What is the environmentally correct stance of drinking bottled water?

Question

Ok, this is a bit tongue in cheek, but it came up in a lively discussion on the pros and cons of drinking 8 cups of water a day.

Is is environmentally irresponsible to drink so much bottled water? Shouldn't we be more concerned with conserving water? are there viable alternatives?

Don't drop kick me, just wanted to know what others think. No, this is not 100% serious, just having a good old fashioned conversation/debate with a good friend.

But, what do the water conversation people say about it?

thnx!

Answer 1

The issue is single-use containers of bottled water being thrown away after drinking.  Drinking from a water cooler (where the plastic containers are always recycled) is okay.  And water that originates from other than the public supply tap is okay.

No one ever talks about limiting human consumption of water in order to conserve water.  That impacts human health and leads to lawsuits.

Very little of the water used by a person is actually ingested.  So water conservation focuses on low flush toilets, efficient clothes washers, limited watering of lawns and washing of cars, etc.

The problem with criticizing single-use bottled water, is that it is critical to emergency response.  After air, water is the most important item people must have and it needs to be pure potable drinking water, not something hanging around in a rain barrel for the past six months.

And people need something to drink the water from, that won't pass on diseases that tend to flourish in disaster situations.

Note that no one is even thinking about taking on the soft drink industry, beer, sports drinks, etc. even though they account for zillions of single use containers each year.

Answer 2

I don't think its environmentally irresponsible at all. I think as long as you can recycle the empty bottles or reuse them by filling them up from other filtered water sources, it shouldn't matter. I admit I have grown acquainted to the taste of some bottled water over the taste of tap water. As far as water conservation goes, eh bottled water I imagine probably comes from alot of sanitary sewer treatment systems just like our tap does. Its probably filtered with alot more stringent agents to give it a cleaner taste. I seriously doubt every bottle water company out there has a tap into some artisian well that is bubbling with pure spring water.

Answer 3

Our family used to go through a case of bottled water a week.  Then someone on TV said that if you left an inch of water in the bottom of a bottle, that's how much gasoline it takes to get that bottle to you!  We have been refilling our bottles out of the refrigerator filtered water ever since. It's just as good.

Answer 4

Bottled water is simply bad, bad, bad for the environment across the board.

We have what might be the world's best water flowing out of our taps and yet bottled water has become a $15-billion-a-year industry!

Something is seriously wrong with the values this country has.  The creation of bottled water has produced millions of plastic bottles we NEVER needed; the additional demands on oil (outside of production) to ship them; additional clutter in our landfills; and more "I want it now over consumerism".

The good news is that product category is coming under attack. According to an article in The New York Times (see link below) by Ian Daly, "Politicians are banning the bottles, and restaurateurs are wiping them off their menus, calling attention to the ecological costs of moving millions of bottles around the world and around the United States — not to mention disposing of all those containers."

Environmentalists began targeting bottled water as an unnecessary product that was more geared to creating personal image, rather than any actual health benefits. It seems to be working. Both Pepsi, Coke and Nestle have reported slumps in sales.

Lets hope that continues. Turn back to your tap!

Answer 5

Interesting question!

As far as I have heard and seen, it takes a lot of water, and crude oil to produce the plastic bottles required for bottled water.  Furthermore, the plastic bottles are often thrown into landfills, where they sit, rather than being recycled.  Also, one has to consider the energy to transport the bottled water across seas, to the grocers, and into the home.The environmental cost these bottles alone have, is not worth it to me.  I drink tap water and use stainless steel bottles when working out/travelling/camping since we found out about the Nalgene problem (really, it's not just nalgene, but other polycarbonate containers - the issue is with a chemical known as bisphenol-a, or B.P.A., a chemical used to make hard, transparent plastics as well as liners for food cans).

I have added some links for your perusal.  

Cheers!

I want to add that I agree with oracle2w about the other single use container culprits!  It's not just bottled water - we need to change our thinking in many other areas.

I also want to add that in north America, tap water is tested regularly (very stringent testing!!!) for human consumption.  Bottled water has NO REGULATIONS!!  There was an investigative report done here in Canada about tap vs bottled water and it was found that in all cases (or at least most cases) tap water was much healthier than bottled water! And, Aquafina is actually city water!!!!! Crazy eh?

Answer 6

Read point 4 here

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/12/...

and this

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_cycle

Then this

http://www.allaboutwater.org/environment...

and this

http://www.edie.net/news/news_story.asp?...

Answer 7

Using it when you're on the go is fine.  Using it sitting in your home when tap water is easily available to you is wasteful.

Answer 8

Correct stance? COME ON! You are an intelligent responsible person in a free democratic country. You should not care AT ALL what other people think is "correct". People in North Korea need to do that but we don't. You do whatever YOU think is the right thing. Do not be a tool of others!

If George Washington though about what was the "correct stance" on the acts of parliament, there would be no U.S.A. If Galileo though about what was the "correct stance" on the motion of the planets, there would be no modern science. If Rosa Parks though about what was the "correct stance"  black Americans would still be riding in the back of the bus. If Nelson Mandela thought about what was the "correct stance", Apartheid would still rule south Africa. Take YOUR OWN stand, don't be a sheep following the crowd. The "correct stance" for a person in Germany in 1940 would have been to lynch all the Jews. Don't a be follower, be a freedom fighter!

Answer 9

The plastic bottles litter the landscape, especially in places where recycling is not well-established and/or they are not a deposit item you can return (like soft drink bottles). They use a fair amount of energy and petroleum to produce, too.

The "correct" stance these days for those whose tap water is not suitable for drinking is to use a Nalgene (semi-rigid plastic, usually colored) bottle filled from a water cooler of bottled water in the home.

I drink tap water.