Bottled Water (Sigh)
July 28, 2007
Thanks Eric for posting an article from the July 27 Los Angeles Times under the Diet Drinks category, for lack of a better place to put it. I hope this posting fixes that problem. PepsiCo, it seems, will now label Aquafina bottled water with its origin–”public water source,” meaning tap water (Coke’s Dasani water, of course, also comes from public water supplies). Bottled water is so amazing to talk about that I devote an entire chapter of What to Eat to that topic. The L.A. Times piece covers the big issues: energy cost, corporate control of water, creation of massive amounts of plastic trash, and the one that I find most troubling–the undermining of confidence in public water supplies and public commitment to maintaining water supplies of high quality. The article quotes an investment analyst saying that Coke and Pepsi do not make a lot of profit on bottled water. I find that hard to believe. In any case, the message is clear. If you live in a place that still has a decent water supply, refill that bottle from the tap! If you want to weigh in on bottled water, do it here from now on.
Brilliant piece - now can you explian to me the difference between purified bottled water that origionated fron the public water supply and tap water?
Comment by Joe — July 29, 2007 @ 11:46 am
Sure. The label should tell you what they did to it, if anything. Sometimes it’s filtered. Sometimes they add minerals. Check out the Water chapter in What to Eat! Thanks for writing.
Comment by Marion — July 29, 2007 @ 8:52 pm
Hi, great piece, but it took me a while to find the LA Times article itself. Here’s the direct link: http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-fi-water27jul27,1,6319222.story
Comment by Charles — July 30, 2007 @ 12:50 pm
Slightly off topic–what about Brita filters and other home purifiers?
I don’t like that they’re hard to clean, but the water where I live does not taste very good. Do you think these filters really change anything?
Comment by Jennifer — August 10, 2007 @ 6:45 pm
My understanding is that the filters work splendidly to get rid of water gunk, but I’ve never used one. I’d be interested to hear about experience with them.
Comment by Marion — August 10, 2007 @ 8:04 pm
I have had good luck with the Brita filters.
Although I share your concerns about the fetishization of bottled vs tap water, I can’t help but remember the bad old ’80s, when we would stop at gas stations, thirsty, and all they had was soda or water in 1 gallon containers. Being able to buy water in a portion-sized bottle is a huge improvement over having to choose between soda or nothing.
I generally bring my own bottle and refill it, and it appalls me to see some of the waste that goes on, but I still think we’re better off than we used to be.
Comment by elfling — August 24, 2007 @ 10:36 pm
Our family likes filtered water better than our well water for drinking and making tea and coffee. Instead of buying bottles, we installed a filter under our kitchen sink. We do not want to contribute more plastic to our dumps. Also, it seems to me that we are obsessed with keeping a bottle in our mouths all day long (pacifiers?)!
Comment by shelley — October 20, 2007 @ 11:49 am
I think there is a difference in tap water and some others. I use ionized water that I make in my own water ionizer. In addition to removing chlorine, and other toxins, the ionizing process saves alkaline ions for drinking and discards the rest. Alkaline water is certainly an aid in keeping the body alkaline without removing calcium from bones to neutralize acidity and helps prevent osteoporosis. All the tap water and most of the bottled water I’ve tested tests acidic.
Comment by Jill Princehouse — August 12, 2008 @ 9:23 pm