When I was growing up I was a addicted to soda. Seriously, that is all I used to drink. Whether it was Coke, Pepsi, Dr. Pepper, Mt. Dew... if it had sugar in it and it was carbonated, then that was my drink.
Then, about seven or eight years ago, when bottled water started to become more and more popular and available, I decided to pick up a 24-pack instead of the 12-pack of soda. And It felt good. I felt healthier right from the start. I felt that I was doing the "right thing". I decided that I would continue to wean myself off of soda and stick with drinking water.
That was until about two years ago, when I came across an article in Fast Company written by Charles Fishman. He made many good points and shared a lot of facts that totally changed the way I felt about bottled water.
The first point he made was based around money and I could totally relate. I mean, I would walk in the grocery store and the first thing in my cart would be the water. Every week. Sure it wasn't expensive, only about five bucks a trip, but multiply that by the four weeks in a month, by the twelve months in a year and you're looking at $240.00. And again, that my not seem like much for an entire year, but when you think about what you're spending it on, something you can easily (for the most part) get for free, then it sort of sinks in.
Fishman pointed out that I wasn't the only one, in fact, in 2007 Americans spent more money on bottled water than iPods or movie tickets. A total of 15 billion dollars.
Another good point Fishman made has to do with the environment and the negative effects bottled water has on it. In 2007, Americans went through about 50 billion plastic water bottles - 167 per each person. The positive side to that is that the bottles themselves are made from totally recyclable plastic. The negative is that only 23% are actually being recycled, the other 77%, or 38 billion bottles, are ending up in landfills.
And that's only the half of it. What about transporting all this water throughout the country? We're moving over 1 billion bottles around a week by ships, trains or trucks in the US alone. And since water is heavy, about 9 pounds a gallon, you can't just fill an 18-wheeler up with bottled water. No, you actually have to leave empty space in the trailer which means more trucks on the road, more gas being used and polluting the air.
24% of the bottled water we buy is tap water repackaged by Coke and Pepsi.
Speaking of trucks, our desire for Poland Springs, one of the most popular brands of bottled water, has outgrown the springs at the their main two plants. The company now depends on 80 silver tanker trucks that are continuously driving through Maine to deliver water from other springs so the business can stay afloat.
Fiji Water has state of the art facility that runs 24 hours a day but that's something the local utility structure cannot support so they decided to support their own electricity. Three huge generators burning diesel fuel nonstop each day.
The final point that was really made was the misconception about tap water and our attitude towards bottle water. For the most part, tap water is impressingly safe. It is monitored and test results are made public.
$9,000.
Some argue that taste sometimes comes into play, and I agree that in some areas the water doesn't taste as clean or fresh as it should. But in blind taste tests, with water at equal temperature and presented in identical glasses, the common person can rarely tell the difference between tap, spring or luxury water.
Fishman also points out that Fiji Water produces more than a million bottles a day. All that while more than half the people in Fiji do not have safe, reliable drinking water. So in other words, its easier for me to walk down to the nearest 7-11 and get a drink of safe, pure Fiji Water than it is for most people in Fiji. To know that these big companies are making so much money and shipping water to other places when so many close by are in need didn't sit well with me and I decided to scratch bottled water off my grocery list for good.
And in conclusion, I'd just like to say that I'm very happy to see more people drinking water. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to say water is a bad thing and to drink more soda or beer. I just hope more people are aware of the other options they have when it comes to getting the water.
