Dale’s Daily Data: Is Bottled Water Better?

I thought Wendy had an interesting item she posted on our website the other day – five things you should never have to pay for.  At the top of the list was water.  People pay up to 2 dollars a bottle for water.  And what you’re paying for is the brand and the bottle.  We have a whole generation of young people brainwashed into thinking the only source of drinking water is from a store shelf, but there’s no proof that it’s safer.  Many people just assume it’s better because you’re paying a premium for it.  Research shows that municipal water supplies are as good if not better than what you get in a bottle.  Suppliers of public water are required to disinfect and filter their water and they have to test it more often.  And don’t be fooled by snow-capped mountains or swift running spring water on the label.  What you see is not always what you get.  40 percent of the time the water you buy in the store is from a public water system.     

Beyond the water itself there’s the plastic bottle – bad for the enviornment.  Millions of plastic bottles never get recycled and end up in landfills forever.

If taste is an issue with you – you can buy inexpensive carbon filters for water at a fraction of what you buy in a bottle.  Then transport that water in a stainless steel thermos.

SOURCE:  Researcher Peter Gleick