So...Which Is It? (part 2)

(For part 1 – See November 13, 2008: Which is it? Diapers: Cloth or Disposable?)

Is it just me, or does it seem like environmental research seems to change its mind a lot? Opinions on water have swung widely in the last 20 years since the huge American shift into the bottled water crazy. So you may be asking…okay, greenies…which is it? Bottled or tap?

Well, some of these debates are a toss-up (see “So . . . Which Is It? (part 1) Diapers: Cloth or Disposable?) - but by most accounts, the great water debate isn’t one of them.

Bottled water:

o Is insanely expensive, both to produce and to buy.
o Is no purer or safer than tap water. Both are imperfect, but heavily regulated.
o Comes in plastic containers that require petroleum – and water - for their manufacture.
o Is heavy. And shipped. From other places. To a store. Where you buy it. And bring it home. To your house. Where clean drinking water comes, for free, out of the faucet. Check the carbon footprint on that one.
o Comes in plastic containers that are, yes, usually recyclable, but are also
(a) only occasionally recycled (Can you stand it!?) and
(b) so plentiful they end up cluttering landfills and floating in oceans.
The ones that do get recycled, well, great – but it takes energy to collect, transport, and convert recyclables. Couldn’t we just skip the bottles in the first place?


So, my opinion:

1) If you’re in the desert and stop at a gas station and you don’t have your special SIGG eco-thermos or access to a water fountain, yes, for Pete’s sake, and by all means, get a bottle of water and recycle the bottle when you’re done. But if you’re at work, at home, or on the town? Just go tap. No bottle making, filling, capping, shipping, docking, unloading, stocking, choosing, buying, toting home, disposing, recycling, and refabricating. Just water. So easy.

2) If you must, MUST have bottled water, you simply cannot abide by tap, consider getting larger sizes. The smaller the size, the more we need and the more we throw away.

Bottom’s up!

Molly