The Perils of Bottled Water

by Erik Olsen on

Nearly every third world country I’ve ever visited, I’ve noticed that litter is a problem. Actually litter is the wrong word: refuse pollution might be a better term. I’m looking for a word or phrase that sums up the horrible, wretched mess that is made when a million/billion-strong mass of humanity dumps its garbage around without having a sensible public policy for cleaning it up. You know what I’m talking about. And when you look at all this refuse, you usually notice that one type of item predominates: the water bottle. It makes sense, of course. The water in many big cities and in other countries around the world is unhealthy. The first thing you learn when you go to a place like is “don’t drink the water.” But it turns out that this may not be true. Well, perhaps it is for , but it might not be for other big cities.

A fascinating new report from the EPI shows that bottled water is often no healthier than tap water, and yet it can be as much as 10,000 times more expensive. Not just costly in a strict dollar sense either. As I mentioned above the pollution problems associated with bottled water put a heavy strain on the environment. And its not just the litter quotient, either. When you add up the energy it takes to MAKE these bottles, why, things get even worse. It’s a fascinating look at a common problem that is not particularly well addressed, I don’t think. How to convince people that their water is safe to drink from the taps? We drink the water here in New York, at least we put it through a filter and drink it. But I’d probably still have a hard time drinking water out of the tap in any place other than, say .

Bottled Water vs. Tap Water

by Adrienne Wilson on

You
would think bottled water would win without a question in a battle of being the healthier choice, but some
enviornmentalists say not so fast.

"Bottled water is no often
healthier than tap water, but it can be 10,000 times more expensive," says Emily Arnold, a researcher with the
Washington D.C. non-profit.

The battle over whether bottled water is more healthier than that running
from the faucets in our kitchen sinks isn’t so much about the humans drinking the liquid, but more so about the planet
and how the consumption of bottled water and the waste may be hurting Earth. Campaigners challenge the idea of drinking
bottled water in our developed nation by stating 25 percent of bottled water is just tap water in pretty packaging,
sometimes further treated and many times not at all. They also note the high mineral content in some bottled waters as
‘unsuitable’ for feeding babies and young kids. In developing countries where tap water is unsafe or unavailable
bottled water instantly wins the match. Believe me, I care about Momma Earth a great deal, but from L.A. (where the tap
water smells) to San Juan, CR, to Cluj-Napoca, Romania (where the water had a brown tint) bottled water wins. Hands
down.

But what to do with all that plastic?

Nat Geo News ran the piece
back in February this year and with Earth Day approaching it’s no wonder it jumped out at me. The picture with the
enormous load of plastic cash on the man above also caught my attention.