Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Here & There Column

 Tap Water Vs. Bottled Water

  As I toted two 36-bottle containers of water from the grocery store to my car and then of course from the car to inside my house I stopped and said to myself there has to be a better and cheaper way of drinking what use to be a free glass of water.
  The free glass of water mostly likely came in the restaurant or diner with waitresses looking at you when you requested water to drink and then additionally asked for a twist of lemon in the water.
  I remember well my parents advising me that when we go our for dinner always ask for water because it was free.
  Well we still get water out of the faucet but the bottled water industry has taken over when it comes to drinking water.
  The world spends over $100 billion on bottled water a year. Those who came up with the brilliant idea to sell something we got for free in some places are now living the high life as the popularity now has more than half of Americans drinking it.
  Some interesting facts about bottled water are that global consumption goes up 10 percent each year, Amercia is now drinking more bottled water than milk or beer (go figure that one out), tap water costs around one tenth of a cent per gallon while bottled water is 0.90 cents a gallon (that makes tap water 560 times less expensive than bottled water), to manufacture demand, beverage companies declared war on tap water through advertising, half of bottled water is derived from tap water, tap-water (which is EPA regulated, undergoes testing for e. coli) and is required to provide its source and produce quality reports in scientific testing, bottled water was found to be no safer than tap water, fear of tap water is part of the reason for the bottled water surge, in taste tests tap water consistently ranks at or about the level of bottled water, of the 30 billion plastic water bottles sold in the United States only 12 percent were recycled.
  Makes one think doesn't it? And on top of it all remember you are paying 5 cents deposit on each bottle of water you buy.
  Some people and restaurants are getting behind tap water and quickly realizing the cost of bottled water on their wallet.
  Where's your next glass of water coming from?

 

No comments: