Friday, July 27, 2007

I've Never Understood The Bottled Water Thing

For the time being, I have flat-rate water. Doesn't matter how much I use (not that I waste it at all), I pay the same amount each month. That's changing soon--thank you, Governor Schwarzenegger--but that's the way it is now.

So why would someone pay for bottled water? It ranks right up there with Pet Rocks for brilliant marketing.

OK, so you like the pure mountain spring water, fresh from nature's bosom.

Not if you're drinking Aquafina, or (I'm sure) most other brands:

NEW YORK (Reuters) - PepsiCo Inc. will spell out that its Aquafina bottled water is made with tap water, a concession to the growing environmental and political opposition to the bottled water industry.


There's an environmental opposition to bottled water? On what grounds?

Critics charge the bottled water industry adds plastic to landfills, uses too much energy by producing and shipping bottles across the world and undermines confidence in the safety and cleanliness of public water supplies, all while much of the world's population is without access to clean water.


Damn. "Big Water" sounds like communist whores or something.

9 comments:

Ellen K said...

I have never really used bottled water because you can look on the back and find out the "pristine" originations for this liquid, such as the virtual springs of Houston TX. In a funny aside, I do have my own water bottle that I fill with ice and tap water for use during class. My class was APPALLED that I would use tap water from my sink and I had to explain to them that all the water that comes from the tap is filtered, clean and such. They had never realized it and most of them have Sparkletts deliver five gallon jugs to their homes. Granted, there are some towns in west Texas that have what amounts to artesian water, and reeks of sulfer, which makes lousy iced tea. If I lived there, I would do something else for water. But here in Dallas, the water is fine. Probably better than bottled. If it really worries people they can always get a filter for their tap or their fridge. Funny, but many of the kids that are the most liberal are the same kids who go through several bottles of water every day. I wonder what that does to the landfill?

Darren said...

Their heads will explode if you ask them!

Mr. Lucchese said...

Pet rocks were a short-lived fad. Bottle water has been around for over a decade. How somebody managed to convince America that the most abundant compound on the planet should cost $1 a cup is beyond me. I had an ex-girlfriend who refused to drink tap water. I bought an $5 imported bottle water for her once, and then refilled it from the tap over and over again. She didn't find out for a year and I kept some plastic out of the landfill.

Darren said...

Is that why she's an ex? =)

Mrs. Bluebird said...

I refill my empty Diet Coke bottles all the time and just pop them in the fridge....I'm too cheap to keep buying bottled water. What a waste of money. That being said, I did live in a town in Ohio that had the worst tasting water I'd ever had. Restaurants would boast that they "triple filtered" their water. It smelled and tasted like fishy mud. I used to buy water to cook with because it made your food taste muddy. They finally put in a new water filtration system and I stopped having to buy water!

Foobarista said...

I've lived enough places where you can't drink water out of the sink that I've gotten out of the habit of trusting it. Also, tap water in my area is extremely hard and bitter and smells of chlorine.

So, we buy "filtered" water at the local "water store" for $0.20/gal and chill it instead of buying it in bottles.

Darren said...

I kid you not, my grandparents (grandfather now) live in a rural area and get "ditch water". The water flows right by their land in what appears to be a small, fast-moving creek, but is actually a ditch. They have a pipe feeding into the ditch, and water flows into a small (55 gal or so) water tank--and that feeds the house. I have no idea where the water in the ditch comes from.

They've had a Brita-like filter on the sink tap forever, and that's what we drink from. Muddy fishy water? No way. Ew!

Ellen K said...

Part of the identification of anyone who grew up in West Texas and didn't have the Culligan man come out every week was hyperfluorodated teeth. The white on white stains mark you as a true child of the Southwest.

Eric W. said...

I can't seem to find a video, but Jim Gaffigan has a great standup bit on how someone came up with the idea to sell bottled water.