Tuesday, March 4, 2008

PET PEEVE: Paying for "Safer" Water


If another person tells me to stop drinking from the water fountain because it’s dirty I think I’m going to beat them to death with their Aquafina bottles! YES I KNOW IT’S DIRTY! But until middle class citizens insist it be clean – and do so by using the tap – it won’t be! Unless you’ve been living in a cave you’ve heard about how evil bottled water is, but since I still see it EVERYWHERE I feel ok about posting this. What's that advertising adage about repetition, repetition, repetition?...

The water in Boulder tastes great, as did it in NYC. Bottled water isn’t just environmentally irresponsible; it’s less safe and WAY more expensive.

Facts that get under my skin:

1) The HEATH MYTH: A ton of the bottled water out there is just taken from municipal water supplies and then filtered. Even the spring water is clearly affected by our global pollution – no ecosystem goes untouched by human irresponsibility!
2) THE TOXINS: The plastics used in water bottles are made to be disposable – meaning that the chemicals leech into the water. This gets worse if we try to do the right thing by reusing the bottles or if they’re exposed to the sun (in say, the back of a hot car.)
3) THE TRAVEL: Shipping water is RIDICULOUS in places that have their own water supply! Why would we allow the extra production and transportation costs? Take the trendy Fiji Water, for example. Yes, that sticker on the bottle is pretty, but FIJI?? REALLY? Do you know how far away Fiji is? In fact, it’s far away locale is one of the marketing ploys the company uses, as though ANYWHERE on this planet has escaped pollution and degradation at human hands. For those who argue that Fiji Water is helping an impoverished economy, don’t fool yourself. Yes, all things considered they are a fairly responsible company (now) and make attempts to give back to their workforce, but this is largely in response to the P.R. problem they encountered a while back when it was pointed out that half of the citizens of Fiji didn’t have reliable drinking water. Fiji Water claims to be Carbon Neutral in 2008. Not buying it. You can’t negate the greenhouse gases emitted during production and transportation by buying carbon credits!
4) The GREENWASHING: Just because Evian spring water comes from nature originally (like all water...) doesn’t mean it’s Green, as their advertisements of naked women flailing about in snowdrifts would have you imagine. NO bottled water is the green choice!
5) The WASTE: For those who recycle their water bottles, that’s fabulous. But not enough. Companies are trying to cut down on the amount of plastic used in the bottles. Still not enough. Over 30 MILLION plastic water bottles end up in the landfill EVERY DAY!
6) The COST: Turning on the tap costs pennies. Drinking from a fountain is free (for you anyway.) If the additives in tap water freak you out, get a filter! Still cheaper then the 5-10 cents per ounce depending on brand you pay for the bottled variety. Even buying a metal water bottle (the SIGG bottles are mega-cute but pricey – around 20 bucks) pays for itself in a few weeks if you were a tried and true bottled water addict before.

Sign the Take Back the Tap Pledge !

1 comment:

Sharon J said...

I so agree. Bottled water's very popular here in the UK too and is really just a sign of how gullible we are when we're willing to spent hard earned money on something we can get for pennies from the tap. I admit that I used to be one of those 'suckers' too, but not anymore.