Environmental impact of bottled water 'up to 3,500 times greater than tap water

[discocrisco01]

Source: The Guardian

The impact of bottled water on natural resources is 3,500 times higher than for tap water, scientists have found.

The research is the first of its kind and examined the impact of bottled water in Barcelona, where it is becoming increasingly popular despite improvements to the quality of tap water in recent years.

Research led by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) found that if the city’s population were all to drink bottled water, this would result in a 3,500 times higher cost of resource extraction than if they all drank tap water, at $83.9m (£60.3m)a year.

Researchers also found the impact of bottled water on ecosystems is 1,400 times higher than tap water.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/aug/05/environmental-impact-of-bottled-water-up-to-3500-times-greater-than-tap-water

[bucolic_frolic]

1. Excellent filtering systems do exist for tap water

They're not cheap, but not prohibitively expensive, and while they do require filters, medium, replacements eventually, they produce far less impact than all the plastic and transportation of bottled water. This is a crisis.

[mucifer]

2. Bottled water is often no cleaner than tap water without any special filters.

[PortTack]

12. We have an RO system ...system was $325, install $100, filters last up to 6 months

Filter cost approx $75 every 6 months. If one purchased bottled water for 6 months you’d be close to that cost.

[PoliticAverse]

3. The irony is much bottled water is just filtered tap water. n/t

[Cheezoholic]

5. The old Evian joke ;) n/t

[Cheezoholic]

4. Nestle among other multinationals, imho, criminally

Get their cleverly disguised bottled water products from municipal water supplies at a fraction of the cost the public pays while also stressing those local water assets sometimes to the point of local rationing. Bottled water is a grift that makes even TFG's traveling medicine show envious.

[leftyladyfrommo]

6. I drink tap water. As a child I drank out if the hose

And I'm still alive.

[doc03]

8. +1. I am 73 and did the same not dead yet.

[BumRushDaShow]

15. Ya'll didn't have any of our "Schuylkill Punch"

https://billypenn.com/2015/06/18/schuylkill-punch-why-philly-tap-water-tastes-this-way-and-why-its-not-bad-for-you-really/

Link to tweet

There are actually some drinks named for it -

https://www.food.com/recipe/schuylkill-river-punch-342050





(I have been using a Pur filter on my faucets for years)

[appleannie1]

7. I don't have a choice. Since they drilled gas wells near my property my water is red some days

and black other days. I have to clean my toilet everyday or it turns the bowl black and all my cookie sheets look like black camo. It even eats faucet parts and I have to replace my faucets every couple years. I use bottled water for all my drinking and cooking even though they insist my water is safe to drink. (of course one would have to get passed the smell first). In the summer I go to a spring and refill my bottles there but in the winter I would have to walk across icy cobble stones to get to the spring and at 78 I have a hard enough time not falling on dry cement sidewalks. I would never pass a field sobriety test my balance is so bad.

[lark]

10. Please be careful!

Maybe it's time you got walking assistance, a cane or a walker? Please don't wait until it's too late, like my mom and so many of her friends did and end up with a broken hip, knee(s) or whatever. Those can be total life changers, especially for people living alone.

[lark]

9. We quit bottled water about 7 years ago.

We got a new refrig that had a good filtering system for the water so switched to that. We used to buy 2 flats of water a week, it's been 0 for a long time now. Doing our small part for the planet as we find sustainable ways to do so.

[Warpy]

11. I do harm reduction

and use filters because I'm close enough to the water department that sometimes it comes out of the tap smelling like Clorox and it makes my tea weird.. I think I've bought a total of 3 bottles of water in my life when I've been far away from home and thirsty. Then the bottles were reused until they sprang leaks.

I just never saw the allure of designer water in plastic bottles, but I've lived in a place with fouled wells and had to use a water service that delivered 5 gallon carboys of drinking and cooking water. It was heavy and a nuisance. I don't get people who do that voluntarily.

Bottled water in places where tap water is safe to drink has to be the biggest marketing con job of all time.

[BobTheSubgenius]

13. Here, in Victoria BC, we have exceptionally good tap water,

and Clearbook (a well-named town, as it turns out), a small place in the Fraser Valley, has won the title of World's Best Tap Water 4 of the last 10 years.

It blows my mind that people willingly, even eagerly, pay ridiculous sums for water that may well be of lower quality than what comes from the tap, yet I see it all the time. Who doesn't?

[Earth-shine]

14. I don't want to be a commercial for any products, but we have XXXXXXXXX and are very happy with it.

Zerowater! I highly recommend it.

It turns Florida water into something very close to absolutely pure. I get about 20 gallons on each filter, which are about $11 each.

My coffee tastes good!

[Galraedia]

16. Bottle water can expose you to BPA

You're better off just filtering your tap water at home than drinking bottled water.

[totodeinhere]

17. I have a dilemma. I do not want to drink bottled water but the tap water here is really bad.

If you leave tap water in a glass and let it evaporate it leaves white powder in the bottom of the glass. I can't bring myself to drink that. And yes I have tried filtration but the results were not satisfactory. So I drink bottled spring water but to try to reduce the environmental impact I get it in the largest containers possible in order to reduce plastic use, and I recycle the plastic containers.

[airmid]

18. As of today, our well is completed dry. We live rurally and as land around us

Is sold off, houses built, the water table drops. Insult to injury, the well is contaminated with agrochemicals so we buy all our drinking and cooking water and have cheap gym memberships to shower. I refuse to move. We live in what is left of a climax forest filled with plants that are slowly being harvested to death. I hate that we have to buy our water but we’ve no good solutions that don’t cost thousands. We do utilize rain barrels but we have had a measurable rain in weeks. Water is our constant concern.

[Trailrider1951]

19. Here in western Washington State, tap water filtered through a

Britta filter gives me gallons of delicious water at a fraction of the cost of bottled water. But I get the "really bad tap water" thing. Before I moved here, I owned a house in a tiny town 55 miles N of Austin, TX. The water came out of the tap a light urine-yellow color, with white floaters and the aroma of sulfur. The infrastructure was so bad that there were water main breaks and "boil water" notices at least once a month. Even with filtering, the water was undrinkable. Yes, I bought water from vending machines at the grocery store 15 miles away, and reused my plastic bottles. Sometimes, it's necessary.

[pfitz59]

20. Seattle tap water is delicious

Comes from city owned reservoirs in protected forests.