The sheer inanity of drinking bottled water has been diaried here ad nauseam by myself and several other posters. Unless one happens to have a real need for bottled water (emergencies, choked pipes, disasters et cetera) there's absolutely no reason why tap water can't be filled & refilled into water eco-containers when you are on the move. Your tap water tastes horrible? Water filters and reverse osmosis filters are coming down in price and available in most hardware stores and many online shops.
Truth is bottled water is just tap water. That fact isn't stopping people from drinking a lot of it. Estimates variously place worldwide bottled water sales at between $50 and $100 billion each year, with the market expanding at the startling annual rate of 7 percent.
Please watch the video first, if you haven't already.
Here's something about water you will definitely want to know:
At nine out of ten natural gas wells in the U.S., gas is released from deep underground pockets by fracturing rocks with a high-pressure water, chemical, and sand solution. The process, known as "fracking," is not regulated by the federal government and, in fact, is exempted from the Safe Drinking Water Act, in spite of suspicions in six states that it's responsible for groundwater contamination.
Next Thursday night I will post a DKGreenroots diary about water that will shock you. I am shocked myself at the wealth of material that I have come across. In the meantime here are some quick facts about bottled water, compliments of Food & Water Watch:
It’s expensive – Bottled water often costs over $12 a gallon.
Nearly 40% of all bottled water is actually municipal water that has been bottled.
The Environmental Protection Agency regulates the quality of public water supplies but the agency has no authority over bottled water.
More than 1.5 million barrels of oil are used to supply bottled water to America each year.
1.5 million tons of plastic are used each year to produce water bottles.
9 out of 10 plastic water bottles end up as either garbage or litter.
30 million water bottles end up as trash per DAY.
For every gallon bottled – 2 gallons are wasted.
Only 5% of plastic waste is currently recycled in America.
20% -30%of the recycled plastic can be used in manufacturing new eater bottles.
One plastic water bottle can take up to 1,000 years to biodegrade.
The top three most popular brands of bottled water are owned by Coca Cola, Nestle or Pepsi and are actually bottled from municipal water sources in Kansas, New York and Florida. (Surprised?)
A Bottling plant can bottle 260 million gallons of water a year from a local water aquifer while receiving massive tax breaks and raking in millions
UPDATE: A poster has a great link for stainless steel BPA-free water bottles here.