It’s definitely healthy to drink more water, but that doesn’t have to mean buying plastic bottles of fancy water that’s shipped all over the world. Not only do these little bottles have a huge carbon footprint, they’re not healthy for us and they often represent violations of someone else’s right to water.
Marketers spend a lot of money to convince us that bottled water is superior to tap. That’s laughable, since so much of the bottled water on store shelves is just filtered tap water. I recently ran across an infographic that really spells out a lot of bottled water’s pitfalls:
[You can click the image to view it full sized.]
So what can you do to take back the tap?
Like the graphic suggests, one of our best weapons in the fight against bottled water is a reusable bottle. The other important step we can all take is to spread the word! Share this graphic with folks you know. If you think it would be more digestible, you can point them to The Story of Bottled Water.
How else can we help educate folks about the issues with bottled water? I’d love to hear your suggestions in the comments!
Image Credits:
Water Bottles. Creative Commons photo by quinnanya
Infographic. Via Term Life Insurance
Good comments. Contaminants found in tap water can still be a health concern though. Buying a reusable bottle is great, but filling it with tap water that has been run through a high quality filter is even better.
More water filter companies propaganda.
What a lot of misleading information in this article.
A toxic cocktail that looks like water coming out of a tap is NOT as healthy as bottled water.
Give Up on your bullshit, the bottled water market is and will keep growing because because know and can taste and feel the difference between healthy bottled water and poisoned tap water.
Stop manipulating figures to suit you and your bullshit.
If you or anyone is concerned about the environment they should consider the millions of tonnes of toxic chemicals added to tap water that eventually end up harming all sea life.
We love bottled water.
I appreciate your viewpoint, but please try to keep comments civil. We want this to be a safe place for thoughtful discussion. Thanks!
It is as simple as getting a filter on your tap and reusable water bottle. Then everybody wins.