Bottled Drinking Water
...Is It a Good Option?

In 1976 the average American drank 2 gallons of bottled water a year. By 1996, just 30 years later, the average American drank 30 gallons of bottled water per year. The popularity of bottled drinking water continues to grow During the 5 years between 2999 and 2004, the global consumption of bottled water doubled. In 2004, the market sold 41 billion gallons of drinking water.

The United States leads the world as the biggest drinkers of bottled water, followed by Mexico, then China, then Brazil. However, the country with the most bottled water drinking per person is Italy. Many people view bottled water as their preferred beverage today.

Is Bottled Water Fit for Drinking?

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) recently completed a four year review of bottled drinking water. They tested more than 1000 bottles representing 103 different brands. They found that most of the water was high quality, but that some brands were contaminated. They concluded, "There is no assurance that just because water comes out of a bottle, it is any cleaner or safer than water from a tap."

A comparison of the regulation of bottled drinking water and tap water is rather complex, since bottled water is considered a beverage and is regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) whereas tap water is regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The FDA basically uses the standards of the EPA, but they are lax in enforcing these regulations and require much less frequent testing of bottled water than is required of tap water. All this adds up to the conclusion by the Natural Resources Defense Council study that bottled water regulations "are inadequate to assure customers of either purity or safety."

In short, it would be hard to make a case for saying that bottled water is safer than tap water. Why then are people willing to pay 500 to 1,000 times the cost of tap water for a product of such doubtful quality? Besides the perception of it being safer created by advertising, it usually does taste better than tap water. Most sources of tap water have a chlorine flavor while bottled water has removed the chlorine taste. In fact, bottled water is not even required to be disinfected or tested for parasites. But it usually does taste better!

Is Bottled Water Good for the Environment?

What makes bottled drinking water so expensive is its packaging and distribution costs. It's right here that I believe the battle of words between bottled water versus tap water can easily be decided. A report released by the Earth Policy Institute (EPI) in 2004 revealed that 2.7 million tons of plastic were used to package bottled drinking water. Of this, 86% becomes garbage and is not recycled. If incinerated, it releases toxic chlorine into our atmosphere. Plastic takes between 400 and 1,000 years to degrade, posing a major hazard to our environment.

Because of the unfriendly nature of bottled drinking water to the environment there is a growing "back-to-the-tap movement" that is gaining momentum. There are a growing number of cities which are banning the purchase of bottled water with city funds. They reason this way. "We already spend much time, money and effort assuring the quality of our municipal drinking water which is just as safe or even safer than bottled water. Add to this the increased volume of trash from empty bottled water containers and their pollution of our environment. It just doesn't make sense for us to buy bottled water for municipal functions!"

In November of 2007, the city council of Chicago went so far as to place a 5¢ tax on every bottle of water sold in the city, to discourage consumption and to cover the cost of landfill. And so the war between the bottle and the tap escalates!

Let me add a note in defense of bottled water under certain circumstances. There are many countries which don't have access to safe tap water or even safe water in their rivers and streams. In such places bottled water is a godsend. None of what has been said about the cost of bottled water, the quality of bottled water, or the hazard of bottled water to the environment applies when the alternative is polluted water that caries sickness and serious contamination.

Is There a Better Option?

Rather than argue endlessly about the relative quality of tap water versus bottled water, it only makes sense to look for another solution. Water filters start with tap water and purify it to the desired level of purity. If all you want is a better taste or odor, use a simple pitcher filter or faucet filter. If you want to remove specific contaminants, find out which filter effectively removes those contaminants. If you want the highest quality of drinking water, choose a filter that can effectively reduced any contaminants that could endanger health and destroyed all microorganisms and viruses. For more information on this go to our page on how to choose a water filter or go directly to a consideration of some of the best water filters of various kinds available to you. Go to All about Water Filters".

For further discussion of bottled water and related subjects go to Bottled Drinking Water.