Bottled Water: Choice or Manufactured Demand??

http://www.hluizpresents.com/2010/03/28/bottled-water-choice-or-manufactured-demand/

Drink clean, crisp, bottled water – it’s better and much safer for you than ordinary tap-water… 

Ah yes, we all have fallen victim to the evils of “Manufactured Demand” especially the marketing of bottled water. This particular marketing “machine” has been very successful in making us believe that their bottle water is superior than tap – and worth paying for it too. 
Remember about 20 years ago or so (when the “French” brand bottled-water was the “chic” thing to drink?)  We said, “Pay for water? WHAT?? What’s next, paying for air?”  Well, in the U.S., we currently purchase half a Billion bottles of water a week…a WEEK!  (And as far as “paying for air” -there are quite a few, profitable Oxygen Bars in major cities of the U.S. and abroad.)

 

We have been drinking ”tap-water” filtered by Brita and PUR for the past 10 years in my immediate family.  However, we were paying for it at first at our local supermarket ($1.09 for a gallon of spring water at the time.)  Then about a month of that, we asked ourselves, “Where the hell are we going to store and dispose of all this plastic?”  Admittedly, we asked that question more as apartment dwellers with limited space, rather than eco-conscious folks…that came later. 

Then we decided that enough was enough, so we bought a Brita water pitcher with a charcoal filter. But then that was not enough – we were out of filtered water after a couple of glasses.  It also took awhile for the water to pass through the filter to refill the pitcher as well (15-20 minutes?)  After a month of that, we bought a Brita 3-gallon stand alone water cooler/dispenser in a sleek black color- we loved it!  We would insert two charcoal filters in the base of the cooler, fill up the 3-gallon tank with tap-water, and have cold (or hot) filtered water in an instant – it was heaven.  Then, about a year later under normal wear and tear, it broke down.  We cried.  We looked for a replacement and found out that the product was no longer made – it was recalled and no longer sold.  We later found out that there was a problem with the cooling/heating mechanics of the model and so it was discontinued because it would either just break down or catch fire…we were lucky.  Today, we have an PUR attachment that hooks up to our faucet and so, we have filtered water all the time – as long as we have our charcoal purifying filter inserted in the mechanism – lasts about a month.  It makes our tap-water extra safe  to drink and makes it taste great!  We have aluminum water bottles that we fill up for “on the go” to the gym, work, and school.  
I have always found it ironic, that our tap-water is free of aluminum impurities (thanks to our filter) but then we go ahead and pour that aluminum-free water right into our aluminum bottles. Ha!

Some major water-bottling companies (Pepsi’s Aquafina and Coke’s Dasani for example) are nothing more than filtered tap water anyway (just like we have at home), so why pay hundreds of dollars per month for the same product you can get with a $5 filter?  Pepsi says it has never tried to deceive the general public with its Aquafina brand (yeah’okay Pepsi!)  Aquafina has a blue label showing images of snow-capped mountains and the claim, “Pure water, perfect taste.” The funny thing is, it is allowed under our FDA regulations. Ahhhh…the power of money!

The reasons to stop buying bottled water is just not an economic issue – it’s a health and an environmental issue…all those damn plastic bottles and toxins!  
Our recycled plastic bottles are now being shipped as “waste” in other countries – how’s that recycling?  We are paying and using viable energy to throw away garbage. I guess we’re just dumping our waste onto someone else.  Now it’s no longer our problem, it’s theirs!  Don’t get caught up either on the “new” eco-friendly water bottles either – they are just “downcycled” plastic bottles made of lesser quality (however, made with the same toxins) that they are going to dump anyway after we use and recyle them.
Plastic water bottles are also know to leach chemicals. The bottles are often made of PVC (polyvinyl chloride), which is an environmental hazard itself.  Independent studies of the contents of bottled water have discovered fluoride, phthalates, trihalomethanes and arsenic, either present from the bottling process or from the bottles themselves.  Remember those reusable water bottles, the ones that suppose to help us save the landfills from all of those non bio-degradable plastics? Not so good for us either! For years, some of the most popular “reusable” water bottles have been made from a hard, clear plastic called polycarbonate. The problem is that one of the key components of polycarbonate is the endocrine-disrupting chemical bisphenol-A (BPA). A growing body of research has shown that polycarbonate bottles can leach bisphenol-A into the liquid they contain, making the hard plastic containers toxic water bottles. 
Annie Leonard (narrator of “The Story of Stuff”) has a great new video about the ‘Manufactured Demand” of bottled water.  This is the story that water bottlers Coke, Pepsi, and Nestlé don’t want you to hear — but thanks to Annie, millions of us will.  Be one of the first and help spread the word…

Make an “informed decision” whatever you decide to do with the “source” (and vessel) of your water intake.  If your city’s public water is safe to drink, then by all means drink it.  Install a simple add-on purification filter to your faucet(s).
A wonderful man by the name of Harvey Burko would ALWAYS ask for “NY’s finest tap-water” whenever he would dine out.  He use to say it with such conviction that it would sometimes alarm the waiters and oftentimes embarrass his lovely wife, Shelly.  He didn’t understand the hype of bottled water or maybe it was that he understood too well that New York has one of the cleanest (and best-tasting) public water sources in the U.S.  This post reminds me of a story…
It was the late 1990′s and I walked into the Burko home with bottled water in my hand.  Harvey asked me, “What are you doing?”  I replied and stated the obvious, “Uhm…I’m drinking.”  He said, “You’re drinking?”  Then, he shook his head and lowered his eyes and snickered like he loved to do whenever he “got” me.  “Why are you drinking bottled water, better yet, why did you ‘pay’ to drink that bottled water?”  I couldn’t figure where this was going, so I replied in my matter-of-fact voice, the one I use when I know I’m being setup but can’t figure out why, “Because it’s better for me than tap-water, that’s why.”  Harvey just smiled (I have always known that my “reactions”use to make him guffaw) then he spoke almost in a whisper, “You know Luiz…” he looked around to ensure our privacy, he leaned-in even closer, ”I’m trying to sell this bridge…you want in?” 
jajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajaja!
So, every time the issue of bottled water comes up, my mind races back to Harvey Burko and the lesson he tried to teach me (about 15 years ago) in his inimitable way of not buying (literally) into a farce.  Now, in his memory, I’m trying to teach you the same lesson before you go off and try to buy that bridge.