How many times have you reached for bottled water when out
and about, or at work or even at home? I
suspect more than you might even realize.
OK so you’re drinking water instead of sodas or some other stuff, that’s
great, but bottled water isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
I have to admit that bottled water is one of the best
examples of cleaver marketing that I’ve ever seen. The bottled water folks play on both your
conscious and subconscious minds when they try to get you to pick up a
bottle.
First, and in some cases rightly so, they lead you to
believe that bottled water is better than the water in the tap. You were lead to think that its safe, healthy
and makes you a little better person because you’ve stayed away from the sugary
drinks. That’s a solid angle to play by
them. Unfortunately for many years
bottled water wasn’t regulated like the water in your home. It wasn’t required to meet EPA regulations,
but rather the FDA rules for food. So,
that basically meant as long as it didn’t kill you or give you E. coli exposure
that might make you sick right out the bottle it was ok to sell. At this point, there are a few more standards
on bottled water, but they pale in comparison to the standards for drinking
water that comes out your tap.
Next, you’ve been told that its “mountain water” or maybe
“spring water” or some such other nonsense.
Either of those sources MUST be way better than my tap, right? Yeah sorry kids, you’ve been lied to. There are a few definitions that define what
“spring” water is and none that I know of that define what “mountain” source
water really is. In the case of spring
water, if the source water was somehow, someway at least part groundwater, that
had a spring output, then it could be marketed as spring water. A team of lawyers made a heck of a lot of
money on that definition I’m sure. Now,
I’ve simplified it some, but it’s pretty ambiguous. Its ambiguous because that makes it easier to
use by the manufacturers. So, you’re probably
thinking, well if it’s not fresh out of the mountain or stream then where is my
bottled water from? Simple, the local
water utility. For instance, in a past
life I worked on water quality for the City of Waco, and the water system there
was source water for a Coke bottling plant there. That plant bottled water as well as sodas,
and if you read the back of the panel on the bottle carefully you will see that
the Waco Water System is listed as the supply if the bottle you are holding
came from there. Same goes in Dallas and
numerous other large water systems around the country. You better have your glasses on, because it’s
some mighty fine print. The only thing
that was done to the water in that plant, at that time, was to run it through a
carbon stack, which removed the chlorine and took any taste out of the
water.
Finally, bottled water manufactures always quietly avoided
the bottle problem. After that cold
tasty water is gone, what happened to the bottle? In a lot of cases it ended up in the trash,
or on the side of the road. Those
bottles make their way down the creeks, rivers and ultimately into our bays and
oceans. Sadly, this issue could be an
entire post on to itself, guess I know what my next one will be. Water bottles make up a large portion of the
plastic floating around the oceans. A
few of the key facts are these however, first plastic is indeed entering our
oceans at alarming levels. Next, it
isn’t breaking down completely, it breaks down into small fibers, and patches
which in turn have coalesced through the years, into any number of large ocean
plastic flows that travel the world’s oceans in primary ocean currents. The plastic has entered the food chain is
being found in fish and there are indications that while it may not kill fish
immediately, it does harm their health and it seems that some of the chemicals
used in the plastics are bioaccumulating in certain organisms.
So now that I’ve made you give that bottle of Evian the side
eye, what do you do? First, drink the
water from your tap. I get it, you may
not like the taste, OK, then run it through one of those nifty little water
pitchers with the filter in them. They
all use carbon in the filter, which will take out the odor. Next, if you are out and about and need that
bottle of water, and didn’t bring it from home in a reusable bottle, then go
ahead and get a bottle off the shelve.
When you finish though, make certain to recycle the bottle. Don’t leave it laying around behind you and
certainly don’t just pitch it out the window when its empty.
Until next time –
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