Bottled Water .. Why would stopping buying Bottled Water help save the Environment ?

Question

Sky News has a story on its website - Video Clip of a Woman Babbling on about not buying bottled water - to help save the Environment....I know my head is up my rectum today - but can someone explain How ...by not buying a wee bottle of Glesga Spring or Evian,... I would be helping to save the Planet ,

http://news.sky.com/skynews/video/videoplayer/0,,31200-greenbritain_ugc_waterfilter,00.html

McQ - Yeh! I know - but we dont want the rest of the world to know about our water - you know - it might stop raining here one day...haha! Best Wishes Lord G..

Answer 1

It's just another greenie flapping, she's twittering on about plastic bottles, and how they are going into landfill sites and stuff. Basically I've switched off to these god damn annoying people, half the time they don't have a clue about what they're on about!

Answer 2

Yes we all know about the bottles, and the plastic, and the resources used to manufacture them, and also the transport costs etc etc etc, but I will not drink tap water that has been, against a great deal of peoples wishes, poisoned by the addition of fluoride...if people are concerned about their children's teeth then get them to clean their teeth more often using a widely available fluoride toothpaste, and get them to stop eating so many sweets and drinking soda pops which are full of sugar....I also have no desire to drink water which has passed through someones body at least three times thank you very much!

We used to make coffee using bottled water and my husband started to use tap water instead. Our kettle used to be clear of any limescale or anything else. After he started using tap water, we had a sticky brown substance appear on the bottom of the kettle which we could not clean off...we went back to using bottled water and have a new kettle.

The aforementioned soda reaches the shops in...you guessed it...plastic bottles...and aluminium cans..and I would hazard a guess that there are far more of those sold a day than there are bottles of water...so why is she picking on water alone!

BTW the bottles I use end up in the recycling bin...

Answer 3

Yes, it would save on transport costs and on the environmental effects of the plastic, which are made using hydrocarbons.

Tuppence is right to draw attention to the cancer concerns concerning the bottles. Also, there have been suggestions that the polymers leached from plastic bottles (and other food wrappings) are detrimental to male potency and may contribute to decreasing fertility in the developed world. There are circumstances in which it is useful or necessary to have bottled water and in such cases (except in situations like sports where unbreakability is an obvious need) I would much rather buy water in a glass bottle than a plastic one. In fact I handed in a comment slip to that effect at my local supermarket, but they probably thought I was just being silly. I did mean it.

Answer 4

She might be talking about the use of plastics to convey the water, or that water should be free.

I know a musician who HAD to switch to bottled water because they travelled and constant exposure to local microorganisms unfamiliar to his system and high salt content near oceans, etc., forced him to switch to preserve his voice and to keep him from getting sick. For some people, bottled water isn't just a convenience - its a necessity. I buy it in bulk once in a while and it seems to make my coffee taste vastly better. Also, there are less chemicals (if any) in it, so there are less possible long-term effects from drinking tap water, which may contain chlorine and which is linked to prostate cancer.

After viewing the video, the lady's complaint seems to be that we are wasting resources by transporting water great distances for purposes solely of commerciality, and she does have a point there. However, if I buy my water in bulk at a local supermarket, this pretty much eliminates that argument. I could put in a filtration system, but I don't own the place I live in, so I don't see a whole lot of sense to it, especially when local bottled water is so inexpensive anyway.

Answer 5

Bottled water comes in ... bottles! And bottles are made of plastic! And the production of plastic costs a lot of energy (oil, for instance, to keep the machinery running). Additionally: plastic is not biodegradable!

And thus, by buying bottled water you are contributing to the ever growing waste dump!

Last but not least: many, many, many plastic bottles end up in the environment because people are too lazy to keep them until they bump into a dustbin.

Answer 6

As other people said here, its fairly obvious why consuming bottled water has environmental impact. Its sadly more necessary in developing countries to drink bottled water but in America or Europe, the excuses get a little thin.

The energy cost of producing billions of plastic bottles from by-products of crude oil, transporting the water over hundreds or thousands of miles and then disposing the containers in landfill sites or incinerators make bottled water one of the Western world's most wasteful luxuries.

One recent study calculated that the bottled water industry in the UK generated annually about 33,200 tons of carbon dioxide emissions through transport - equivalent to the annual energy consumption of 6,000 homes.

But I'd like to focus on what you actually get for your money, from a UK perspective.

At an average of 95p per litre, bottled water it costs as much as petrol, while the average cost of tap water in the UK is £1 per 10,000 litres.

Also, at least in Western Countries, tap water is in no way inferior to bottled water. the UK's Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI) showed that British tap water met some of the most stringent quality standards in the world, in 99.96 per cent of cases. This is as high as the standards for bottled water.

Don't forget there have been numerous scandals regarding bottled water quality. From Perrier's benzene contamination, to Dansai's poorly judged entry into the UK market (it transpired that it was simply filtered tap water and that this additional filtration process actually contaminated it. It was withdrawn entirely). There have also been fears of cancer-causing chemicals leaching from the plastic bottles if exposed to sunlight for long periods.

Surveys have shown from blind taste tests that Thames Water region (London, UK) tap water was equal if not superior to leading branded bottled waters. T

he reason people believe its better is all down to clever marketing, but if people are really that concerned about flavour, a filtration system in your own house is far cheaper and equally as effective as bottled water.

Answer 7

Presuming you do not live in the alp region of France the water has to be trasnsported to yourself which would the release of carbon into the atmosphere. Council pop comes straight out of the tap and is therefore fairly carbon neutral and also has the benefit of largely being a form of recycled water.

Answer 8

Water to your tap is ok. Water in a bottle is first put through processing because it needs to meet EU standards.Then its pumped using electricity into bottles that have been made using electricity then put into boxes of plastic and heat sealed using electricity then transported to a lorry by an electric forklift then transported by road hundreds of miles burning up petrol polluting the atmosphere to a depot were they are of loaded by another eclectic forklift only to be put on another lorry by the same forklift to be taken to the shop were you buy it and transport it back to your house in your car. Which you then chill in your ozone unfriendly fridge to be drunk when you choose. You then put the empty bottle in to the bin which is picked up and taken by another lorry to recycling plant which using electric make it into something else. DO ME A FAVOUR TURN ON THE TAP.

Answer 9

Goodness only knows - I can't think of any logical reasons! I wish I didn't have to buy bottled water but the tap water in my flat is so heavily chlorinated that it's undrinkable. I think they need to provide better quality tap water if they want people to stop buying bottles of the stuff.

Answer 10

Because of the energy and resources required to get that little bottle into your hands. Electricity to pump it and filter it of cow poo (for example), oil to make the plastic bottles, fuel to transport the bottle to the supermarket, more fuel for you to drive to the supermarket and buy the bottle.
Instead you could have turned on your tap in the kitchen. It's quicker, cheaper, and cleaner.