Consumers Finally Growing Some Damned Sense, Not Buying Bottled Water
We're not always pessimists on Consumerist. Why, sometimes we actually like silver linings, if only because it gives us a chance to complain about argyria. (Don't take colloidal silver, people!) Today's silver lining is that sales of bottled water "have fallen for the first time in at least five years," says the Los Angeles Times. We're apparently showing common sense and opting for tap water over branded and labeled water, proving that in a tough economy it's hard to compete with (nearly) free.
"It's an obvious way to cut back," said Joan Holleran, director of research for market research firm Mintel. "People might still be buying bottled water, but you can bet that they're refilling those bottles."
The news delighted environmentalists, who have long berated the industry for wasting natural resources and stuffing landfills with plastic bottles. "I thought we'd never be able to impact sales of bottled water, and all of a sudden it's really gained momentum," said Wenonah Hauter, executive director of advocacy group Food & Water Watch. "I think we're making real progress."
We think it's more likely that a lot of consumers who buy bottled water have started to figure out that:
- It's hugely expensive—a back of the envelope estimate puts it at 5 cents an ounce versus less than 1 cent per gallon from a municipal water supply;
- It might be loaded with bad things you don't want to ingest, like disinfection byproducts, fertilizer residue, and pain medication;
- It has less safety oversight than plain old tap water, which is why bottlers don't have to tell you where the water came from or what's actually in it.
"Bottled water sales see a drought" [Los Angeles Times via Olevia]
(Photo: Nexeus Fatale)
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Comments:
Good. Bottled tap water is among the stupidest and most wasteful things ever.
I still buy bottled water because it's cheaper than retrofitting a big filter system to my well. I've tried the Britta and Pur tap filters, and the water just doesn't agree with me. Besides, I'm hoping for some freebie pain medication in my Aquafina so my back hurts less.
I've been drinking a lot more tap water lately as opposed to using my brita. Mostly because I've become too lazy to keep refilling it and I'm finding our tap water is quite tasty.
I try to generally avoid buying bottled water but sometimes when you're out and about it's convenient to be able to pick one up. That being said it's a pretty crappy industry and I wish people would boycott it.
I always remember my parents telling me "what do you think, money grows on trees?!" when I see someone buying water. This stuff literally falls from the sky, and people are buying it. IDK how water doesn't "agree" with you.
Cue in angry commenter calling people names and enlightening us on why tap water is evil. (hint: its socialized)
Bottled water stories always bother me, because it depends entirely on location! Anyone in Central Florida will tell you that the city water has a very strong sulfur taste and is extremely unpleasant to many people. It's so strong, that sometimes you can smell it when sprinklers are on outside.
So, when we're out somewhere and the options are to buy a bottle of water, or drink from a fountain, we'll almost always pick the bottle, just because the fountain tastes so bad.
Bottled water was a reaction to studies that our regular tap water was full of all sorts of contamninants. Bottled water companies stoked that fear. Of course, people didn't realize that a lot of bottled water wasn't any better. So we reacted in a way that just made things worse, because we didn't get better water and we added plastic bottles.
In the 90's most municipalities significantly improved water quality. Overall quality dipped in the mid 2000's when acceptable levels of a number of nasty things were increased. Whether the increase makes the water less safe is open to debate.
Sometimes, on consumerist, the best part of the article is a throwaway link...
"A recent prominent case was that of Stan Jones of Montana, a Libertarian candidate for the United States Senate in 2002 and 2006. Jones acquired argyria through consumption of a home-made silver product that he made due to fears that the Year 2000 problem would make antibiotics unavailable."
I do not even need to add a comment on that one.
For some people, college is a time where they learn to spend money indiscriminately. Those people have money to spend.
For me, it was a time for developing lifelong frugal habits. One of them was drinking water from my tap. Mm, tastes like free. Now I roll my eyes when my parents buy bottled water with the groceries. I think of all the other delicious things they won't try because they're "too expensive"...while spending massive amounts of money on bottled water.
We invested in some nice cups and bottles that we take with us. It is rare now that we would ever have to buy water while out and about.
We filter our tap water - have used a Brita but the ease of the under sink filters made the Brita too much like work.
I see people in the stores buying large packages of bottled water and wonder why they don't just put in a under sink system or use a Brita. I only hope that they recycle all of those bottles.
@OtterOtter: Do you at least buy it by the 5-gallon refillable bottle?
I'm far more understanding of people who use bottled water if they have something like well water and use 5-gallon jugs for drinking water. It's a lot cheaper, far better for the environment, etc.
Camelbak BPA free water bottle ($12 at your nearest Whole Foods store) and NYC tap is how I roll.
Darn, I hate it when people wise up. Now I have to find another easy way to put myself in a better financial position than idiots.
When I'm on the road, I take a Nalgene bottle filled with tap water and ice (time for me to be berated because of the chemicals in Nalgene.)
But that bottle doesn't last forever, and I do buy plastic bottles of water on the road. Here's my thinking:
-I'm going to buy a beverage, anyway, so why not avoid sugar water? (I type this as I am drinking a Coke. Shoot me.)
-The water in Dasani is the same water in Coke, minus the, well, Coke.
-No matter which beverage I buy, I'll be disposing a container.
I guess I'd be better off buying a gallon jug of water from a grocery store and refilling it. Maybe I'll start doing that.
I agree in principle, but the problem is that some people can't do without the bottled water.
Example: The water in the pipes in my building is often rusty. Even after I Brita filter it, it still tastes 'off'. The building has claimed that everything is a-ok, so I turn to bottled water.
I agree it's not a permanent solution, but I do my best and recycle the bottles. Hopefully I'll move soon and will have better water.
My point is that I'm glad people with access to clean water are opting for it over bottled water. But people driving for the ban of bottled water might be pushing too hard too soon. We'll get there, but we need baby steps.
@Erik_says_this: Sometimes my tap water smells like old feet. It's definitely not my plumbing. I'd say a beverage with the scent of grandpa's old socks is not going to agree with most people.
@captadam: I think buying bottled water while on the road is prettymuch inevitable -- unless you have stops planned along the road where you can refill the original bottle. Or if you carry one of those bigger built to last jugs.
But for the most part, it just makes practical sense that you buy bottled water when on the road.
What is a stupid thing to do is to use bottled water at home.
Hate to be a naysayer, but tap in DC tastes horrid. And it's only this year that they've been able to reduce the lead levels to EPA safety guidelines. [www.epa.gov] They still recommend pregnant women and children get tested for lead periodically if they drink tap.
I do drink filtered tap at home and many restaurants here offer filtered tap as an alternative to bottled. But at work, no filter, old pipes = no way. And it is a DC law that all companies have to recycle plastic, so I do recycle my bottles. I'd prefer a large deer park water cooler for the office, but the boss is too cheap to pay for it.
@Fishy007: My parents have well water, and while there is nothing nasty in it, it just tastes sort of... well, weird, even with the Brita.
Wait, wait, wait. You're bringing up bottled water having traces of pain medicine? Has Consumerist never seen all the studies showing traces of prescription medicine in tap water from people flushing all their old pills?
I'm also one of the ones with rusty pipes in their building where the water runs brown. I only drink Arrowhead at home but filtered at work. The bottled waters like Dasani and Aquafina that bottle straight from the tap taste gross.
@OtterOtter: Ugh. Yeah, what is up with well water? My parents have a well, and the water always tastes weird. Not metallic or anything, but sort of... flat. My parents usually don't buy a lot of bottled water. Instead, they make huge batches of Crystal Lite and KoolAid. Honestly, I am not really sure which is worse.
People quit wasting your money on bottled water and start filtering your water! There are plenty of things suspended in municipal drinking water that you don't want to be drinking - not the least of which is chlorine. Chlorine is a known carcinogenic! It's about time we wise up, save the money that you spend on that same water and buy a reverse osmosis filter system, a few non-disposable bottles. Hello you'll help your budget and the environment!
I go to the local water store and fill up two 3 gallon bottles of highly filtered water that tastes great. Its something like 30 cents a gallon. I keep a 5 gallon bottle on the counter and keep it filled.
I wish I didn't have to buy bottled water, but I do. It's for my son's school lunches. He loses every non-disposable bottle I give him, no way will I waste more $$ on those (for him at least). Water is cheaper and better than other things I could pack for him. Plus, if I don't give him one he'll end up buying some crappy sugar based beverage at school anyway.
@MostlyHarmless: I remember the bad old days when convenience stores had no bottled water, so soda was all you could buy. As long as we don't go back to that, rag on the bottled water all you want.
Give me your address and I'll mail you a sample of our local tap water. It's disgusting, leaves a film on whatever it contacts, and is warm on top of it. Aquafina, ftw.
@MostlyHarmless: Pretty much. We bought a big case of bottled water a few weeks ago because we could grab one whenever we headed to the gym and we're saving the rest of it for when we hit the road later in the year. We don't drink it at home unless it's leftover from when we were at the gym.
try looking into a water distiller--i bought a countertop model for ~$100 nearly a year ago, which would have probably been over 1,000 bottles (just by myself) of water if i had been buying them. its disturbing to see the gunk that's been removed from each gallon of water. i suppose the only drawback is that it uses nearly 600W of power and daily capacity is four gallons. homemade coffee with the water tastes better too.
This chart seems to be a good comparison of filters: [www.waterfiltercomparisons.com]
@me_and_my_cats: I love my under-sink filter. My dad laughed at me initially when I installed it, but after staying a week with me, he is a convert. He now wants to add one to their house, which has a well that sometimes tastes funny.
I added mine because my neighborhood in DC has had several instances of the water authority coming back after a longer time period and reporting on contamination (both mercury and fecal) after the fact.
We still buy bottled water in my house, mainly because I worked for a water filtration manufacturer some time ago, and learned to identify the best processes.
Bottled water that uses the Reverse Osmosis is generally the best for drinking water.
Then again, where I live, the city uses too much chlorine, and I can ID the taste way too quick. The next town over, however, has much better water.
@Ihaveasmartpuppy: Haha I know how that goes. My mom refused to ever buy me a raincoat after I lost a brand new one the first day I took it with me.
Kept her promise till I got into high school.
Its not as bad as it sounds though. The school was literally next door to our house. And raincoat or no raincoat, I used to come home drenched anyways every time it rained.
@aloria: Crystal lite. Aspartame has been tagged as a nasty now.
As for the flatness in taste, calcium or iron in the supply can do that. Not much to do there save for using a Brita pitcher to deal with the lower levels and descale annually using citric acid to keep the pipes and hot water tank clean.
If there is an investment and you can afford to spend several thousand in treating hard and iron issues above 5ppm, a chemical injection system maybe your solution.
When you have a well put in, you are the water works for your own property and need to learn how to manage it properly. I have 150' and 200' wells on my property and they are my sole supply for the household so yeah, I've had to learn how to deal with those issues.
@merist: I saw your comment about this on the cisco shipping waste thread. Do you mean "State of Texas" or "size of Texas"? You said it that way in both comments and I'm confused.
@pecan 3.14159265: I got one of those fancy bottles for gym purposes. I dont know how much bottled water costs, so I'm not sure what the break-even point is, but at least it does not generate plastic waste. But then, it cost only 4 bucks anyways, so the break even point probably does not even matter.
@chaoss13:
YES! Reverse Osmosis!! Love that stuff. We had a system set up at my old house, but then I moved to an apartment in 2007 and as far as I know, you can't get portable reverse osmosis setups.
Once I buy a place, I'll install a system.
It's also why I only like the taste of Aquafina or Dasani. I *hate* the taste of spring water :|
@aloria: I grew up with well-water and I love it! It spoiled me, though, since I have trouble drinking municipal water that's not super ice-coled to kill the weird aftertaste.
Our well water doesn't agree with everyone, though. It's full of calcium and if you leave a glass to sit on a table for awhile little white chunks form. Yum.
@Hooray4Zoidberg: I did the same thing. I bought a brita and never replaced the filter. Then I realized that it wasn't the brita making the water taste better, but that I like cold, refrigerated water better.
@merist: Again, you mean the "invisible" island of plastic, which can not be seen from space or in person. Much like the dragon in my garage. But he's there!
Our municipal water contains high levels of chlorine, among other things - no faucet filter takes that out. The chlorine levels were finally shown to be detrimental enough to public health (never mind the taste - blech) that our city got bids on installing a filtration system to replace the chlorine addition but it was too expensive. So here we sit. Some days my shower smells like chlorine plus swamp. Oh, and I'm sure there are low level pain killers in there, too.
@korybing: I know your pain. I've been trying to get my Dad to install a softener in our house for years now, to combat the iron. I can't do a low micron filer, as it captures the sulfur, and then the smell stays in the water until you change the filter. It's why I drink and make coffee with Stop and Shop water, and do everything else with the well water, including cooking. For those who think I'm a snob, one of these is my "tap" water, and one is Stop and Shop water. You decide:
and here is my shower(excuse the dog hair b/c I just bathed him, but the walls and the CLEAR shower curtain ALWAYS look like that):
@MostlyHarmless: The 24 pack of water I bought was around $4.50. It was on sale, and it's the first pack of bottled water we've purchased in two years. We have a Brita filter at home, though. I feel bad for not just buying the steel or nalgene-type bottles but I really don't have room for them. They don't fit on shelves and the large spouts make it really hard to drink while on a treadmill.
@mrgenius: Yeah, tap in DC is horrible, horrible and I hate that I even spend $2 for a liter of bottled water because I hate drinking the tap from the water fountains. It's foul stuff.
Yay. Less plastic for that "Plastic Island" the state of Texas in the pacific ocean that some people cannot see.
[en.wikipedia.org]