Top 5 Reasons To Not Buy Bottled Water
Bottle water maybe convenient but it is at no way eco-friendly. Here are my top 5 reasons to ditch bottled water:
1- Disposable plastic water bottles are not meant for multiple uses. Hence the word “disposable”. The #1 polyethylene terephthalate, or PET is fine for a single use, but reuse can lead to chemical leaching of toxins such as DEHA, a known carcinogen, and benzyl butyl phthalate (BBP), a potential hormone disrupter.
2- Making plastic bottles to meet Americans’ demand for bottled water requires more than 1.5 million barrels of oil annually, which is enough to fuel some 100,000 cars for a year (NY Times).
3- Buying bottled water is expensive. To drink the recommended daily amount of water using bottled water can cost an average of $1,400 per year, and to drink the same amount from the tap costs around $0.49 for the year (NY Times).
4- Tap water is fine to drink. 90% of tap water in the U.S. meets or exceeds EPA standards for drinking water.
5- At least 40% of bottled water is tap water anyways. That’s right…you’re paying big bucks on water that you could have just gotten from your kitchen tap.
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July 31st, 2008 at 1:26 pm
Your first claim is completely false. The chemistry of PET precludes such a possibility, as these compounds are not present in production or the end product.
Regarding your second claim, I encourage you to consider the oil needed to transport full, glass bottles of water to market. You’ll be surprised which is more eco-friendly.
July 31st, 2008 at 2:06 pm
LF…
I suggest reading these articles, as they back up the point that the reuse of PET bottles can lead to chemical leaching.
http://fithealthy.wordpress.com/2007/06/09/dont-use-plastic-water-bottles/
http://www.riskworld.com/Abstract/2001/SRAam01/ab01aa189.htm
And…of course transporting glass bottles of water world use more fuel than plastic bottles, however drinking tap water would no fuel and in turn the most eco-friendly option.
August 1st, 2008 at 9:50 am
Bottled water not only hurts the environment, but it hurts consumers and our municipal water systems. The deceptive marketing of the bottled water industry has eroded public confidence in tap water- and its time to reverse the damage.
To learn more about challenging the corporate control of water check out Corporate Accountability International’s Think Outside The Bottle campaign at:
http://www.thinkoutsidethebottle.org