happy to know, the administration has agreed to get rid of plastic water bottles by phasing them out over the next three years! Pretty neat, huh?
In any case, my current professor also spoke at the forum, and now that I have him for a class, I was able to get an interesting list he created, entitled, “Top Ten Reasons Not to Buy Bottled Water.” There are some very interesting statistics in there, so I hope you’ll give it a shot! My professor’s name is Gary L. Chamberlain, Seattle University. Please do not use this list unless you have been given specific permission from the author. This is copyrighted material.
In any case, without further ado:
TEN REASONS NOT TO BUY BOTTLED WATER
Since 1976 there has been an increase of 1625% in the consumption of bottled water. In 2006 people in the US consumed 8.25 billion gallons of bottled water, or 30 billion actual bottles, a 9.5% increase from the year before.[i]
- Research shows that bottled water is not purer than tap water. Recently, Pepsi was forced to admit that its bottled water, Aquafina, is actually certified tap water. 60-70% of bottled water is tap water with carbonation, seltzer, etc. In fact, an “estimated 25 to 40 percent of bottled water really is just tap water in a bottle—sometimes further treated, sometimes not.”[ii] According to the National Resources Defense Council, 25-40% of bottled water is tap water that has been treated, but sometimes not.
- Tap water is regulated by the EPA, and is tested 3 to 4 times DAILY; bottled water is regulated by the FDA, and is tested once a week at the most. A recent Cast Western Reserve report found that 15 of 19 samples of bottled water had bacterial counts almost 2 times as high as Cleveland tap water.[iii]
- If bottled water is derived in-state, then there may be no regulation. One in five states have no regulations for bottled water “made” in that state; there are no requirements that bottled water has to ban e-coli or fecal matter.
- More water is used in making the plastic bottle that holds the bottled water than is in the bottle. At Coke’s India plants according to the company’s own report “3.9 liters of water are needed to produce each liter of beverage” because of the need to wash bottles, floors, and equipment in addition to the water used in the drink itself. Coke has 50 plants in India, using “hundreds of thousands of liters of water” per day.[iv]
- The cost is much more: $1-$1.50 per bottle = $10/gallon for bottled water vs. $.04-$.05 per gallon for tap water. In Los Angeles you get 450 gallons of tap water for the price of one bottle of Evian![v]
- The environmental impact is great. Bottled water impacts stream and river flows by drawing down water, reducing the water for vegetation, bird and animal needs. Bottled water is connected to global warming, using huge amounts of fossil fuels to manufacture and transport them bottles. The National Resources Defense Council estimates that 4000 tons of carbon dioxide is produced yearly—which is equivalent to the emissions of 700 cars yearly—by importing bottled water alone, not to mention the amount produced by transportation in the US.[vi]
- It takes 1.5 million barrels of crude oil to create the plastic in one’s year’s supply. That would fuel 100,000 cars a year. Distribution requires the equivalent of 37,800 18 wheel trucks.[vii]
- Plastic bottles create 2.7 billion pounds of plastic garbage in the US per year![viii]
- There are cheaper alternatives: a carafe (e.g. Brita) = $.31/gallon; faucet filter = $.34/gallon; undersink filter = $.42/gallon
- Coke and Pepsi bottled water factories in India (one of the largest sources) draw water from aquifers, depleting the water for farmers in the surrounding areas.
[i] “The High Price of Bottled Water,” The Week, 7 Sept., 2007; Bryan Walsh, “Back to the Tap,” Time, 9 Aug., 2007.
[ii]. Quoted in Cameron Woodworth, “A Clean Drink of Water: Choices and
Responsibilities,” Sound Consumer (August 2006), 4.
[iii]“The High Price of Bottled Water,” The Week, 7 Sept., 2007.
[iv] “Around the Globe,” Seattle Times, 22 Sept. 2006.
[v] “The High Price of Bottled Water,” The Week, 7 Sept. 2007.
[vi]Brian Walsh, “Back to the Tap,” Time, 9 Aug., 2007.
[vii]“The High Price of Bottled Water,” The Week, 7 Sept. 2007; Editorial, “In Praise of Tap Water,” The New York Times, 1 Aug., 2007.
[viii] Bryan Walsh, “Back to the Tap,” Time, 9 Aug., 2007.
Information on Water Conservation:
WATER FACTS
–The minimum amount of water that the average person needs daily for drinking, cooking, bathing and sanitation is 13 gallons. The average person in the U.S. uses between 65 to 78 gallons of water daily.
–Gallons of water needed to produce:
One pound of potatoes – 100 gallons
One pound of rice – 340 gallons
One pound of chicken – 460 gallons
One pound of beef – 4200 gallons
One 6 inch silicon wafer (computer) – 1892 gallons
One gallon of gasoline – 9 gallons
One average US automobile – 39,000 gallons
Avoid 3 6 7 codes for plastics (they appear on plastic bottle containers or large water containers or even sport bottles such as nalgene)
as of april 2008 canada has become the first nation to officially recognize that bisphenol A is indeed harmful to humans, but to what extent we still dont know.
7 is the one that leaches bisphenol A.
as of april 2008 canada has become the first nation to officially recognize that bisphenol A is indeed harmful to humans, but to what extent we still dont know. (cancer causing though)
3 plastics (vinyl)(CLEAR plastic containers those cookie boxes @ superstore or those clear canola oil containers may release toxic breakdown products such as pthalates into food and drinks.
6(polystyrene) plastics (ur take out styrofoam containers) (dont reuse them!) can release potentially toxic styrene, during breakdown and particularly when heated!
all the above plastic leaches in to whatever its holding when heated or breakdown due to usage ingeneral. (dishwasher)
I posted your blog on a forum for discussion and I got this as one of their posts. I think this issue is very important and there are many people out there who are too ignorant to understand these facts that are depleting the life of the earth. What I just posted here is probably another helpful fact for a fight against bottled water.
Thanks, Clement!
Any chance you could put up the link to the forum so we can see it?