Fascinated by Bottled Water

A professor at OSU did some research about the environmental impact of bottled water and it's a little surprising to read the statistics. When you think about the resources used to transport plastic bottles and water from the manufacturer to you and then all those bottles have to be disposed of or recycled plus the fact that the water is generally from a city aquifer then it's seems kind of ridiculous to be buying a bunch of bottled water.

Also when you compare the cost to you, the researcher states that it costs around $3.50/gallon of bottled water vs. drinking water from the tap at 5 cents a gallon then you really have to wonder why the heck this industry is so big. He recommends putting your tap water in the refrigerator overnight to allow chlorine to evaporate and to eliminate the chemical taste.

I think there are plenty of things we do that don't make much sense and this is just one of them.

clipped from www.gazettetimes.com

Americans spend $20,000 a minute every day buying bottled water. They consume about

8.2 billion gallons a year, compared to 41 billion gallons worldwide consumption. Their reasons are varied as convenience, concerns about safety, and taste.

But with between 25 and 40 percent of all bottled water containing nothing more than treated tap water, is it worth the cost, to both the planet and the average budget? While Jarvis won’t tell anyone to stop drinking bottled water, he argued that the benefits of tap water overshadow the costs of bottled water consumption.