On Tap: Avoid Bottled Water
Americans spend a mind-boggling $10 billion a year on bottled water products. That’s insane! Much bottled water is simply drawn from municipal water systems, the same as the drinking water from your kitchen sink. And even the water that isn’t drawn from the tap has no added nutritional benefit.
Bottled water is more expensive than gasoline, and costs hundreds of times more than tap water.
I’ll admit that I indulge in bottled water from time-to-time. A case of the stuff from Costco runs about $0.25 a bottle, and these bottles can be reused for a l-o-n-g time. Because I’m trying to cut soda from my diet, I’ve taken up Talking Rain, which is a carbonated water flavored with “natural essences”. I know this is an expensive indulgence, but it’s a good transitional beverage while I wean myself from stuff with sugar.
Maybe a year from now I’ll be able to subsist on only tap water.
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Dan said,
February 13, 2007 @ 10:42 am
One of the original producers of bottled water is EVIAN. Ever spell it backwards? Hmmmmmm………….
Dan said,
February 13, 2007 @ 10:44 am
correction..not “producer” but “brand name”……….pardon me
Jennifer said,
February 13, 2007 @ 10:56 am
I agree with this most of the time but in Texas we go through droughts and the water starts tasting really funny when the lakes are down 16 feet. Also, in August the water starts tasting like algae. They can get the algae out of the water but not the taste. I don’t want to spend so much money on bottled water but I don’t know a better solution. The Brita type filters don’t work that well either.
Elissa said,
February 13, 2007 @ 12:26 pm
Our tap water tastes like a pool. There’s so much chlorine in it that when we fill the bath tub it’s BLUE. Literally, the water is bright blue. My roommate used to buy bottled water (the large gallons) to COOK with, because she didn’t believe that boiling water would kill anything bad in it.
We use a Brita filter now for drinking water and I only buy bottled water even now and then and it’s usually on my way to the gym, because the CVS sells liters of Evian for $1.00.
Cat said,
February 13, 2007 @ 2:01 pm
One thing to keep in mind is that we are lucky here in the Portland area to have some of the tastiest water in the world. When I lived in Anaheim, it was perfectly normal to rent a water cooler for the home and have water delivered regularly, because Southern California water tastes (and looks) frightening.
I would definintely recommend a water filter instead of buying water by the bottle! But it’s important to remember that most of the country does not have ambrosia flowing from the tap.
jdroth said,
February 13, 2007 @ 2:13 pm
Huh. I hadn’t considered that, Cat. I’ve always tasted the local water forgranted. I’ve never paid attention to tap water in other parts of the country. (Mostly because I haven’t traveled much, and have never lived elsewhere.) I wasn’t aware that other water tasted foul. Does a filter really help with taste?
Jodi said,
February 13, 2007 @ 2:18 pm
I buy large quantities of filtered water because our town cannot seem to keep our tap water safe to drink. They keep sending out these “oops we weren’t up to standards on this contaniment” postcards. It makes me wonder if I should shower in bottled water.
or.. you know.. move.
Don't Drink the Water said,
February 13, 2007 @ 3:59 pm
There is no blanking way I’m drinking from the tap if I can help it. I notice how my body reacts after I drink tap as opposed to bottled and there is a difference. I keep listening to science pundits insisting there’s no difference and I don’t know where the blank they live that they keep trying to propagate that lie.
I’ve been in various parts of the country, and I haven’t been anywhere tap water didn’t suck. And not just in taste, although the taste can be awful.
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February 13, 2007 @ 7:00 pm
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Aaron A. said,
February 13, 2007 @ 8:01 pm
”A case of the stuff from Costco runs about $0.25 a bottle, and these bottles can be reused for a l-o-n-g time.”
FYI, you may hear from people that re-using the bottles will leach out carcinogenic or otherwise toxic compounds. That’s a load of crap. It was some college student’s thesis that’s been passed around as fact by the “we’re too busy to check our facts” American media.
If you want to make sure your water came from somewhere more pristine than a faucet at the local bottling plant, look for the term “spring water.” In order to be sold as spring water, the water must have originated from a groundwater spring, such as the Evian spring in France. And of course it doesn’t have any added nutritional benefit, it’s FREAKIN’ WATER!
I’ve worked in isolated villages in rural Alaska where the water runs brown and smells like eggs. Surprisingly, an ordinary charcoal filter does a good job at eliminating the color, flavor, and odor*. Still, a $5 filter will last a normal household for at least three months, filtering probably 100 gallons of water in the process. If your local water stinks, figuratively or literally, that’s probably the most cost-effective solution.
– A.
* Also, neither the tap nor bottled water are flouridated, the effects of which are sadly evident in the local population. Even if flouride is just a government mind-control plot, go ahead and drink the water. If you’re going to be a brainwashed flesh-eating zombie, you might as well look good doing it.
Leo said,
February 13, 2007 @ 9:16 pm
Yeah, the tap water in my area doesn’t taste great. Filters work pretty well. I go to a water store down the street, and they have it filtered at $1.25 for a 5-gal. bottle. I spend about $2.50 a week, $10 a month, or $130 a year on water. That doesn’t seem so bad to me. Buying it in small bottles, at 80 cents per bottle, seems high.
Richard said,
February 13, 2007 @ 11:20 pm
Hi everyone, I just joined but I wanted to put in my 2 cents. I also buy bottled water as a last resort and it is pretty expensive. I usually try and take a bottle with me when going out or to the gym. I use a water filter that gives me a gallon for about 10 cents so I use it for cooking as well.
If anyone is interested in my water filter or wants to know how to get one send me a reply and I can tell you.
Great blog here. Thanks, Richard.
Phil said,
February 14, 2007 @ 12:00 pm
I don’t believe in buying bottled water often. Generally in our Great Lakes area the municipal water is ok, although we do have boil water advisory days, often after storms when sewage outlets have overflowed and the sewage runs directly into the lake without being processed. There is also decades of unnecessary pesticide run off as well as people using the storm water drains to dump hazardous domestic chemicals such as paint and cleaners without even thinking that it flows directly to the lake and then we suck it back up and have to keep investing in our water treatment plants to combat the increasing levels of pollution. There was a time when people could drink right from the streams or lakes, but people have abused the resource so much that now it is not necessarily safe to even eat the fish or swim. Instead of spending all that money on bottled water it should be going into tree planting and wetland development programs, which offer a natural form of filtration; into cleanup projects; and it should be going into educational programs such as the yellow fish road project which helps raise awareness about respecting the resource in the first place. If water quality is improved, in future we perhaps won’t need to recycle so many plastic bottles or have them in landfills.
Tom said,
February 17, 2007 @ 7:03 pm
I have a 100 foot deep well (Michigan) which provides my home water and at times it has a funny taste. I put in a reverse osmosis filter system and the water from that tap tastes great. I’d recommend that as a cost effective and convenient alternative to buying bottled water
Rita Bradley said,
February 22, 2007 @ 7:19 am
I live an an area where the water is supposed to be good but it sure tastes like chemicals. I buy distilled bottled water (in 2.5 gallon containers) because distilled water is the most pure water you can get. (I looked it up). I am only concerned about the possibility of the plastic leaching into the water, as mentioned above. I tend to believe it because I seem to taste the plastic in my water. When I can afford to I will buy my own water distiller. Then I’ll have pure water without a plastic leach problem. They can be purchased for between $200-300. I don’t think it would take long for this investment to pay for itself. Any thoughts?
Bottled Water Packaging Comparison said,
February 27, 2007 @ 5:42 pm
The reason I don’t drink tap water is actually because it takes a good 1.5 minutes ( or more, depending on your city ), for all of the elements in your pipes to come out of your faucet before getting actual “pure” water. Most people don’t have that much time to waste before each time they drink…
Here’s a Bottled Water Packaging Comparison I put together a week or two ago. It will likely interest you:
http://www.pinnycohen.com/2007/02/19/marketing-wisdom/bottled-water-packaging-comparison/
JenK said,
March 6, 2007 @ 4:48 pm
I keep some on-sale bottled water, gatorade, and beef jerky in the trunk of my car. Much cheaper than stopping at a drive-through or convenience store.
Christian Poecher said,
March 7, 2007 @ 4:39 pm
I am surprised to find that so many people filter the water. Did you consider to get your water tested by a lab instead of buying expensive filters all the time? This way you can also test what residuals come out of your pipes.
Destilling water takes out nearly everything out of the water for sure. Note though that most “destilled water” is de-ionized water in reality, which is practically the same just that it is not as pure as real destilled one. I just think, that the packaging does not have to be save for human digestion, because it is mainly made for technical purposes. I also heared that it is not save to use water with too less minerals. In destilled water there are virtually no minerals. Body cells don’t like that: They “pump” themselves with water (using osmosis) and pop when the membrane cannot withstand the pressure. Therefore I think that destilled water can be actually worse than normal water.
Christian Poecher said,
March 7, 2007 @ 4:43 pm
One last thing: I definitly prefer sparkling water over still water. In Germany we have this soda makers that just pump CO_2 into tap water. IMO that was a pretty good investment. Do you have them too in the US?
Drew said,
March 8, 2007 @ 10:54 am
I recently saw a story on digg about the effects of Fiji bottled water on the environment. The quoted figure was 26 times the amount of water in a Fiji is required to produce the stuff.
Not to mention that it is ridiculously expensive
Rita Bradley said,
March 16, 2007 @ 7:49 pm
I disagree strongly with the comment about distilled water being worse for you than “normal” water. Rain water is distilled water and indigenous people for centuries have survived and even thrived on it. With all due respect to the poster, I believe that we have been sold a bill of goods if we believe we need the minerals that are supposedly in other waters. Those needed minerals can be found in abundance in healthy foods. I’m pretty sure that the minerals in water scheme was dreamt up as a marketing ploy.
Mary Elizabeth said,
July 4, 2007 @ 9:39 am
I use a brita filter. I am trying to avoid plastics. I am considering spending $19.99 on a 1 liter stainless steel portable water bottle (ouch!). But what good will that do if my filtered water comes out of a polycarbonate filter bottle? Is there a filtration system that is plastic free?
Brian said,
August 2, 2007 @ 4:52 am
I agree bottled water is the one of the most stupid ways to spend your money,
but then again I would never trust tap water and Brita filters are poor
the water passes through the filters to quickly to do a good job.
I ended up purchasing a Berkey light Water Filtration Systems with special
filters that even gets out the fluoride in the water. it cost about two cents
a gallon of water. It truly is the best filtered water I have ever tasted.