Bottled Water Vs. Filtered Water

"Quality in-home water filtration is by far the best way to ensure healthy water for you and your family. A single home or office water filtration system can prevent thousands of plastic bottles "per year" from entering and damaging our environment..."

Courtesy of BottledWaterBlues.com

Take Back the Tap

"There are numerous environmental concerns with bottled water: the production and consumption of bottled water consumes energy, pollutes the environment, and contributes to global warming. Producing the plastic bottles uses energy and emits toxic chemicals. Transporting the bottled water across hundreds or thousands of miles spews carbon dioxide into the air, complicating our efforts to combat global climate change. And in the end, empty bottles are piling up in landfills."

San Francisco Department of Public Health's "Bottled Water vs Tap Water: Making a Healthy Choice"

"...Often bottled water is shipped from distant sources, or imported from foreign countries, thus, bottled water increases fossil fuel consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, and air pollution. Car trips taken to the store to purchase bottled water also increase use of fossil fuels and decrease local air quality. Use of bottled water also increases solid waste due to discarded plastic containers. Although most water is sold in recyclable plastic containers, not all of the containers are recycled and a portion inevitably end up in the landfill. Another environmental consideration is the fact that the EPA mandates that municipal water treatment facilities manage and protect the watersheds from which they draw their water. FDA only mandates that the source of the bottled water be protected but says nothing about the watershed as a whole..."

BBC News: Australia Town Bans Bottled Water

"A rural town in Australia has voted overwhelmingly to ban the sale of bottled water over concerns about its environmental impact."

Unicef's Tap Project

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's "Water Health Series: Bottled Water Basics"

"...Other terms used on the label about the
source, such as “glacier water” or “mountain water,”
are not regulated standards of identity and may not
indicate that the water is necessarily from a pristine
area..."

Find the best filter for your tap water

"Bottled water isn't any cleaner or safer than the water that flows from your tap. In fact, studies have shown that sometimes those bottles are filled with untreated tap water.

One thing is certain, bottled water is much more expensive than tap. The New York Times estimates that it costs about $1,400 a year for someone to get their eight glasses of water a day from a bottle, versus about 49 cents for an annual supply of tap water. You can calculate your own cost for drinking bottled versus tap..."

Courtesy of Yahoo Green

Bottled Water Facts

• The United States is the world’s leading consumer of bottled water. In 2006, bottled water consumption in the US reached a record 8.3 billion gallons, 185 million gallons of which was imported. The total amount spent on bottled water was over $11 billion.

• In contrast to tap water, which is distributed through an energy-efficient infrastructure, transporting bottled water long distances involves burning massive quantities of fossil fuels.

• Making bottles to meet Americans’ demand for bottled water requires more than 1.5 million barrels of oil annually, enough to fuel some 100,000 U.S. cars for a year.

• It costs more money to drink bottled water than to put gas in your car--up to five times more--due mainly to its packaging and transportation.

• 86 percent of plastic water bottles used in the United States become garbage or litter.

• Buried water bottles can take up to 1,000 years to biodegrade.

• Studies show that consumers associate bottled water with healthy living. But bottled water is not guaranteed to be any healthier than tap water. In fact, roughly 40 percent of bottled water begins as tap water; often the only difference is added minerals that have no marked health benefit.

• In 1999, NRDC conducted 1,000 separate tests of more than 100 brands of bottled water and concluded that bottled water is not necessarily any purer or any safer than city tap water – See Bottled Water: Pure Drink or Pure Hype?.

• Bottled water companies do not have to release their water-testing results to the public, whereas municipalities do.

• A city's tap water cannot have any E. coli or fecal coliform bacteria, while bottled water is allowed a certain amount of these bacteria. In addition, most cities' tap water must be tested for Cryptosporidium or Giardia, common water pathogens that can cause intestinal problems, including diarrhea. In contrast, bottled water companies are not required to conduct these tests.

• People pay from $1 to $4 a gallon for the perception of higher quality when, in fact, the quality of bottled water is at best unknown! Over 90% of the cost of bottled water is in the bottle, lid and label.

• The FDA, who regulates bottled water, states that "Companies that market bottled water as being safer than tap water are defrauding the American public."

• On average, one person uses 166 disposable plastic water bottles each year.

• If everyone in New York City were to use a reusable water bottle for one week, for one month, or for one year it would make a significant difference in reducing waste.
  One week = 24 million bottles saved
  One month = 112 million bottles saved
  One year = 1.328 billion bottles saved

Courtesy of FranklyGreen.com

Gringer and Sons Reviews Bottled Water Empact

"...This information was provided to me by Richard Loflin, CEO of WaterX, and absolutely the most hands on CEO of any company I have ever met. His web site is http://www.waterx.com/; and for our townhouse owners and suburban home owners, whole house reverse osmosis water filters such as the WH5 with its 100,000 gallon rating and maintenance free for 24 months at $3500.00 is one of the safest, most ECO-Friendly things you can do for your family, this planet, and possibly generations to come..."

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