Week 14 - BYOB of water!

Bottled water is America’s second favorite beverage (soda is #1). As a matter of fact, we spend 7.7 billion dollars a year on it! Why? This is one of those marketing feats I talked about several weeks ago. Americans have literally bought into the myth bottled water is better than tap water, to the tune of “$10,000 a minute for something that is readily available for free”, (thegreenguide.com). So what’s the big deal about buying bottled water? You might be surprised by the negative effects this industry is having on the environment.

The following outlines the environmental impact of bottled water consumption according to ucsusa.org (Union of Concerned Scientists - Citizens and Scientists for Environmental Solutions), PBS.org and thegreenguide.com:

Fossil fuel consumption: Approximately 1.5 million barrels of oil—enough to run 100,000 cars for a whole year—are used to make plastic water bottles, while transporting these bottles burns thousands more gallons of oil. In addition, the burning of oil and other fossil fuels (which are also used to generate the energy that powers the manufacturing process) emits global warming pollution into the atmosphere.

Water consumption: The growth in bottled water production has increased water extraction in areas near bottling plants, leading to water shortages that affect nearby consumers and farmers. In addition to the millions of gallons of water used in the plastic-making process, two gallons of water are wasted in the purification process for every gallon that goes into the bottles.

Waste: Only about 10 percent of water bottles are recycled. Most bottles will be either incinerated or end up in landfills.

Bottling and shipping water: is the least efficient method of water delivery ever invented. The energy we waste using bottled water would be enough to power 190,000 homes. But refilling your water bottle from the tap requires no expenditure of energy, and zero waste of resources.

Cost: Bottled water can cost up to 10,000 times more per gallon than tap water.

Here are some additional things you need to know about bottled water:

According to government and industry estimates, about one fourth of bottled water is bottled tap water. Others say up to 40% of all bottled water comes from a city water system, just like tap water.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s standards for tap water are more stringent than the Food and Drug Administration’s standards for bottled water. For example, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) did a four year study of the bottled water industry (go to nrdc.org for the full report). The study found that tap water is often better regulated than bottled water and has to meet more stringent standards at both the federal and local levels. Cities must test their water for chemical contaminants at least once a quarter, but bottlers must only test annually. Among the 1,000 bottles tested, about one-fifth contained chemicals such as toluene, xylene, or styrene, known or possible carcinogens and neurotoxins. We won’t even get into the fact that “city’s tap water cannot have any E. coli or fecal coli form bacteria, while bottled water is allowed a certain amount of these bacteria”. Yuck!!

So how can we make a change?

If you don’t like the taste of your tap water or are unsure of its quality, you can buy a filter pitcher or install an inexpensive faucet filter to remove trace chemicals and bacteria. Brita and Pur are two popular brands, but there are several others so search the web. According to bottledwaterblues.com, the filtered water will cost you under 10¢ a gallon.

Fill a reusable bottle from your tap. Be careful in your selection as there are concerns about chemicals leaching from plastic. The best choices are: HDPE (soft, opaque #2 plastic), stainless steel which doesn’t react or leach, aluminum that has been coated on the interior and glass which is non-reactive and dishwasher safe. Whatever you choose, ensure you clean it often and well; you really don't want to be ingesting the bacteria that can build up. I know some of you will say, this is the reason why you buy bottled water, but really, how long does it take to wash a bottle or toss it in the dishwasher? Here is a list of companies from idealbite.com that make safe reusable containers:

• KleanKanteen – lightweight, food-grade stainless steel, with no toxic leaching or mineral migration ($14).
• SIGG – Swiss-made, lightweight aluminum bottles in cool colors and designs. The water-based inner coating is non-toxic and resistant to fruit acids and isotonic drinks ($20).
• Nalgene HDPE – can’t live without the old camping stand-by? Same Nalgene styling, in a safer, opaque plastic ($7).

Limit your bottled water purchases for those times when you’re traveling where water quality is questionable.

Finally, if you really must buy bottled water there is still two things you can do to help the environment:

1. Buy from local companies. You will help reduce the energy wasted in shipping. At thegreenguide.com you can find a list of companies for your region. And…


2. Recycle your bottles!

I think this is a big problem with really simple solutions. Bottled water is not a fashion accessory. If we have safe, drinkable tap water, why aren’t we using it? So much of the world’s population would give anything to have it. If every person were able to reduce there use by just ½, we would make a significant dent in this problem. We didn’t always have bottled water and we were just fine - as a matter of fact, I think we were better off!