Ethan over at SLCSpin thinks that all the hubbub about bottled water is just silly. He and Michael Castner at the Nightside Project had a little tizzy about it on air the other day. I sent over an email to answer their question about “what am I supposed to do when it’s hot outside!?!” and mentioned that I have a few refillable water bottles that I got for a dollar (at All A Dollar) and that I use those throughout the day.

I think that Ethan is just looking for something to bitch about. Anyway, here’s a little information about why Ethan is wrong.

• Bottled water is unnecessary. High quality, safe drinking water is already available at most public locations

• US consumers spend more than $11 billion a year on bottled water

• Bottled water can cost up to 10,000 times more than tap water. At $2.50 a liter ($10 gal) that’s more than premium gasoline .

• More than a 40% of bottled water is sourced from municipal tap water; often the only difference is added minerals that have no marked health benefits1.

• Tap water travels through an energy efficient infrastructure, in contrast, bottled water must travel many miles from the source, this results in the burning of massive amounts of fossil fuels, releasing CO2 (the main contributor to global warming) and other pollution into the atmosphere (1).

• In the U.S. the plastic bottles produced for water require 1.5 million barrels of oil per year, that’s enough to generate electricity for 250,000 homes or fuel some 100,000 cars for a year .

• The manufacture of bottles also can cause the release of chemical toxins, and other byproducts of plastic-making, into water, air, or other parts of the environment.

• Smaller water bottles are made from polyethylene terephthalate (PET) which can generate 100 times more toxic emissions than the equivalent amount of glass .

• Disposable plastic water bottles can contain antimony, a potentially toxic trace element with chemical properties similar to arsenic .

• Plastic water bottles are one of the fastest growing sources of municipal waste

• Americans drank 26 billion liters of bottled water in 20041. Nine out of ten bottles used for water fail to make it into the recycling bin, that’s 30 million discarded bottles per day or 20 billion a year (3).

• Bottled water can contribute to water depletion at the source due to the large demand. Pumping ground source aquifers can deplete nearby streams and wells resulting in damage to the ecosystem (4).

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References after the fold.

1. Arnold, Emily & Janet Larsen “Bottled Water: Pouring Resources Down the Drain” The Earth Policy Institute. February, 2nd 2006 www.earth-policy.org/Updates/2006/update51_printable.htm

2. Howard, Brian C. “Message in a Bottle” www.emagazine.com September 2003 http://www.emagazine.com/view/?1125&printview&src=

3. Sierra Club et al. “Bottled Water: Learning the Facts and Taking Action” www.seirraclub.org/cac/water

4. Science News “Bottled Antimony” Environmental Science & Technology Online News March, 22nd 2006 Http://pubs.acs.org/subscribe/journals/esthag-w/mar/science/kc_antimony.html

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References:

Fahrenthold, David A. “Bottlers, States and the Public Slug It Out in Water War” The Washington Post sec A3 June 12th 2006 www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/contnet/article/2006/06/11/AR2006061100797

Urban, Kevin “The Health Benefits Of Drinking Water – Is Bottled Drinking Water Healthier Than Filtered Tap Water? July, 2005www.searchwarp.com http://searchwarp.com/swa12369.htm

Various Authors, “Health Benefits and Drawbacks: Water is Life” University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, April 2006 http://academic.evergreen.edu/g/grossmaz/KLESSILL/

Vangsness, Stephanie “Tap Water or Bottled: Which is Better?” previously published on intelihealth.com, August 2004 http://www.brighamandwomens.org/healtheweightforwomen/special_topics/intelihealth0804.aspx?subID=submenu10

Various Authors, “Health Benefits and Drawbacks: Water is Life” University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, April 2006 http://academic.evergreen.edu/g/grossmaz/KLESSILL/

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This information available at www.slcgreen.com