The Cap vs. The Tap

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People who drink from the bottle do so for different reasons. Some do it simply because of convenience. Others drink it because it tastes better.  More think that it’s cleaner than the tap. In almost every country plastic bottled water is preferred. But all that should be irrelevant when it comes to the environment that’s deteriorating quickly.  According to BottledWater.org, in 2013, bottle waster reached a high exceeding 10 billion gallons, but we should all be making an effort to decrease our intake of bottled water.

We’re being tricked!

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According to RD.com, most bottled water comes from the same supply that tap comes from. Companies aren’t even required to list the source of the water so customers are tricked into believe they are drinking healthier.  So basically it is “glorified tap water” because it is treated and then sold for a large profit.

In addition, labels can be very misleading. The bottled could be stamped with “spring water” or “water from the mountains” but that’s just a name. The water probably comes from a regular tap supply treated to taste better or in a worst case scenario, it could come from a source near a landfill.

RD.com also stated that in 1999 the NRDC tested about 103 brands of water bottle and found that most of them were safe to use but about a third of them have contaminants in them making the companies’ claims that they are selling pure water false.

Why the tap is better! (Environmentally)

Elizabeth Royte’s Bottlemania stated that about 50 billion water bottles a year, and most of those aren’t even recycled and end up in landfills, wasting space and the materials that were used to make it.

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The act of actually transporting the water bottles to all their various destinations also burns fossil fuels, which is awful for the atmosphere. Those same fossil fuels are used to actually make the plastic in the first place. Now we’ve noticed that in the past water bottle companies have tried to decrease the amount of plastic they use by changing the shape of the bottle and size of the cap.

Bottled water is a huge contributor to excessive waste, and soon the Earth will run out of space to store our lazily thrown out recyclables. Sacrificing the environment you live in is not worth the convenience of grabbing a water bottle or the small difference in taste. It is especially unacceptable when there is an alternative: drinking from the tap.

Why the tap is better! (In general)

First of all, National Geographic says that globally we spend about $100 billion on bottled water! In a world that complains about the economy constantly, I feel like we could all save a little money and just use tap water and refill reusable water bottles with tap water.

The plastic water bottles aren’t even reusable! This Huffington Post article says that with each reused the plastic used in plastic water bottles can be more of a contamination threat than the actual water. They leak chemicals like DEHA and benzyl butyl phthalate and create destructive bacteria that you likely injest with every drink you take.

Let’s not forget that tap water is just way cheaper than bottled water like we discussed above! Tap water is treated. Water sources cannot just send contaminated and unhealthy water to houses without being purified or treated in some way. Even if you believe in these contaminants, filters are great to invest in! You get the “quality” of bottled water directly from your tap.

How does that work? I learned this in my chemistry class! Within the filters, there is charcoal, which is made of Carbon atoms. These are ideal for bonding with most other atoms because it has four lone electrons available to bond with the one, two of three pairs of lone electrons of the contaminant ions). When the water runs through the filter, the charcoal attracts these ions and you have much better quality water!

Tip: When buying that reusable water bottle, it’s a safer bet to go with a stainless steel water bottle rather than a plastic reusable water bottle, since it has the potential to degrade over time and release chemicals into the water you drink. Even better are the glass water bottles with a silicone sleeve. Glass won’t degrade from over use.

 

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