Bottled_Water

Nick Carlson Eric Leuschner Comp 102 2 October, 2010 Bottled Water, Healthy Choice or Environmental Disaster' Bottled water represents many things in today’s society. Fancy bottled water like Perrier water can represent wealth and social status, or bottled water like Fiji water can represent pure drinking water. Bottled water also represents a better alternative to supposedly contaminated, undrinkable tap water. However, according to the Mother Nature Network, bottled water can also represent up to 1.5 million tons of plastic waste per year (web). Every year when people think they are making a healthy choice drinking bottled water instead of tap they are actually increasing the amount of plastic waste in landfills and supporting excessive burning of fossil fuel. The only way to fix this problem would be if everyone were to stop drinking bottled water and start drinking tap water. Bottled water costs thousands of times more than what tap water costs, and yet sales for it continue to increase. In fact, Filter for Good tells us that in 2009, the United States alone used enough plastic water bottles to stretch around the Earth more than 190 times (web). So how did this come to be, you might ask' How did most Americans go from getting water for almost free from their taps to paying thousands of times more for bottled water' Well it all started when water bottle manufacturers started manufacturing demand. Manufacturing demand for bottled water was a two step process, and their first step was scaring us off tap water. When bottled water was first coming out most people didn’t even consider buying it when they could get water for almost free right in their kitchens. So manufactures started making us feel insecure without it. They started campaigns claiming that tap water was contaminated, and unfit for drinking, and that the only reasonable alternative to this was to drink bottled water. For the most this was a complete false accusation. In fact, Facts about Bottled Water states that 22% of tested bottled water brands contained chemical contaminants at levels above strict state health regulations for tap water and can still be distributed when tap water standards are not met (web). The second step in manufacturing demand for bottled water was seducing the consumers into thinking that bottled water comes from pristine nature, like clear mountain streams or fiji. Manufactures wanted the consumers to think that their bottled water was pure and that tap water couldn’t compete with them. They did this to try and stomp out tap water consumption and push the need for bottled water. Ironically, Facts about Bottled Water claims that 40% of all bottled water is taken from the supposedly contaminated, unfit for drinking tap water source. Some people think that they have a solution to the problem, and that if we all took after them we could continue to drink bottled water and cause no harm to the environment. They believe that as long as everybody recycles the bottles everything would be fine. The major problem with this idea is that most bottles aren’t fit for real recycling and instead are down cycled. This means that the bottles are being turned into lower quality products that will just be thrown in a landfill later. Some of the bottles aren’t even fit for that and get shipped all the way to recycling plants in places such as India with the rest of the bottles, only to be thrown into a landfill there. Imagine all of the fuel burned to just get the bottles there only to find out that only half of them will even be used. Obviously, recycling is not the answer. I have a solution to this catastrophe that will not only fix the pollution and needless burning of fossil fuels for the bottled water industry, but will also save you money and it’s simple. Just drink tap water. Some are still weary about the taste difference but according to the The Water Project, in taste test around the country people consistently choose tap water over bottled (web). Also, in accordance to better taste, tap water is by far less expensive and in many ways better regulated that bottled. This is such a simple solution that everyone can participate and actually save money for doing so. After completing this first step and stopping water bottle usage, you should join the next step which would be to join a campaign to help fund the public water infrastructure. According to The Water Project, tap water in underfunded by 24 billion dollars in the United States alone (web). This is partly because most people think that the only water safe for drinking comes from the bottling companies, so they spend their money on bottled water and as a result use less water at home. Not only are water companies underfunded, but cities are spending millions of dollars to get rid of our plastic water bottle wastes, instead of improving our water systems. The solutions that I have suggested are only the begging steps. There are many more things that we can do to improve our water systems. Some other steps you could take would by to lobby your city officials to help bring in more water fountains, especially in public places such as parks, or zoos. This would limit the number of water bottles that would need to be purchased if there was already a free water source available to the people. You could also encourage your school, or organization to boycott water bottles with you. These are just a couple of more solutions that you could choose to be apart of, but ultimately, there are a lot more of ways for you to participate, all you have to do is be creative and think of them. Works Cited “Facts about Bottled Water” Onlineducation.net. Onlineducation.net, n.d. web. 2 Oct. 2010 “Filter For Good” Filterforgood.com. Filterforgood.com, n.d. web. 2 Oct. 2010 “Mother Nature Network” Mothernaturenetwork.com. Mothernaturenetwork.com, n.d. web. 2 Oct. 2010 “The Water Project” Thewaterproject.org. Thewaterproject.org, n.d. web. 2 Oct. 2010