Bottled water was shrewdly promoted by companies as a substitute for tap water, asserting that it had a lower risk of contamination and offered unique health advantages due to its special minerals. Presently, a staggering 480 billion plastic bottles are utilized each year. Consumers in the United States alone buy 50 billion bottles of water annually. To package this immense quantity of water, more than 17 billion barrels of crude oil are utilized to produce plastic bottles. This quantity of oil would be sufficient to power 1 million cars on a yearly basis.
Bottled water undergoes an extensive journey before reaching consumers, resulting in various ethical and environmental consequences. Have you ever pondered about the origins of bottled water? It may seem like a mundane item, often found in fridges or stockpiled in cars for emergencies. However, have you considered how the water made its way into the bottle and why we are willing to pay a premium for it when tap water is significantly cheaper?
Most bottled water is actually tap water
According to various estimates, approximately sixty four percent of bottled water is actually tap water. Numerous bottled water brands merely repackage tap water and profit greatly from it. Notably, Dasani is owned by Coca-Cola, Aquafina and LIFEWTR are owned by PepsiCo, and PureLife and Poland Spring are owned by Nestle, among other brands. Despite claims of a filtering process, experts assert that the water remains unchanged in terms of health and safety.
Based on the EWG’s research, as of now, approximately 85% of the population is consuming tap water that has more than 300 contaminants, with over half of them not being regulated by the EPA.
Here’s a list of five popular bottled tap water brands:
Filtered Tap Water
- Aquafina
- Dasani
- Essentia
- LIFEWTR (the one with the artistic labels)
- Nestlé Pure Life
If you are in search of water originating from a ‘pristine’ source, indicating that the source is safeguarded and thus the water is unlikely to have any harmful substances that may pose a risk to individuals with compromised immune systems or other health conditions, seek out the following markers:
- Artesian water
- Spring water
- Well water
