Find an alternative to Bottled Water!

[Sattie]

Bottled water can cost 1,000 times more than tap water
by water

Friday Apr 6th, 2007 10:30 AM
It takes more water to make a plastic bottle than the amount it holds!

Waste: Large amounts of energy are consumed in manufacture, transportation, and recycling of the bottles.

MOOP: Nine out of ten plastic water bottles end up as garbage or litter – not recycled! That's 30 million discarded plastic bottles each day— more than 10 billion a year.

Toxicity + Health: In 2002, 1.5 million tons of plastic was used to package 6 billion gallons of bottled water. The production of this plastic leads to the release of a variety of chemicals.

* Smaller bottles are usually made from polyethylene terephthalate (PET) which generates more than 100 times more toxic emissions than an equivalent amount of glass.

* Leaching of chemicals into the water is also a concern. "Eight of the ten 5-gallon polycarbonate jugs we checked left residues of the endocrine disrupter, bisphenol A, in the water" (Consumer Reports 8/00). Leaching increases with heat, raising concern about storage and transportation of the bottles. No problems have been associated with refillable stainless steel containers.

* Bottled water less safe than tap: NRDC tested more than 1,000 bottles of 103 brands of bottled water. They found contamination exceeding allowable limits in at least one sample from about one-third of the brands, including synthetic organics, bacteria, and arsenic. http://www.nrdc.org/water/drinking/bwbwinx.asp

Bottled water is regulated by the Food and Drug Administration, which has weaker regulations than the EPA regulations for tap water. ("What's in that Bottle?" Consumer Reports 1/03.) Bottled water sold within states is regulated only by state agencies.

COST OF BOTTLED WATER
Is clean water a basic human right or a commodity to be bought + sold?
Having created a growing market for bottled water, multinational corporations are exercising their power to get access to springs, aquifers, and municipal water supplies to keep their profits flowing, with little regard for the environmental impacts of large water withdrawals.

Nestlé has taken over many small, independent companies, set up much larger operations at local springs, and is aggressively pursuing new sites around the Unites States. Coke's Dasani and Pepsi's Aquafina brands depend on cheap municipal water in the United States. See the Movie Thirst, about Water Privatization – happening in CA and around the world
http://www.thirstthemovie.org

What you Can Do –
• Avoid using bottled water unless absolutely necessary.
• Use reusable stainless steel containers
• At public events and at home, offer pitchers of water.
• Research the quality of your public drinking water.
- look for your Quality Reports from your water company in July
• For information about your local drinking water, go to
http://www.epa.gov/safewater/dwinfo.htm
• Join organizations in protecting our rivers, streams,and wetlands
from pollution to assure high quality publicwater supplies. [/code]

[Tricky Grama]

Great article, Sattie, thanks so much.

I have always said it was against my religion to drink bottled water, but it actually just went across my 'grain' the wrong way. I used to point to the water faucet when friends/relatives prefered bottled water. I've sited the research that shows tap water tastes better in blind studies. Mostly it's a 'cheeeep' thing w/me!

We do have an issue w/drinking water at our acreage. So far we've carried water in 6 gal PLASTIC jugs. Drinking water we try to bring in glass jugs. (wine jugs work well :lol: ) Have not found an economical 'water dispenser' that's not plastic for our drinking water. Maybe someone on the forum has an idea.

Patty

[Sattie]

The plastic bottles are a problem........

I fear drinking out of the tap also... what chemicals are being put in tap water? The tap water at my house has the smell of a pond and a stranger after taste.

Anyone use a filtering system?

[e Craig]

Yeah, the plastics [bottles, etc] are a problem, as well as ground [tap] water, etc. Filters are only a partial help. I suggest that you check out

DISTILLED WATER.

The book reviewed at this link changed my life over 25 years ago:
[url]http://www.road-to-health.com/news/36/distilled.htm [/url]

You too, may be surprised by what you learn.

Take care.
Craig