It’s probably accepted by most people nowadays that we need to drink plenty of water to stay healthy, avoid dehydration and to operate efficiently. The amount of water you require will vary according to your body mass and size, the ambient conditions you find yourself in and the level of physical activity in which you are engaged. However, most medical authorities currently suggest that you should typically be drinking between six and eight large glasses of water on a daily basis.
This perfectly sound medical advice has been one factor used in the advertising campaigns of bottled water suppliers to very effectively market their product. The market for bottled water is relatively new – but it is huge. Consumer demand for bottled water more than doubled between 1997 and 2005, and over 200 billion bottles of water are sold worldwide per annum.
That’s a lot of empty bottles being discarded. Some – a little less than 25% according to current statistics – are recycled. The rest go to landfill. The environmental consequences are significant. If all of those empty bottles were aligned end to end, they would span a distance covered long enough to get to the moon and back – 56 times!
The amount of carbon emissions involved, both in the production of the bottles and the transportation of the finished product, is also worthy of consideration. It’s an amazing fact that the production of the bottles uses three times as much water as the bottles contain when they are shipped.
Bottled water is, simply put, an environmental disaster. Of course, it’s just possible that you may be more concerned with your own health than that of the planet’s – which might be understandable in some cases. The flaw inthis logical process is that there is no evidence that bottled water is any better for your health than plain old tap water.
Tap water in North America and Europe is perfectly safe to drink and is subject to stringent checks. Some bottled water has been found to contain traces of uranium and estrogen chemicals. Some chemicals found in bottled water are due to “leeching” from the plastic (PET) bottles. It has also been found that many bottled waters contain, in addition to other minerals, salt – which is bad for your blood pressure.
The only reason you might conceivably be tempted to use bottled water would be the taste. However, in blind taste tests the majority of people are unable to distinguish between tap water and bottled water. Of course, if you live in a hard water area, or if you really don’t like the taste of your tap water (possibly due to chlorine added by the water authority to kill bacteria) you may wish to review your alternatives.
You could consider using a home filtration system – which will be better for the environment, better for your health and very much cheaper than bottled water. You can install whole house filtration systems, under sink filters or even just use something as simple as a Brita filter jug. All of these solutions will remove contaminants, enhance taste and reduce water hardness in a manner which is environmentally friendly.
