Since we already know the environmental problems 30 billion empty plastic bottles a year inflict on our landfill system, and we already realize that plastic bottled water is a waste of resources, landfill space, and water, let’s make a comparison between bottled water and tap water to clarify matters.
Bottled water IS tap water. In a bottle. And we are paying money for this.
Bottled water is bottled by companies that pull the water out of municipal water systems, filter it in the same manner as anyone with a faucet filter at home, put in a useless consumption-waste container, and sold to the public for 100 times the actual cost of the water we can get the exact same way from our own kitchen. For comparison, we can use the electricity from the power company, or we can pay someone else to take electricity from the power grid, store it in a battery, sell us the battery for $15,000 a month, then throw the battery away into a landfill where it will take centuries to decompose. Why would we even contemplate doing this with water?

Water Is An Acquired Taste, Like Air.

The human body, like every other mammal, requires water for survival. Because of this, most early civilizations were founded near large bodies of fresh flowing water (the Tigris, Euphrates, Nile, Tiber, Amazon, Yellow, and Mississippi, to name a few) to provide a steady flow of this life-necessary resource. Over the centuries, municipalities have spent billions of dollars to provide a clean continuous source of drinkable water to their citizens. The Environmental Protection Agency and the Food and Drug Administration set the standards for drinking water in the United States, permitting only trace amounts of harmful metals and chemicals to be present in municipal drinking water supplies (any water connection that serves over 25 households is considered ‘Municipal’ for this purpose). However, the water that is deemed safe and fit for human consumption is sometimes off-colored, contains chlorine, and in many cities, fluoride to promote dental health. So, while for health purposes this water is considered safe drinking water, it may not be as palatable as we would prefer. In this case, we have two options available. We can buy a home filtration kit (a home unit, or a faucet unit, or even a filtration pitcher) to winnow out the chlorine and fluoride and odd taste, or we can buy bottled water. Going without water is not an option, since without water, a human being will die in a week. So, as responsible, environmentally conscious American citizens who have a never-wavering eye on the big picture and who care about conservation, waste, and the global environmental impact of 60,000,000 plastic bottles a day being introduced into our landfill system, we do the intelligent thing.
Nah. We buy the bottled water.
Keep in mind that we bathe in tap water, wash dishes in tap water, clean our houses using tap water, brush our teeth with tap water, wash our clothes in tap water, give tap water to pets, put it in aquariums, water plants, and make ice with tap water. Then we go out and buy bottled water to drink.

Taste Is An Acquired Taste, Depending On The Marketing.

We buy bottled water because it tastes good, it comes in a handy disposable container, and the beverage corporations filter it for us, insuring its safety. To rephrase, we buy bottled water because it tastes just like water, comes in a disposable container that clogs our landfills and burns through our natural resources and wastes 3 times the amount of water it contains just to make the bottle, and beverage corporations use a filtration system similar to ones available for home use, but on a larger scale.
In several taste tests done over the years, bottled water and tap water generally taste just like water. In some tests, tap water actually tastes better than bottled water. So in the battle of taste preference, it’s an even fight. Except for one small detail: bottled water costs 100 times more than tap water.
We already know about the catastrophic cost of 60,000,000 plastic bottles a day being tossed into our landfill system. We already understand the 50 million barrels of oil used to make and transport bottled water to our local grocery stores and drink machines roughly equates to the same amount of oil used to power 3 million cars a year. We are cognizant of the waste disposal limitations of our society, and the hundreds of years it will take for one bottle to decompose in a landfill. There is no such thing as a handy disposable plasic container.
70 to 80 percent of bottled water comes out of a municipal water tap, just like the one in the kitchen, but bigger. The water is filtered by the beverage corporations using mostly the same technology we can use at home on our faucets, as a pitcher, or as a home unit. A home filtration system is advertised for around $600.00. If your family is drinking 6 bottles of water a day, this unit will pay for itself in 6 months. So none of the reasons we buy bottled water are actually valid, but we buy bottled water anyway. There is no logical or rational basis to purchase bottled water for daily use.

So, What Can We Do?

Well, for starters, we can:

1. Quit buying bottled water. If we keep buying bottled water, someone is going to start selling bottled air. Then we are really stuck.
2. If your tap water at home is not to your liking, consider buying a pitcher filter (around $30) a faucet filter (around $75) or a home filtration system (around $600) to take care of the problem. It’s a lot cheaper in the long run, and it takes you out of the consumption-waste cycle.
3. If you buy a filtration unit, make sure you change the filters as recommended, and dispose of used filters in the proper manner. This keeps your water nice and drinkable, and gives your husband something to do in the kitchen.
4.Until the rest of your neighbors catch up to your level of environmental and fiscal responsibility, recycle as much plastic bottle waste as you can. However, restrain yourself from riffling through their garbage. You can only do so much before someone calls the police.
5. If you really want to spend the money on a nice bottle of water, get a glass out of the cabinet, fill it with ice, and top it off with tap water. Then set $2.00 in the barbeque grill outside and set it on fire. Same result, no landfill waste.
6. Use refillable glass bottles and containers for water for trips. Glass is recycle-friendly, and moonshiners have been using Mason jars for decades. What is good for a mountain man bootlegger is good for your family!
7. If you are drinking bottled water as an alternative to drinking soft drinks, pat yourself on the back. Now quit buying plastic bottled water and give the Earth a hug too.
8. If you are a parent sending lunch to school, use that thermos that comes inside the lunch box. You will set a trend, and it will make your child popular!
9.The next time you go to the store to buy a case of bottled water, walk over to the appliance aisle, and buy a filtration pitcher instead. It might cost you an extra $20, but you will not have to buy bottled water ever again. Ever.
10. Go to the local army surplus store, and buy a canteen for fifty cents. They are made of metal, can hold any liquid, and unless you shoot a hole in one, are nearly indestructible. Plus, nothing says fashion like a canteen with a bandolier strap across one shoulder when you are on the road.