The Truth About Bottled Water

[Jessica Hook]

I've been hearing more and more about the "bottled water issue"... being that much of the expensive bottled water actually comes from the municipal water supply... the same water that comes out of your tap/faucet. The "Alaskan Mountain water" doesn't come from Alaska or the mountains, "spring water" doesn't come from springs, and all sorts of other deceptive marketing schemes cooked up by water bottling companies... Not to mention the monumental amount of pollution being created by the discarded plastic bottles. Yes, you could recycle them in theory, but 86% of the bottles get thrown in the trash and end up in landfills or worse :/

I stumbled across this Penn & Teller vid about bottle water that puts things into a funny (and sad) perspective:

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And I thought this was funny (taken from here (http://www.stopsylviabrowne.com/articles/)):
'One brand of 'spring water," reported the NRDC ... actually came from a well in an industrial facility's parking lot, near a hazardous waste dump, and periodically was contaminated with industrial chemicals at levels above FDA standards."

Top 6 myths about bottled water here. (http://www.marieclaire.com/life/healthy/health-tips/bottled-water-myth?src=syn&mag=mar&dom=msn&con=slide&link=rel)

Interesting stuff....

[Robert.B]

yeah heard about this 3 years ago. I just boil my water now a days and then frig it. works fine for me :)

[Costau D]

yeah heard about this 3 years ago. I just boil my water now a days and then frig it. works fine for me :)

Huh, I need to try that. Tampa's water tastes like crap.

[Chingwa]

not to mention all the energy it takes to transport that bottled water... AND the cheap plastic in those bottles actually leaches chemicals into your water regardless of how pure it is in the first place...and we all know there's a swirling mass of plastic in the pacific the size of Texas right?

It's easier to get fresh potable water from Fiji living in New York City than if you are a native inhabitant of the island itself. It's a new era of colonialism out there.

[nicolas]

being that much of the expensive bottled water actually comes from the municipal water supply... the same water that comes out of your tap/faucet. The "Alaskan Mountain water" doesn't come from Alaska or the mountains, "spring water" doesn't come from springs....

I'm actually more surprised that people believe that to begin with.... Thats like believeing there is actually fish in a McFish(or whatever its called..)

[dfacto]

The taste assertion in the video isn't accurate. I've been around a few counties and tasted different tap and spring water, and depending on where you live you might really need to buy bottled water.

Some tap water is fine, some is excellent, some (like mine) is kinda funky but acceptable when chilled, some has a funny aftertaste to it, and some just sucks ass.

Kinda interesting how it works too. Here in Hannover there are two water supply sources as far as I know, with the north-east side of town getting their water from some forest spring, and the south-west side getting it piped in from the mountains in the south. My uncle in the western side has excellent tap water. My tapwater tastes a bit funky. Then again my sister, who is just a few minutes walk from me, has decent tasting tapwater. Guess ti depends on the pipes too.

[Crush]

I'm lucky, where I live the tap water tastes great, I've always prefered it to the taste of bottled water around here

The only times I ever buy bottled water, it's those big 2 litre bottles and that's just so I can refill them from the tap when I'm done with them

Whenever I go on holiday though the tap water tends to taste awful so I have to rely on filters and bottled water

The freshest water I ever had though was when I climbed up ben nevis (a mountain in scotland) and drank straight from a stream up there, oh god it was so cold and refreshing <3

[Queen Nehalania]

Oh great, and here I am drinking a bottle of Dasani. xD

[Robert.B]

florida water taste like A$$

[dfacto]

The freshest water I ever had though was when I climbed up ben nevis (a mountain in scotland) and drank straight from a stream up there, oh god it was so cold and refreshing

The chill can lie though. The real test is if it's still good when you've put it in a bottle and the sun has been heating it for an hour. If it still tastes great then you've got a keeper.

Was in San Marino in Italy a few years back, and after climbing up the streets to reach the castle the water from the fountains there was pure bliss. A few hours later after it had gotten nice and hot sitting in the car it tasted terrible.

[KingUnicorn]

"What do you want to try? You want to try this? It sounds French."

I just love the way she says it. As if her date just took a severe blow to the head and isn't quite sure about making decisions for himself.

[sweetoblivion314]

Oh great, and here I am drinking a bottle of Dasani. xD

ugg i hate dasani. All i can taste is the sweetener in it.

[ArmoredGorilla]

Avoid tap water at all costs, especially fluoridated water which has very negative effects on your health.

The best solution is a reverse osmosis filter under your kitchen sink. I even have one on my shower, and yes you can actually feel the difference on your skin; its awesome. I think they even make one you install in your basement, which filters all water entering your home, but that can get pricey.

[s.ketch]

i have a well

[Olof]

A well is luxury. Our tap water always tasted great, no need for bottled water except when you're not home and don't want sugar/coffe/whatever..

Though I can understand it has a market, most european countries I've visited has way to much iron or chlor (chlorine?) in their water. Tastes like craps :(

[magicgoo]

I love my fluoridated, chlorinated, hard-as-a-rock, mineral-encrusted Southern California tap water. YUM!!!! I do buy Costco ice though. It's soo damn tasty to munch on :D

[egerie]

I'd be curious about the benefits of "filters" like Brita and such. The tap water I geet home is just fine, although the water at my previous workplace SUCKED because of God knows what but I suspect the aqueduc system or building pipes in that old part of Montreal.

[kyliegirl]

I am glad i brought myself a reverse osmosis system to purify my tap water myself :)

I originally got it to purify the water to put into my salt water tank so the corals and fish didnt die because theyre extremely sensetive to the tiniest trace of copper..

I cant drink the tap water at work, it tastes like crap out of their purifier and it gives me really bad stomach aches.. I think it has something wrong with it..

[smugbug]

We had a UV water filtration system installed a few years ago. Up until then, the water (we have a well) was undrinkable.

Undrinkable as in, you drink it and you'd get sick. BUT, we were told that we could still: brush our teeth, wash our clothes and dishes, shower/bathe and anything else with the same water we couldn't drink.

Thought that was...weird. We found the UV system, invested ($2,000 USD) and voila - we now have bottled (haha) water quality. We don't even bother with bottled water - and thank god for that.

We're doing everything possible to lower our environmental impact.

[Blahm]

some tap water is nasty as fuck. Penn and teller are are like michel moore, they exaggerate to get their point across.

[Iliada]

Nice watch :)

I always drink tap water, it taste great around here (I actually prefer it to most sodas), Denmark. I do buy it when I'm travelling, like when I was in Italy and France. Tap water there can contain bacteria, I as a Dane isn't used to, and it can make me sick. I also bought my water when I was in China, they said it wasn't even safe to brush teeth in the Shanghai water =/

Best tap water I've tasted was when I was in one of my friends' summer cottage, a little hut in a forest in Sweden. They had their own well, and OMIGOD that water was divine!

[Jason Rainville]

There was a water scare here in ontario a while back. Forget where exactly. But needless to say, a few sick and dead people and presto, ontario water regulations are rabidly enforced, giving us nice tap water.

Thank you, dead people. :(

[Brendan N]

Water round here only taste crap between midnight and brushing your teeth in the morning again.

[poise]

hahah! that was hilarious. Those people looked like complete idiots, of course I might look like an idiot in that situation also, but then again I'm pretty sure I wouldn't go to a Restaurant that served just water.
What's more disturbing is that we are using all that plastic for nothing, I mean even if a certain company does make better water, why not use Glass bottles?, because we are afraid we might cut our foot on a beach? paa shaa! I would rather cute my foot then have a slow deteriorating disease like Cancer, a cut on the foot would look pretty damn good at that point.
Here is an article that is pretty disturbing but might wake you up to how bad it is, as Chingwa mentioned about landfills.
Not sure if this was posted here already:
http://www.mindfully.org/Plastic/Ocean/Ocean-Plastic-Landfill-Algalita1nov02.htm

[Wooly ESS]

I live on a rural acreage and have my own well. The water is good, and the water we drink goes through an RO filter. We get it tested at least once a year. We drink our own water in the house.

When we go out we usually take bottled water. We buy it in bulk from the nearest big box store, and the cost is around 20 cents a bottle. When the bottles are empty, we refill them from our RO filter. I've heard the "plastic leaching" stories, but good God, go to your neighbourhood grocery store and try to find something that ISN'T packaged in cheap plastic. Howcum bottled water is the only one where you get poisoned?

People critize bottled water because it's "wasteful", or it "commodifies' water. How about soft drinks? I'd guess that more than a bottled of water is used to produce a bottle of soft drink.

Bottled water is the issue du jour. Some folks really need to get a hobby!

[smugbug]

People critize bottled water because it's "wasteful", or it "commodifies' water. How about soft drinks? I'd guess that more than a bottled of water is used to produce a bottle of soft drink.

Bottled water is the issue du jour. Some folks really need to get a hobby!

Water is a natural resource. Soda is not. That's the main difference - I can say that with certainty. But you are right, it takes an awful lot of water to produce soft drinks.

[•Lindsay•]

I hate how it's taboo to drink tap water now. Nobody uses the water fountain in my hall except when they want to dump paints.

Brita filters make a huge taste difference, and some bottled waters really do taste great. But generally it's not worth the trouble. Water's just water, it's not something you have to savor.

Avoid tap water at all costs, especially fluoridated water which has very negative effects on your health.

The best solution is a reverse osmosis filter under your kitchen sink. I even have one on my shower, and yes you can actually feel the difference on your skin; its awesome. I think they even make one you install in your basement, which filters all water entering your home, but that can get pricey.They put fluoride in the water so that your teeth don't rot.

[Mungus]

Everyone being ripped off on a free natural resource.....man, those snake oil merchants have really done us good!

This seems like a good idea, from - http://www.nabuur.com/modules/resource/resource_topic.php?villageid=279&actionid=4414&earlier=true

A cheap and effective alternative to boiling water and chorinating it.

1. Use transparent Polyethyleneterephtalate (PET) plastic bottles. (Hey, lots of those knocking around!)

2. Fill the bottles 3/4 full of water from a local water source. (make sure the water is not too muddy).

3. Shake the water in the bottle to aerate it. (The disolved oxygen helps in the purification process).

4. Then fill the bottle the rest of the way up with water and screw on the cap.

5. Place the bottle on a corrugated metal roof in strong sunlight for one full day.
(The heating of the water and the ultraviolet (UVA) radiation together destroy the microorganisms that cause waterborne diseases.

Its ready to drink. Pass this on to any villages that could use this information.


You could also go with a carbon filter.
Boiling is effective but uses energy in the process, so not efficient, costs gas and electricity, and you have to waste time keeping an eye on it, and the amount you boil is usually not sufficient in one go for a whole day unless you're heating a four litre pan.

In the western world most people don't need to drink bottled water. Our parents never did, and they drank from the same pipes. Don't waste your money and resources on bottled water, the local water companies have already done all that work for you so that it's potable and healthy. And you're paying taxes for that service already.
Future generations will be laughing long and hard about this modern folly.

There's no reason anyone should be buying bottled water in the western world. I live in a third world country, we use a carbon filter for well water, and I am 100% healthy.

Let it sink in :)

[HunterKiller_]

What I don't understand is why so many people say that they just outright won't drink tap water because it's dirty.
Ever heard of boiling water? You know? On the kettle? Oh, how about water purifiers? No?

EDIT: Watching these people get made asses of is highly entertaining.

[FactorZero]

I love my fluoridated, chlorinated, hard-as-a-rock, mineral-encrusted Southern California tap water. YUM!!!! I do buy Costco ice though. It's soo damn tasty to munch on :D

Word... SoCal tap water is harsh. I could easily taste the difference between tap and bottled here. There's a lot more minerals like calcium and flouride in it, so much that you can feel them left in your mouth after you drink it.

The tap water does taste a lot better if you have a brita filter and its cold. Most bottled water taste pretty similar. I can't really tell the difference between brands.

[HunterKiller_]

I use Brita filter. I wouldn't know about the actual effectiveness of it, but it definitely makes tap water taste better.

[mambo]

A massive amount of the attraction to bottled war is simply down to effective marketing by bottled water companies. Not surprising that Coke is one of the major ones. It's the classic case of creating demand and then charging premium prices based on image and clever branding. Come one people... someone has to employ ad agency and marketing people. :D

In many places the tap water is funky... and not only with taste issues... but also with chemical/heavy metal issues. Boiling your water doesn't get rid of metals that leech into the water. But that tap water tastes crap is something that in many ways has been foisted on people. As a kid we all drank out of the hose and drank tap water and didn't sit around and bitch and moan about it did we?

Oh wait... kids these days can't put down their Moutain DewTM or their Snapple TM or whatever else to realize they're drinking a slick combo of tap water, corn syrup and sugar. And people want to moan about water?

Give me a feckin' break.

Honestly though if you were that worried about your health you could do better than to worry about water. Avoiding trans-fats would be a whole lot better place to start. Just about every commercial baked products (muffins, cookies, crackers, chips and a gazillion other snacks) contain partially hydrogenated vegetable oil. Pretty much bad new for you no matter how you slice it. After 30 plus years of consuming it is it any wonder people are getting barium enemas left right and center and cancer is at an all time high? I think not.

So it's important to keep the water issue in perspective.

Fact. Most people don't consume enough water as it is. So let's not kid ourselves here. Even when people work out... they're generally not consuming enough water. One bottle water doesn't cut it. Not even close.

As far as flouridation... lol.... I've yet to see a single scientifically valid study that bears out that those drinking water that hasn't been flouridated live longer or are in any way healthier. The whole water flouridation issue is pretty much about the same level as the communism scares of the 1950s. It has about as much credibility as Big Foot.

mambo

[Slash]

I guess i'm lucky to have clean and awesome tasting tap water. But i do buy bottled water every now and then because the bottles are very convenient, i fill them with tap water and keep them next to my wacom. :)

[HunterKiller_]

Mambo: You said it dude. I have friends who practically don't drink water.

And I wonder where the water for those soda drinks come from... ;)

If they're so concerned about this issue in the U.S, why don't they start producing home solar powered water filter devices? It would be simple enough to make.

[Queen Nehalania]

ugg i hate dasani. All i can taste is the sweetener in it.

Oh, shows how much I know... I didn't even know it had sweetener in it. :bashful:
It's alright to me though.

[Sepulverture]

I used to live in a tiny little town in Oregon at the base of Crater Lake, and our water was sulfury and smelled like and tasted like rotten eggs thanks to Crater Lake being a huge volcano, but luckily for us there was a freshwater stream flowing next to our house from the lake in the bowl of the volcano and it tasted great, was super clean.

[ArmoredGorilla]

They put fluoride in the water so that your teeth don't rot.

They put it in toothpaste so your teeth don't rot. Fluoride is actually an industrial chemical so toxic that it kills germs on contact. So why would you want to actually ingest it? Especially when swallowing directly, i.e. drinking it, means it will have little to no contact with your teeth.

Anyway, I've done a little research, but look into it yourself when you've got a few minutes. It may take some digging to find the juicy stuff, but even the wikipedia entry makes mention of negative effects.

[Jessica Hook]

I started this thread because I was curious what other people thought about the subject, lots of interesting thoughts here.

Also, I wanna mention that I don't think tap water is good all over the USA or the world, cause I know that it's not. In fact, the aging pipes in your region might have more to do with metals in the water than the water itself. I spent 3 months in Shanghai where the water was atrocious, I had to use bottled water to brush my teeth. (Despite the fact that 22%-80% of bottled water in China is fake. (http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSPEK397820070710)) And I'm in Bangkok right now where the water is not good either.

I was lucky enough to grow up in Hawaii where the water is excellent. (http://www.boardofwatersupply.com/cssweb/display.cfm?sid=1093) The mountains are like 1 big water filter, the rain seeps into the mountains, travels down through the rock & pumice into underground springs where the water is tapped and filtered again. But it baffles me how people in Hawaii still buy bottled water! If you have old/bad plumbing in your house/building, why not just buy a filter? Why not just use a real thermos to transport water, instead of using those crappy plastic bottles? I guess it's just a testament to how strong the marketing is.


If they're so concerned about this issue in the U.S, why don't they start producing home solar powered water filter devices? It would be simple enough to make.

I think PatriciaS is already onto the right idea, hehe. She has a solar panels powering her house (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1543180&postcount=16), including her water filtration system.


People critize bottled water because it's "wasteful", or it "commodifies' water. How about soft drinks? I'd guess that more than a bottled of water is used to produce a bottle of soft drink.


I'm not a chemist, but I can't conceive how it could take more than a bottle of water to make a bottle of soda. For example, when you order a fountain Pepsi, they put the cup under the dispenser which shoots out a stream of carbonated water, and a stream of syrup which get mixed as it flows into the cup. You need to mix the two elements to get the taste right. When the syrup starts running out, and you get more water in your soda, then it tastes like watery ass and you can tell right?
So how can the bottle of soda require more water than a bottle of water?
Pepsi owns "Aquafina," Coke owns "Dasani," Nestle owns Nestle Pure Life, Poland Spring, Ozarka, & Arrowhead... and they're making money hand over fist, they make more money selling filtered tap water than on selling soda.

This quote taken from here (http://www.democracynow.org/2007/8/1/the_bottled_water_lie_as_soft):
Economically it makes sense to stop buying bottled water as well. The Arizona Daily Star recently examined the cost difference between bottled water and water from the city’s municipal supply. A half liter of Pepsi’s Aquafina at a Tucson convenience store costs one dollar and thirty nine cents. The bottle contains purified water from the Tucson water supply. From the tap, you can pour over six point four gallons for a penny. That makes the bottled stuff about 7,000 times more expensive even though Aquafina is using the same source of water.

But again, if you live in a place with unacceptable tap water, I guess paying 7,000 times more for your water is not an option. :(

[Nerahla]

I buy Aquafina Flavor Splash. They add flavor (grape, raspberry) not sugar (they use Splenda, which is sucralose) and I can't get any water to taste that good. So I buy it, at 3.29 a six pack, and I happily and greedily drink 6-8 bottles a day, which I recycle.

And FYI, Aquafina never lied about where their water came from, ever. Before all this "news" came out, I knew exactly where it came from. It has always said right there on the bottle. Dasani too. It's people who are just pretty manipulated and unobservant who get suckered.

And Dasani doesn't add sweeteners. Geesh. Read the side of your bottle! :)

[Jessica Hook]

And FYI, Aquafina never lied about where their water came from, ever. Before all this "news" came out, I knew exactly where it came from. It has always said right there on the bottle. Dasani too. It's people who are just pretty manipulated and unobservant who get suckered.


The issue wasn't that they lied, because they didn't, but that they were being purposefully ambiguous, so people wouldn't realize they were buying tap water. Doing things like putting a picture of mountains on the label, with the label saying "Bottled at the source P.W.S."

What does PWS mean? Pure Water Sanctuary? Nope, most people didn't/don't know that P.W.S. stands for Public Water Supply. But obviously they are finding out now, due to the the groups like "Corporate Accountability International" putting pressure on companies to be less deceptive with their marketing. (link (http://money.cnn.com/2007/07/27/news/companies/pepsi_coke/), link (http://www.businessandmedia.org/articles/2007/20070730152730.aspx))

The only analogy I can think of, is if I were to sell a bottle of "Orange D" (sounds like SunnyD (http://www.chapristi.info/images/2007/08/20070806_SunnyD.jpg)) with a label that had a picture of Oranges (the fruit), but the drink was only plain water with orange dye, not containing any orange (fruit). And on the label I stated that the "Orange comes from D."
D meaning Dye.
I don't think that'd be very cool for the consumer who just paid for it thinking they were getting orange flavored something. :/ Obviously that situation would be immediately found out, once the consumer opened the bottle and tasted it. I guess it just comes down to consumers being more vigilant about self education. But it's just the principle that I'm disappointed in nonetheless.

[smugbug]

If they're so concerned about this issue in the U.S, why don't they start producing home solar powered water filter devices? It would be simple enough to make.

Because of the expense - solar electric is still expensive. I know, we have a solar power array on our home; one that was installed last January and the March after that, we got a solar powered hot water heater.

Also, due to another board where I posted about solar power, there's still quite a bit of folks in the US who are swimming with misinformation and ignorance over solar power. It's changing - but very s l o w l y.

And yes, people could easily build their own; hell, we're looking to build our own solar powered charging station for a, hopefully soon, electric car (don't have it yet, but are looking to get one; hence, the "hopefully soon"). But again, misinformation and ignorance.

Sigh. Sigh. Sigh. Sorry for the wee hijack and ramble - this topic is important to me. :(