Wasting Your Money – One Bottle at a Time

I usually carry a reusable metal water bottle that I love because I can throw it around and it's very durable (until I lost it and had to spend another $30 to replace it!).

However, when the town our office is in decided to "change its chlorine system" and the water turned a brownish-yellow color and did not taste good for about a month - I turned to commercial bottled water. Sorry, but whatever bottled water symbolizes, I feel that something that's clear is safer to drink than something that looks like it's straight out of the river - or worse!

I also can't stand the taste of chlorine, so if I'm in a place with water that hasn't been filtered well, I'll opt for bottled water in that situation. (I use a Pur fridge filter like this at home.)

I definitely agree that there are cases where using bottled water is going to be the preferred way to go. Especially if you go to an amusement park, it is hard to lug around something all day.

Sometimes they have great deals on bottles though. My family and I took a trip to disney and they had a bottle for $10 and for the whole day there were free refills. That was the best $10 we spent, we were fully hydrated and our whole family shared 1 bottle and it was all good.

Also, having water that is discolored and such doesn't make many jump for joy. I have well water and never had a problem with it. I understand if you use water bottles for emergencies, sometimes it is definitely called for. I am speaking mainly for those whos water is unsafe/undesirable for human consumption.

Point taken! I, too, grew up with yummy well water. My friend just built a new house and her new well has hard water - you can smell it before you taste it.

I look at bottled water as a healthy soft drink. Next time you want a coke or pepsi, ask for it without sugar, artificial sweetener, flavoring or preservatives. They will hand you a bottled water, and your body will get the water it needs without having to process whatever chemical stew that makes it a soft drink.

There have been numerous reports by governmental testing agencies verifying that many water sources used for bottled water are less pure than tap water, which must pass rigid testing.

I see the use of bottled water (a $1+ Billion industry in the US) as necessary in those cases where ther is a real question of the water safety. Personally, I deal with many situations where water quality is suspect, but I would rather treat the suspect water myself, using a fine ceramic filter and UV light pen. Unless someone has purposely dumped a high concentration of an instantly lethal chemical in the water, that is as safe as most bottled water. The cost of bottled water is excessive except for those who want the convenience.

I agree. If your tap water is unsafe to drink, by all means, use bottled water. But if it is safe, what is there to lose by bottling your private tap water that you pay to have access to? I mean, the worst that can happen is that you burn a couple extra calories lugging the empty bottle back into your home. Otherwise, where is the convenience?

Among the top-selling brands of bottled water, a total of 38 pollutants were found including fertilizer, industrial chemicals, and residue of drugs (like Tylenol). These bottles of water showed an average of eight pollutants per sample. While you would expect higher quality from bottled water that you pay 1,500 times more for, that is not a guarantee.

This a totally unregulated industry of which few brands can demonstrate higher water quality than Los Angeles, Ca. city water on a bad day

Believe it or not, California has one of the strictest regulations in the USA regarding bottled water. But you still can't guarantee that it is of better quality than the water coming from your faucet. Strict regulations = Better water? Perhaps not.

I like my water flavoured with barley & hops and served in those nice brown or green glass crown top bottles.

I'll second that and seeing as you are in the UK, will go so far as to say that the flavored water there is the best in the world, much better than that German or Belgian flavored water...

I'll second that, but i usually prefer it out of a chilled glass/mug :)

industrial chemicals, and residue of drugs (like Tylenol).

You forgot to mention residual estrogen Jaxy.

After a week of bottled water in San Fran there came a morning I couldn't decide whether to wear my striped undies or the ones with little hearts.

I've got $4k of water treatment system on our well to take care of hardness and bacteria so the net result is that my tap water is far better than bottled or city water.

Bottled water is a complete farce but so far people have bought into it. But if you're going to pay over $4 a gallon for water that you could have for pennies you ought not be complaining about the price of fuel!

Perhaps bottled water is more of a fad? Plus the only other convenience of bottled water over bottled tap water is that you can throw away/recycle the used plastic container. That is really the only thing I can think of as being convenient for bottled water. I find the expense of buying bottled water a complete waste when I have good water at my disposal.

I used to live in an area where each home had a well drawing water from a common aquifer. There was one natural spring, about 1/2 mi from me. Once or twice a week, a tank truck would pull up and fill the tank from the spring. Then it would go to town, package the water in 1 gal bottles, and sell it at the Grand Union down the road.

I never figured out what the people that bought it were thinking.

HA! A neighborhood grocery nearby sells store brand bottled water and the large sign that makes getting to the bottles difficult states "city tap water" but people buy it up no matter.

Hi Jaxy,

Many thanks for writing on this topic - please allow me share my experience:

In 1985, I was back-packing via Eurail pass through France, and was struck with how many young French and other Euro-country Inter-railers were drinking Evian water from those clear plastic bottles that, only a few years later, would become ubiquitous across Upstate, NY and the U.S.

Fast-forward to 2007, and I listen to a BBC report detailing how it's become "cool" to drink water from the tap in Paris, and to even order it at a restaurant. I even went so far as to ask for tap water at a mid-range restaurant in Saratoga Springs, soon after hearing the BBC report, but it was hard for me to convey that I was doing it for environmental, and not cheapskate reasons. I cited the BBC report, but the woman waiting our table wasn't buying.

I always knew we were fortunate in Rensselaer, Albany, and regional counties here in Upstate to have top-rate tap water. One area, in my opinion, where the public authorites did a very good job, compared to the rest of the world. My trip to China in 2005 confirmed this (I injested a small amount of tap water at the Marriott in Chongqing, and got sick).

Thanks for letting me share on this.

- Larry

What do you get when you spell Evian backwards?

Call my old fashioned but I still trust bottled water more than tap water.

In restaurants I'm 100% fine with tap water but at home.... last resort. Weird.

Plus maybe it's just my area but I hear about water main breaks all the time and they say not to drink the water when that happens. The only thing is most of the time I don't hear about it until it would have been too late.

I go for the gallon jugs instead of individual bottles, at least that is a bit less plastic. (but they're mostly drank out of paper cups so you win one you lose one. heheh.)

Read the label on most food products - reads like an organic chemistry text.

Read the calorie count on most restaurant meals - high four figures.

And we are worried about some ppm traces in water?

It is possible to be worried about many things at once. In this blog we are tackling the misconception that bottled water is always healthier than tap water. It isn't that we are ignoring the labels on food products and the high calorie meals being pushed on us at restaurants, it is more that we can only tackle one problem at a time (and sometimes to no avail).

Some temporary fixes until help arrives:

Don't eat at a restaurant.

Live on a farm.

(These may be more of long term commitments)

Cheers!

Jaxy....Live on a farm? With all those pesticides and fertilizer salts permeating the groundwater? Not to mention spilled fuels and abandoned hippy vehicles! I dunno 'bout that. I'd get the water analyzed first.

I was mainly saying if you live on a farm you can be your own boss and decide what goes into making your food. I was combating the 'you have to be an organic chemist to know what goes into your food' remark. This only shows that in solving one problem you can create dozens more.

Abandoned hippy vehicles?!?!

Yup...the utopists have dumped on their doorstep. I have a commune a few miles down the road the occupants of which are drinking contaminated well water.....courtesy of many rusting abandoned vehicles strewn about the place. Not just the hipps .....a lot of farmers (and others) never paid much attention to the risks. Consequence? ....learning and behavioural problems are on the rise.

Some plumes of contamination have spread for many miles underground. Filtration is not an option.

One clown drilled his well into a vein of arsenopyrite....kids had a distinctive green hue to their complexion. Arsenic poisoning.

Restaurant meals are they way they are because that is what sells. And the reason that is what sells is that is what we buy.

We don't really know what are harmful levels in drinking water because the current standards are based more on detectable levels than what is actually harmful. Case in point:

A group of parents tested the soil in their schoolyard and found levels of lead in excess of the current standard. They wanted the soil excaved and replaced. The state agency refused, because they couldn't find any soil that was any better. Does that standard need to be reviewed?

Tap vs Bottled is the wrong question for me.

My question is Still vs Sparkling.

I love Mineral or Sparkling water, I do not like flat, still or tap water.

Hence I drink Bottled Sparkling water wherever I can.

Whilst I know that I could change my taste buds - I have just changed my milk for example - whilst I can afford my tipple of choice - I will.

Chacun a son gout. ( Everyone to their own taste)

Sleepy.