The Problem with Plastic Bottles
Few issues spark more anger from scientists, environmentalists and even some government leaders than the belief that bottled water is more environmentally friendly than water out of the faucet.
Why?
The growing bottled water market has resulted each year in literally billions of plastic bottles filling landfills across the country. It also uses extensive amounts of energy to transport and filter the water, contributing to global warming, critics say.
And there's no reason for bottled water when tap water in the United States is just as safe.
In many cases, bottled water is filtered tap water. Several consumer-advocacy and government reports this year found that bottled water sold by Aquafina, the country's most popular bottled-water brand, was indeed nothing more than modified tap water. Similar studies also show that Coca-Cola's Dasani brand is "purified" municipal tap water.
PepsiCo., which owns Aquafina, announced in July that it will begin clearly labeling its product as originating from "public water sources." These revelations have not slowed down the bottled water industry. It's estimated that every American drinks roughly 27 gallons of bottled water a year, according to the International Bottled Water Association, an industry trade group.
"Even if you recycle 50 percent of those plastic bottles, which we don't in this country, it's still billions of bottles into our landfills," said Robert Jackson, an expert on climate change and the environment at Duke University. "A water bottle is no worse or no better than a soda-pop bottle," he continued. "It's just that 10 years ago it was a source of waste that we didn't have because no one used bottled water. Now we have billions of bottles of water going to our landfills when we don’t need to. We have the safest municipal source of water in the world in this country, and we've convinced ourselves that drinking water out of a bottle is healthier and safer."
What you should do: Drink tap water.
If you don’t like the tap water taste or smell or are concerned about the cleanliness of the water from your tap, buy a water filter. If you buy bottled water, reuse the bottle multiple times. One caveat: Regularly wash the bottles with soap and hot water to prevent the build up of potentially harmful bacteria.
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