Addiction (bottled water version)

"First, [bottled water is] not as regulated as tap water. The bottlers aren't required to list their source or the chemical composition or their bottling and shipping and storage practices so you really don't have a clear picture of what's in it. Also, tap water is tested and held to way more rigorous standards than bottled water is....it is safer.

Second, most of the bottles from bottled water end up in landfills or waterways or on the sides of the road or in alleyways or on sidewalks, etc... Manufacturers aren't really required to manage the waste that they create and most states don't have deposits for bottles or effective recycling programs. Biodegradable plastics are not generally used and even if they were, right now there are very few facilities that are set up to handle them properly so that when they are mixed in with recyclables, they contaminate the waste stream and the whole thing ends up in the landfill anyway.

Third, it takes roughly another gallon of water to make a gallon of bottled water. This is the water involved in making the plastics from petroleum products as well as the water used at the bottling facility. It is one of the most inefficient uses of water, short of using water to clean your sidewalk, that you can practice.

Fourth, The average bottle of water costs about $1.50 for roughly 12 oz. That same amount of money buys roughly 1,000 gallons of tap water from the average municipal water system. Also, when you spend your money on bottled water, that money is diverted from being spent on the municipal system. You are, in effect, privatizing the water source that you are drinking.

Fifth, most bottled water is from a source that is far away from where you are drinking it. It takes a lot of energy to move that water to you and that has a high carbon footprint. Also, you are taking water out of a watershed and altering the ecosystem of that watershed, especially if the water being used by the bottler is being taken at a rate that is higher than the rate the local aquifer is being recharged (many bottlers get water from springs and aquifers).

I could go on and on, but you probably have stopped reading at this point."