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BYOB part deux: Why I don't buy bottled water...

Mainly because I don’t like being taken advantage of.

The bottled water industry is a $46 billion dollar industry.

Americans bought over 31.2B liters of water in 2006.

It’s a colossal waste of money for what comes out of the tap.

It’s not always natural, nor is it spring; most of what you’re buying (25%, or so I’ve read) is just from the tap, and Amerians spend $15B on it a year.

Remember when Dasani had to change its label to include the words “Public Water Source?”

It’s also bad for the environment.

It takes 3 to 5 times more water to make and fill one plastic water bottle than the bottle contains.

In order to fulfill US’s demand, over 17M barrels of oil is used. That’s enough to fuel 1M US cars for a year.

86% of water bottles are not recycled and end up in landfills and take over 1000 years to decompose.

Tap water could actually be healthier.

The EPA holds higher standards for testing tap water than the FDA does for bottled water.

A 1999 study found that 60-70% of bottled water sold in the US was exempt from FDA’s bottled water standards because they don’t apply to water bottled and sold within the same state.

And, of course, the bottles are said to leach chemicals.

Take a look at your bottle and you’ll see the inscription “Do not refill.” You may even see “store in a cool, dry and clean place away from light.”

PET (polyethylene terephthalate), which is the plastic most bottles are made of, can leach benzyl butyl phthalate (endocrine disruptive chemicals, cause of liver & male reproductive damage in rodents), and DEHA (a known carcinogen) - though we are not yet certain how and to what extent these are harmful to humans.

Even your Nalgene is not safe. Nalgene’s are made of a polycarbonate plastic called Lexan that contains bisphenol A (BPA), which if consumed can cause chromosomal disruption, miscarriages, birth defects and obesity. Nalgene’s were recently pulled from the shelves at some stores in Canada until further research.

A litre of one of the UK’s most popular French mineral waters generates up to 600 times more CO2 equivalent than a litre of Thames tap water. (via BBC NEWS | Panorama | Bottled Water: Who Needs It?)

Posted 1 year ago 26 notes