Bottled water or Tap Water?Why?

Great question..! I would say that for anyone interested in finding out more about this issue, a great place to start is the Blue Gold Documentary. "Blue Gold" does a really great job presenting some of the problems with what happens when water becomes a commodity. It begins to present some potentially very serious problems.

For example in some places in Africa, where access to clean drinking water is extremely limited, the cost of a bottle of water can be up to 10x the price of a bottled coke for example (note: Coca-Cola is the biggest distributor of bottled water in the world today). The "commodification" of water leads to the deterioration of our local water supplies as they become increasingly secondary. However, if you don't have easy access to water.. in a situation where a supply network of water that's all being imported is disrupted... well, that could cause some serious problems in local communities!

It seems that if we were presented with the choice of equally clean water in a bottle or from a tap, the obvious answer is that tap water is a much better choice(you're paying for it already out of your tax dollars! ). However, in a lot of places tap water is becoming increasingly more of a problem.

There is all kinds of new research that is showing our tap water is becoming increasingly polluted and even carcinogenic! One thing you can do: Go to Local Drinking Water to find out what's in your local drinking water! Maintaining a high quality local water supply is a municipal and local issue.

But no one ever talks about it and therefore it never comes up as a local political issue. But if we start writing our local politicians and making it clear that to them the assurance of clean local tap water is an important issue, we could begin to see governments take this issue more seriously!

Unfortunately, with the way our water is processed, tap water is not hygienic. You can't drink tap water without boiling it first, and there are a lot of times where the tap water are brownish and murky. So we have to turn to bottled water.

If I was to go by taste bottled water just tastes better.

Tap water.. for all of the reasons mentioned in the original post. I will add that there is the potential danger of bisphenol A (BPA) in plastic water bottles. Studies with laboratory animals indicate this compound can adversely affect brain development and behavior.

If your tap water is very hard, or generally tastes off, it can usually be filtered. The size and cost of the filtration system depends on what minerals need to be filtered from the water and in what concentrations they occur. Many bottled water companies simply filter municipal tap water.

One such company in New York City started bottling NYC tap water calling it "Tap'd NY". They proudly proclaim that their water comes from the tap, and encourages consumers to just buy their product once and refill their bottles at any NYC tap. Well, actually much of NYC's water comes from the top of some far away mountain from various watersheds and reservoirs in the Catskill Mountains.

I think they have since changed their advertising slogan. Personally, I "make" my own bottled water. My well water is very hard (total Ca concentration is 230+ ppm), so I take 5 gallon water jugs to a nearby mountain spring with much softer water and fill them a couple of times a month.

I transfer them to glass carboys later.

It actually depends... on some places, tap water isn't safe to drink so instead of putting your health or your family's well-being at risk, of course you have to pick bottled water (a trusted brand to be more sure) instead. But if you're in places with safer tap water deposits, then you can choose tap water. It also depends on the usage.

Tap water even though clean will be unsafe for babies, so in this case, you have to pick bottled water again. There are many cases that we resolve to choosing bottled water. Yes of course, aside from the container which will later be trashed that will only contribute to pollution... we can prevent this by recycling these water bottles and putting them to good use.

There are lots of ways to recycle these bottles... my mom for instance paint the bottles and tie them together and put them in the garden as a small fence. :) Another idea is have the factories to just reprocess these bottles to be used again by them. I just hope this is possible so we could save resources.

For me, there's just something so nastalgic about playing tackle football in the front yard and then drinking water from the garden hose. Tap water all the way baby!

Until arriving in the Philippines I have always been a tap water person but here it is advised that you not drink the tap. Instead, we buy the large refillable containers so we are not filling the landfills with individual disposed containers.

Bottled versus Tap does completely depend on where you live. Here are some of the issues we have encountered: Roseville, CA - Too much fluoridation in the water (known to cause miscarriages, brittle bones and other very bad things for the human body - but your teeth are strong). Las Vegas, NV - Very high mineral content in the water causing kidney stones and other health issues.

Absolutely should not be using the tap water even for cooking. Newport Beach, CA - Open, man made reservoir known to have bacteria issues from time to time. Mexico - Dysentery - well known to not consume tap water - don't even have ice in your drinks.

China - Many interesting water problems. Some water sources contain a microbial animal that eats through your skin. Basically impossible to get rid of.

You can even get it from eating food like watermelon. Let's face it - bottled water is here to stay. I think the commodity issue raised by @mattbc is very interesting and valid.

However, I think there are many organizations working to bring clean water to distressed areas in Africa, Haiti and elsewhere, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to name one. I think this will keep cost in check, perhaps not perfectly, but reasonably. Also, the cost of transporting water (heavy commodity) is not cheap and corporations should not be PR penalized for doing what they were designed to do - make a profit for their owners/shareholders.So back to my opening comment in this paragraph - bottled water is here to stay: As man continues to be mobile and multi-task, i.e.

Lives out of his car and on-the-go, he needs survival essentials like laptops, protein snack-bars and water. Instead of trying to fight the trend that clearly is not going away given the statistics listed in the question, energy would be much more productive if those that protested the use of plastic came up with an equally convenient yet more user friendly alternative container. Dairy works in (previously) wax coated containers (now plastic coated), but predominantly paper.

Veggies work in 'tin' cans. There are lots of more environmentally friendly alternatives, albeit not perfect, that might be much better than what Madison Avenue is marketing to us. Lobby bottling companies and advertising agencies to change the containers.

It will be a much more successful campaign than lobbying to get a billion people to give up using portable purified, water.

This is interesting! Now, I better drink tap water. Just boil it to make it clean.

I don't have a problem with tap water except when I go to Florida. Tap water in Orlando comes out of the "cold" side at 80 degrees so it's not terribly refreshing haha. It's a little sandy too.

San Diego tap water tasted a little less pure than the water here in Montana but was ok with Kool Aid or Ice Tea. Really, the only time I buy bottled water is if I'm going for a hike or walk and forget to fill one up at home.

Easy -- tap water. Luckily we live in Vancouver where the water system feeds directly off the mountains via the Capilano Reservoir. For the last 7 or 8 years we have refilled our bottles with water straight from the tap and then refrigerated the bottles.

Just nothing better when you have a real thirst!

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.