It’s ridiculous to think that people who live in rich countries like Canada and the USA spend hundreds of millions of dollars each year on something that runs freely and safely in our homes, our places of work, our public areas and our schools. Meanwhile, in other parts of the world they have no choice but to import water because their own sources have run dry, or they are now too contaminated for consumption or their sources cannot provide enough for its population (like most of Africa and parts of Australia).
The kicker is that some of these waters come from islands and countries thousands of miles away, and shipping these bottles creates nearly 109 million kilograms of greenhouse gases… and this is excludes the impact the chemicals that spill into oceans before they ever reach their destination have and also excludes the millions of bottles that never get recycled and wind up incinerated or in landfills.
Do you really think that bottled water is that much better than tap water? Here are just two cases that you may or may not be aware of: Aquafina has flat out said it uses filtered tap water. Read about it here. Dasani tried to hide that they did this too back in 2004, but that simply created one the biggest scandals in CocaCola’s history: It was bad enough they were so deceitful about hiding it, but it got worse: Dasani was forced to recall half a million bottles of water off store shelves because tests revealed they contained an unsafe amount of a chemical used in their processing that is known to increase the risks of getting cancer (note: it wasn’t the tap water that was contaminated). Read more about it here.
There are so many reasons to drink tap water and so few to drink it bottled. I found this amazing article from Readers Digest. It’s full of facts and useful tips.
It’s so unfortunate that water is being treated like a commodity when it is more of a luxury. Not something that should be profited from like the bottled water industry is doing. We pay more for WATER than we do for gas… or bread. Think about that. That’s crazy!
I stopped buying bottled water just before the Holidays. I carry some with me in a reusable container and refill wherever. At home, I keep a pitcher of water in my fridge at all times.
If your reason to not drink tap water is because you don’t think it’s safe… That’s another story. I suggest you do your civic duty and contact your city officials and voice your concerns. But if you just have to drink bottled water, the very least you could do is make sure you recycle the empties… Promise?
What do you think? I would love to hear from you. Leave a comment here or write me at melissacthibodeau [at] gmail [dot] com!
Filed under: Environment, Just One Thing | Tagged: aquafina, bottled water, cancer, chemical, civic duty, commodity, contamination, dasani, greenhouse gases, incinerated, landfills, readers digest, recycle, scarcity, tap water, Tips, waste, water
Melissa, I agree with you about how tap water has been under appreciated. Though we can’t get around the fact that water really is a commodity. We’ve been undercharging for our public supplies for years. That’s going to come to an end, as more people compete for limited supplies, and infrastructure continues to deteriorate.
Anyway, I liked your post–I’ll check in once in a while. I’d love to get your input on some of my blogs as well – Donna
Thank you Donna :)
I appreciate your feedback!