It comes as no suprise to anybody in the water game that bottled vs. tap water is a big issue. After all, major companies turn a pretty penny on bottled water that is thousands of times more expensive tap. Companies that market bottled water deliver carfully crafted attack ads that paint tap water as not as safe, good, or healthy as the stuff that comes in a bottle.
My last post on the topic showed that this couldn’t be further from the truth. Bottled water is incredibly expensive compared to tap, it’s under regulated and nothing more than a very clever marketing ploy. True, it is convenient and it doesn’t have the taste and odour issues that some tap water does, but that can be easily remedied by taking a few simple preliminary steps to conditioning your own tap water.
But don’t just take my word for it. I’ve found some interesting sites that divulge further information on bottled water verses tap.
The first comes from the Ontario Ministry of the Environment. Currently the MOE contains some of the most stringent drinking water regulations and laws in North America. I do work for a water plant in Ontario, and I can tell you, the regulations are detailed and the Ministry inspectors are tough, leaving no stone unturned to ensuring every municipality provides safe, clean drinking water from source to tap. Click here to read a very thorough and well researched information page on bottled water.
A fitness blog did an excellent and consice piece on some of the common mythes of bottled water. Check that out here.
An Australian town realized the issue with public perception as well as the overwhelming litter on their public beach from careless disposal of empty plastic bottles. They installed water fountains that filtered the tap water at site to remove any taste and odour concerns. The fountains are free and visitors are encouraged to drink straight from them or fill reusable containers, rather than further harm the environment with the plethora of the single use bottles. These two articles here and here detail the story and it’s a great read, I highly recommend it.
Thankfully, the public perception for bottled water is drying up, so says this article. Public perception is starting to swing towards the economic and environmental waset that the bottled water habit can provide.
Speaking of the habit, there’s an excellent website to visit called New American Dream – Break the Bottled Water Habit. It has a plethora of excellent information about why bottled water should not be consumed on a regular basis.
Visit the resources, and make the informed decision, the tap water decision.
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