filed under Activism | Environment
Water Water Everywhere
10:34AM ON
01/17/2008
BY
Matthew Lawrence
The clever folks at Tappening have come up with a website to say something that I’ve been rattling on about for years:
Bottled water is stupid. Really stupid.
Unless your pipes are particularly rusty or somebody just threw up in one of the bubblers that every public place is required to have by law, then there’s really no reason to spend money on bottled water. Especially since a) plastic bottles are extremely wasteful; b) reusing those plastic bottles and filling them with tap water is unhygienic, as any number of Eyewitness 12 reports and chain e-mails from one’s relatives will tell you; and c) it wastes a ridiculous amount of money and energy to ship water from Maine (or Fiji!) when there are already pipes that go straight from a reservoir directly into your kitchen and bathroom!!
There’s a good article in the Green Bay Press about the issue, but it’s also worth knowing a little bit more about companies like Poland Spring, Dasani, Aquafina, and Fiji before you pick up your next six-pack. Nestle owns Poland Spring, as well as Ozarka, Zephyrhills, and a couple of other brands in different parts of the country. They’d like you to think that bottled water is cleaner and better for you and the environment, but for most people that’s just not true. Maybe that’s why Chicago just started taxing it.
So the next time you’re out, before you call the water sommelier over to the table, you might just want to think about sticking with the free stuff.
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One Comment on “ Water Water Everywhere ”
January 17th, 2008 at 4:06PM
ethan Says:
Health & safety standards for tap water are much more stringent than for bottled water. But that’s OK, because they’re mostly the same thing, anyway.
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