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Why Bottled Water Is Bad
THE PROBLEM
We never really had any soft drinks in my house while growing up. My mother didn't do this for our health or anything like that. That's just the way it was. So as you can guess I've drank a lot of water in my life. Most of the water came straight from our tap as bottled water really hasn't become popular until recently. As I've grown and so have my finances, bottled water became a staple of my household. We would normally try to buy it in bulk to save some money. With so much water drinking came a unique taste for different kinds of water. I would sometimes call myself a water connoisseur. But, if worse came to worse and there was no other water to drink I would resort to the tap.
Eco Integrated was founded on sustainable ideas but bottled water never came into consideration. It just didn't really seem like there were any other options out there. You also really never hear of anyone ever talking about different ways to drink water. It would even seem that people that are eco-conscious still drink bottled water. This all changed a few months ago.
THE SWITCH
One day I was browsing a post about water and it pointed me to an iTunes U video about water (iTunes link) by Open University. It talks about where bottled water comes from and how it impacts our environment. Although it is only a little over six minutes, I think the facts will stun you. The main focus of the video talks about how much carbon dioxide consuming one bottle of water produces. It starts with the energy used to filtering and bottling the water. Then more energy to make the plastic bottles and even more to ship the water to stores. Then you use energy to bring the water home and if you recycle, even more is used to recycle it. The video mentions that for every bottle you drink, it is like wasting 3 bottles worth of water. If that's not enough to stop you from drinking bottled water read on.
I mentioned the video on twitter and someone told me about a documentary called Flow. This documentary is another big eye opener on so many things related to bottled water. Flow's main focus is about how corporations steal our water. This is happening everywhere from the United States to Africa. Take for example how bottled water companies can go and set up shop on/near a spring and just start taking the water. They don't even have to pay for the water! Meanwhile, surrounding bodies of water are slowly being drained. This includes water on private property. But alas, there isn't anything anyone can do about it. Then we travel over to parts of Africa and they have corporations coming in and putting a fee on current water. I understand we pay for water to be pumped to our houses in the United States. That fee goes to pay the processing plants, employees and everything else involved. Unfortunately, for the folks in the documentary, their governments are letting corporations come in and take over existing infastructure. So something that used to be free now costs money. Money that they do not have. They could also buy water purification tablets. Then again, we are talking about money they do not have. They are forced to drink out of contaminated water in local streams, lakes and rivers. The diseases people get from this are one of the top reasons of death where they live. There are tons of other things talked about in the documentary but this is the main gist. You can visit iTunes (iTunes link) and get the movie there.
Corporations are essentially setting up shop and selling something that should be free to everyone. Water is more valuable than gold or oil because it is needed for our survival. Another fact about bottled water is that it is no healthier than tap water in some tests. Some people think that it may have came from a similar source as tap water. This along with the needless energy usage it takes to consume one bottle of water should be enough to change anyone's mind. What can you do about it?
THE SOLUTION
There are quite a few alternatives to bottled water with the most apparant one being tap water. I've explored quite a few different choices but the one I ended up choosing was an aluminum bottle and filtered water. Our refrigerator has a water filter built right in. There will be costs for any type of water filtration system you choose. To see a great comparison on costs hop on over to WaterFilterComparisons.com. You can choose to use your refrigerator water system, install one on your tap or use a Brita water pitcher.
While at home I am sure you can already guess that you would use a drinking glass of some kind. But what about the situations where you need a water bottle? Should you choose plastic or some type of metal? Choosing the plastic bottle can cause several issues. First, unless you someday recycle it (which still uses energy), it can take a very long time to naturally decompose if ever. Another is a health issue. Leaving water in a bottle for an extended period of time or in the heat can cause leeching of chemicals into your water. Most plastics contain something called BPA. BPA has been reported to cause serious health issues like cancer and stunted growth. Heres a link to a story on it.
I ended up choosing a SIGG water bottle. They are made of aluminum and have a special coating on the interior that is guaranteed to be 0% leeching. They also have great designs, a few different tops to choose from and come in all sizes. Every person in my family has one of these now and we have saved about 80 bottles of water in the last two months. They cost a little more than most but are well worth it in my opinion. You can get them directly from the SIGG Web site or from your local Sport Authority like we did. The bottles paid for themselves in one day when we went to a local amusement park. Instead of spending $15 each time the family needed water, we would get these filled. The amusment park employees would even fill them for free.
I am also a Cub Master for a local Cub Scout Pack. We go camping a few times a year and normally had a lot of garbage. We banned water bottles at our last camp out and had everyone bring a drinking container. I then supplied the water in 3 water coolers. We only had 2 bags of garbage for 60 people in 3 days. Now that's what I call impressive!
Let me know how you stopped drinking bottled water. On a closing note I thought I would embed the below video. It is called "The Tap Water Test" from the famous comedians Penn and Teller. It just goes to show that even the best water connoisseur might not be able to tell the difference.
