Water

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1 Tap vs. Bottle?
- 1.1 Demystifying through Dialogue
2 Concerns about toxins from plastic bottles
3 References
4 See Also

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Tap vs. Bottle?

Without a doubt, tap water is the way to go. Much of the water sold in bottles travels great distances before it appears in that vending machine down the hall. And more fossil fuels go into making the plastic that stores your drink. When you finish drinking from the bottle, the likelihood that it will be recycled is quite low. And to top it off, bottled water might not even be any healthier than what you're getting from the tap. If you'd like to see it spelled out in more detail check out the following Earth Policy Institute article on bottled water.

If you're convinced but still tempted, consider carrying your own refillable bottle.

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Demystifying through Dialogue

Bottled water is much better tasting or better for my health than tap water.

In all likelihood, the difference (if there is any) is trivial. According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, “there is no assurance that just because water comes out of a bottle it is any cleaner or safer than water from the tap. . . . in fact, an estimated 25 percent or more of bottled water is really just tap water in a bottle -- sometimes further treated, sometimes not.”

Really? But why else would anybody buy it then?

Here are two other reasons that float to the top.

STATUS: There’s nothing to this one. Pretty people and pretty packages open hearts, minds, wallets and Wal*Marts (and strip mines, rainforests, oil wells . . .). Look at that bottle . . . I’d bet someone designed it so it was easy to hold. I’d bet someone designed you to hold it. Wash your hands, or wash your brains—YOU DECIDE.

CONVENIENCE: You’re really, really thirsty. Thirstier than you were last night, even. (Gee whiz, I think I need some water to quench this headache!) Luckily, you have your handy dandy legal tender. You’d better hope those corners aren’t folded.

Listen—if you buy a bottle, SAVE AND REFILL IT. You’ll save money, time, and gas (and therefore atmosphere . . . ‘you breathe, you buy’ policy, anyone?)—more money than you will by buying the 144 pack at your favorite superstore. And, please, if you have to get rid of your bottle, RECYCLE IT. If not on campus, then take it home. You are going home anyway, right?

I still don't think it is that big of a deal.

That might be the hardest part—thinking. We are fortunate enough to be very comfortable in comparison to many, and one side-effect of this affluenza is that we rarely stop to think about where our consumables come from. Water is pumped into pipes, tanks (this requires fuel), maybe run through some process (this requires fuel), bottled (this requires fuel—both to perform the task and create the bottles—shipping them requires fuel—which, in the case of plastic, are made from petroleum), packaged (this requires fuel and resources), shipped via plane, train, or automobile (this requires fuel, fuel, and more fuel), and taken to your house in a car or to your vending machine in a truck (F-U-E-L).

Your local utilities can do it cleaner and cheaper. You’re probably more likely to choke on a bottle cap than you are to get sick from strictly-regulated city water.

Corporations make millions of dollars off of people like us who live in the wealthiest nations on this planet, nations which bring clean, fresh water to our homes, our schools, our public buildings, our places of employment—corporations make millions selling water to the people that already have it. If we don’t stop to analyze the world in which we live, then we are barely living at all. We’re ‘buying’ everything they throw at us.

The planet is on fire. The planet is on fire and we're holding the matchbook.

Now more than ever it is important to think about the moral consequences of society's actions. When you throw one bottle away, how many others like you do the same? It's gotta start small.

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Concerns about toxins from plastic bottles

In researching this page, we found that some groups have raised concerns about the safety of using and re-using some kinds of water bottles, saying that toxins can leech out of the plastics into water stored in the container. Several urban-legend evaluation websites ^[1]^[2] have refuted many of these claims (particularly claims about possible dioxins in the water), and the American Cancer Society and The Mayo Clinic have similar refutations citing approval of the plastics by the Food and Drug Administration.

The most reliable-looking source citing concerns comes from National Geographic's Green Guide and an FAQ from the Labor Environmental Alliance Society, which warn of the presence of the hormone-disruptor bisphenol-A in #7 plastic (often used to make Nalgenes and similar types of water bottles.) A study by Consumer Reports also found trace amounts of bisphenol-A is some 5-gallon water bottles such as those used in office water coolers.

The evidence here is thinly-supported and inconclusive, but has caught our attention. If these possibilities concern you, you may wish to weigh this in your personal evaluation of the merits of drinking bottled water.

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