Tap Water Vs Bottled Water – 3 Key Issues
Savvy marketing used by bottled water companies over the past few decades have convinced many Americans that water that is bottled is safer and healthier than municipal water. In fact, consumers have spent more than $6 billion a year on bottled water.
However, sales have decreased this past year and people are asking the question, “Is bottled water really better than tap water?”
In order to answer this question, we will consider three key issues: (1) health and safety, (2) consumer costs and (3) environmental impact.
Health and Safety
The perception that bottled water is healthier and safer than tap water is just that–a perception. The fact is that scientific studies have proven that the vast majority is simply re-processed tap water.
According to the Food and Water Watch Organization, nearly 40 percent of water in bottles is actually tap water. In addition, many bottled brands that have been studied contain more contaminants than tap.
The chemicals, such as pthalates, which leach into water from the soft plastic bottles themselves are concern enough. Pthalates are xenoestrogens in the body that disrupt the normal functioning of the endocrine system and mimic estrogen. Many serious health conditions, including cancer, are attributed to estrogen dominance.
Comprehensive testing by the Environmental Working Group over the past decade has revealed that bottled water contains everything from fertilizer reside to disinfection byproducts and pain medications. But let’s face it, tap water has its problems, too. Even though the U.S. has one of the safest water supplies in the world, water quality varies from city to city and home to home.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), all tap water in the U.S. “can reasonably be expected to contain at least small amounts of some contaminants.” The cumulative effect of long-term exposure to the contaminants found in both tap and bottled water will negatively affect human health.
One advantage tap water has over bottled is that it is better regulated. The EPA guidelines are stricter than the FDA guidelines for bottled water. As far as I am concerned, the biggest health and safety concern about water that is bottled is that you really never know what you’re getting!
Consumer Costs
Even though many people have been willing to pay the extra price for the convenience of water that is bottled, the trend is turning. The current economy has likely had something to do with that.
Bottled waters cost anywhere from $1.00 to $5.00 per gallon. When you add up all the additional expenses, including delivery, driving to the store, buying dispensers, and so forth, it costs at least a thousand times more than tap.
Environmental Impacts
Many people in the U.S. are saying that the plastic bottles are destroying our environment. Over 1.5 billion tons of plastic bottles end up in our landfills each year–an ecological nightmare, since it takes over 300 years for plastic to degrade.
In addition to the burden of plastic waste, large amounts of fossil fuels are being used to make, transport, store and deliver bottled water.