The Bottled Water Boondoggle

by Chuck Hall

People are thirsty for bottled water. Plastic bottles of the stuff have almost become a fashion accessory. The world’s taste for bottled water more than doubled from 1994 to 2004, with demand reaching 41 billion gallons per year. At first glance, bottled water may seem to be a healthier alternative to tap water, but according to a study by the U.S. Natural Resources Defense Council, which carried out a four-year review of the bottled water industry, "…there is no assurance that just because water comes out of a bottle, it is any cleaner or safer than water from the tap."

At any rate, if health is a concern, there are dozens of manufacturers who make water filtration systems that attach to your faucet at home to filter out any chemicals or other hazardous materials. So bottled water’s popularity shouldn’t really be due to health issues.

In virtually every location throughout the industrialized world, tap water is as healthy or healthier than its bottled counterpart. There may be health benefits to drinking bottled water in developing countries where the local supply may not be safe, but even so, the long-term solution would be to improve the quality of the local supply rather than to import more packaged water.

So health issues don’t really explain bottled water’s popularity. Could its popularity be explained by assuming that bottled water tastes better? I’ve conducted my own impromptu ‘taste test’ on several occasions, comparing bottled water to tap water. Try it yourself sometime. In most cases, people prefer the tap water. In the cases where people didn’t choose tap water, they often expressed no preference, stating that they couldn’t tell the difference. So bottled water’s popularity isn’t due to the taste.

If it’s not due to the taste, or to the health benefits, what else could account for the popularity of bottled water? The only thing I can come up with is the ‘fad’ value. Drinking bottled water has become the ‘cool’ thing to do. But is it the environmentally conscious thing to do?

Of the estimated 40-50 billion plastic bottles of water sold every year, only about 15% are recycled. This means that the rest, some 35-45 billion bottles, ends up in landfills. These plastic bottles can take up to 1000 years to disintegrate. They are also almost all made of plastics derived from fossil fuels.

So how do we protect the environment and kick the bottled water habit? Prepackaged water is largely a matter of convenience, due to the portability of the container. The secret to kicking the habit is to buy your own container. We water drinkers can learn a lesson from coffee drinkers who carry their travel mugs with them wherever they go. An inexpensive water bottle can be purchased at nearly any sporting goods store. Once you have your own bottle, it can easily be refilled at any public water fountain or any convenient tap. By buying your own bottle, you can reap the health benefits of water without contributing to the waste stream created by billions of disposable bottles.