Drink Tap...it does the planet good!

YouTube-Video

Facts about bottled water (all plastic bottles, really) that will make you think before your drink.

  • Plastic bottles take 700 years to begin composting some studies suggests that the plastic from these bottles doesn't biodegrade - it now a permanent part of our landfills.



  • 90% of the cost of bottled water is due to the bottle itself. 17 Million barrels of oil are used in the production of water bottles yearly, enough to fuel 1 Million cars a year!



  • It takes three times the amount of water to produce the bottle as it does to fill it.
  • 24 million gallons of oil are needed to produce a billion plastic bottles
  • Bottled water is around 10,000 times more expensive than tap water
  • Average price of tap water: $0.0015 per gallon
  • Average price of bottled water: $10.00 per gallon
  • Bottled water is the second most popular beverage in the United States
  • The average American consumes 167 bottles of water a year.
  • Bottling and shipping water is the least energy efficient method ever used to supply water
  • 85% of plastic bottles are not recycled. Bottled water creates tons of trash. Each year, more than 26 billion bottles are thrown away and 16.5 billion gallons of water are wasted to provide Americans with "convenient" access to water.
  • 38 million plastic bottles go to the dump per year in America from bottled water (not including soda) contributing to the 3 billion pounds a year of waste from plastic water bottles.
  • When it doesn’t end up in our landfills, most plastic eventually makes its way to our oceans, where each year millions of fish, birds, and other animals die from plastic because they eat it or they get caught in it. The United Nations Environment Programme estimates that more than 13,000 pieces of plastic litter are floating in every square kilometer of the ocean worldwide.
  • The Surfrider Foundation estimates that more than half of the litter on beaches is plastic. Many researchers and environmental organizations now list plastic as the number one threat to our marine environments around the planet.
  • 40% of all bottled water is taken from municipal water sources (aka. TAP WATER!!) Bottled water is no safer than tap water. Non-profit Natural Resource Defense Council conducted a four-year review of the bottled water industry and the safety standards that govern it, including a comparison of national bottled water rules with national tap water rules, and independent testing of over 1,000 bottles of water. The conclusion was that there is no assurance that just because water comes out of a bottle it is any cleaner or safer than water from the tap.

What about Safety Testing?

 

  • 22% of tested bottled water brands contained chemical contaminants at levels above strict state health limits.
  • Plastic bottles pose a health risk. Studies have shown that chemicals called phthalates, which are known to disrupt testosterone and other hormones, can leach into bottled water over time. One study found that water that had been stored for 10 weeks in plastic and in glass bottles contained phthalates, suggesting that the chemicals could be coming from the plastic cap or liner.
  • Chemicals in some plastics have been linked by researchers to a laundry list of diseases, including breast cancer, heart disease, obesity, diabetes, liver abnormalities, and prostate cancer.
  • Although there are regulatory standards limiting phthalates in tap water, there are no legal limits for phthalates in bottled water -- the bottled water industry waged a successful campaign opposing the FDA proposal to set a legal limit for these chemicals!





e.coli testing: Bottled: NO       Tap: YES



Required to provide source: Bottled: NO       Tap: YES



Required to produce quality reports: Bottled: NO      Tap: YES



Can be distributed when tap water standards are not met: Bottled: YES      Tap: NO

Although it can be easy and convenient to pick up bottle beverage products the end cost to the environment is staggering; not to mention the harm it may be causing the body!  The negative impact on our environment is not worth the simply measure of convenience and marketing hype. So be mindful when you drink...and remember, friends don't let friends drink from disposables! 

 

 

 





1. Bring Your Own



Whether you're on a road trip or out for the day, bringing your own reusable water bottle ensures that you'll be able to stay hydrated. Most gas stations and fast food joints will let you fill up your bottle at their soda fountains. Just ask really nicely. There are great alternatives to plastic BPA free water bottles. You can go to almost any major discount Chain (Target, Wal-Mart, etc.) and buy a cool looking water can/thermos.



2. Don't Believe the Hype



Remember, it is the power of marketing that has driven us into this bottled water frenzy. Most of the bottled water on the shelves is just tap water. They might try to entice you with great slogans, spokes models, and attractive packaging, but at the end of the day you are likely still drinking tap.



3. Go Filtered



One of the big pro-bottled water arguments is that tap water isn't clean. If you're worried about drinking contaminated water, you might consider using a reusable water bottle with a built in filter. Once again, stores like Target and Wal-Mart carry them in the water filter section. Each bottle replaces up to 155 plastic water bottles!

Some people really do have water that doesn’t taste that great (well water sometimes has a rusty taste).In this case, you can use the above mentioned filtered water bottle OR you can invest in a reverse osmosis system, which can either be a whole house system or an under the sink system, which you can pick up for a couple hundred dollars (it can pay for itself quickly when you compare bottled water cost). These systems are amazing and really do purify the water so it tastes great!  They can be found at most home improvement stores, like Home Depot and Lowes.



4. Be an advocate!



Educate everyone you know with the truth about bottled water. Post the YouTube video above to your Facebook site! Send friends to the following links via Facebook and Twitter. As long as we keep our heads buried in the sand, we continue to cause damage to our environment and potentially, ourselves.

 

Drink Tap…it does the planet good!!