bottled water is bullshit

[lurkerguy]

Evian backwards is naivE.

The water actually develops harmful bacteria from sitting around for months on shelves getting all stagnant.

 

[pillsnapa]

Not if it's purified and sealed properly. Which brings me to an important point with bottled water.

If you turn it upside down and there is an air bubble moving, try a different brand.
You should be able to shake the bottle and have no bubbles in it. Should look like a solid chunk of clear glass. Hold it up to strong light...generally you can actually SEE particles in cheap water! You get what you pay for with water too.

 

[glitterbizkit]

Meh, I've never bothered with tap water. Waste of plastic if you ask me, I consume enough anyway, and the thought of buying water in bottles every day when you can get it out of a tap or at least buy some kind of purifier that you can re-use just represents the height of unnecessary and decadent (and, I'd almost say, disgusting) consumerism. I'm mildly concerned about chlorine levels and all that, but not enough to waste my money on bottled water.

When I lived in Africa, we couldn't drink water straight from the tap - cholera bacterias and all that... Some fancy people buy bottled water but we just boiled all our water before drinking instead. When we lived on a farm we had our own borehole though, we could drink that straight from the tap and it tasted gooood. Also there's nothing like drinking water straight from a spring. My boyfriend grew up in a small town in the mountains famous for it's spring water... They had different kinds, some of them were loaded with minerals and tasted really salty and disgusting, while others were great. Must be fantastic just being able to get fresh spring water every day

 

[glitterbizkit]

I wonder what the ratio of: pollution you are not putting into yourself (supposedly cleaner bottled water) v.s. pollution put into the environment through the extraction and manufacturing of said bottle of water

Exactly my fucking point.

Our environment is getting more and more fucked up and despite that people are just consuming more and more... We'll just never learn will we?

(And yes I speak for myself too, I consume more than I should as well... But I draw the line at silly things like bottled water).

 

[JerryBlunted]

usually when you get a filter for a house its a charcoal based filter that lasts a lot longer than a few hundred gallons. you can get them for all your taps, fridge, and showers. i've worked on some houses that had pretty expensive set ups installed, but personally i don't give a shit i just roll with tap water. i live on a small island with little industry and i'm about 100 miles away from new york now so i think i'm okay.

 

[nofx]

got the water filter bullshit on the fridge wit da ice maker only thing is the filter will get dirty in like 3-4 months so gotta constantly be changin it

 

[Chronik Fatigue]

Grrr. This brand pisses me off, their advertising slogan is 'what eco system does you water come from'. They are trying to use environmentalism to hock their product but would never mention the HUGE problem caused by bottled water, in terms of waste and the obscene ammounts of energy used to manufacture their plastic. If you have the slightest concern for the environment you wouldn't drink bottled bloody water

This week's AskPablo comes from Maryline: "I am interested to know the 'true-cost' of a bottle of Fiji water that currently sells for $1.50 in the United States. David Lazarus wrote a report on the water business in the SF Chronicle and studied the success of Fiji (January 21 edition), where 'distance and exoticism are marketed as advantages.' Fiji is now # 2 in premium bottled water, behind Evian where we have the same transportation issue. An environmental absurdity!"

I agree! I once heard Julia "Butterfly" Hill (everyone's favorite tree-sitting sweetheart) say that it takes more water to make the plastic bottle than it actually holds. We might as well put that myth to the test while we're at it. Where do we begin? Well, I doubt that Fiji has a booming plastics industry so they probably get the bottles from China. I would suspect that they get the bottles in the form of "Blanks" which are then expanded to their final size and shaped by a process called "stretch blow molding." The total mass of the empty 1 liter bottle is probably around 0.125kg (125g) and it is probably made from PETE or HDPE (Sorry, I'm not running out to the store to check). Plastics of this type typically use around 6kg of oil per kg, 200kg of water per kg, and result in around 3kg of greenhouse gas emissions per kg. So, with a quick check (200kg/kg x 0.125kg = 25kg of water) we find that Butterfly is indeed correct. Based on my assumptions a bottle that holds 1 liter requires 25 liters of water in its manufacturing process (this includes power plant cooling water).

Let's take a look at the transportation aspect to see what the total ecological impact of an exotic bottle of water might be. A container vessel uses 9g of fuel per tkm (that's metric tons carried x distance traveled), 80g of water per tkm, and releases 17g of GHGs per tkm. The distance from China to Fiji is 8,000km, which gives us exactly 1tkm ( (0.125kg / 1t/1000kg) x 8,000km = 1.0tkm). So, 9g of fossil fuels, 80g of water, and 17g of GHGs per bottle delivered to Fiji from China.

Now let's look at the trip to the US. The distance from Fiji to San Francisco is 8,700km. But this time the bottles will be full, so they will have a mass of 1.125kg each. This gives us a much larger value of 9.8tkm ( (1.125kg / 1t/1000kg) x 8,700km = 9.8tkm) which I will round up to 10tkm. So, 90g of fossil fuels, 800g of water, and 170g of GHGs per bottle delivered to the US from Fiji.

Since the fossil fuels end up being accounted for in the GHG emissions I'll ignore those values for now. The total amount of water used to produce and deliver one bottle of exotic water is 26.88kg (25kg + 80g + 1kg + 800g)! And the amount of GHGs released amount to 562g (375g + 17g + 170g), or 0.562kg, or 0.000562 tons. If you wanted to offset your annual exotic water habit (are you eco-chic Hollywood types listening?) with DriveNeutral it would cost you $1.54 (0.000562 tons/day x 365 days/year x $7.50/ton), just 4 cents more than the cost of one bottle of water.

But how much does it cost to deliver the water from halfway around the world? Let's assume that the cost of transportation is based on our fossil fuel use assumptions above and that the bottle producer and the shipping company charge double their material cost. I am not sure if these are valid assumptions, but they are just assumptions after all... So, 0.75kg of fossil fuels to make the bottle, 9g to deliver it to Fiji, and 90g to deliver the full bottle to the US. From economics we learn that fixed costs (equipment, etc.) in high-volume production are negligible in the long run so it is pretty safe to assume that the cost of making and delivering the bottled water is linked to its variable cost. In this case the variable cost is the fossil fuel (since the water comes out of the ground for free), which amounts to 0.849 kg. A standard oil barrel holds 159 liters and one liter of oil weighs 850g/liter, so one barrel holds 135.15kg of oil. One barrel costs between $40 and $70 (let's say $55, depending on OPEC's mood and other factors), so 0.849kg would cost $0.35 (1 barrel/135.15kg x $55/barrel x 0.849kg). And applying our earlier mark-up assumption, the cost to produce and deliver a bottle of exotic water is $0.70, leaving $0.80 per bottle profit for the manufacturer and the retail store.

I hope that answers your question Maryline!

Pablo Päster, MBA
Sustainability Engineer
www.AskPablo.org
Pablo(dot)Paster(at)gmail(dot)com

http://www.triplepundit.com/pages/askpablo-exotic-bottled-water-002401.php

 

[pillsnapa]

Seems a waste but it does create lots of jobs and the economy keeps turning over...

 

[JerryBlunted]

the water cycle is good shit, but all those petroleum byproducts aren't helping any of us

 

[smoove]

A waste of money, people who buy it are idiots. (Unless they have no other option). I feel like smacking loads of people that work with me, they waste about $5 a day on bottled water when theres a DRINKING fucking tap BEHIND them. Bottles empty > fill it up. How fucking hard is that.

 

[haribo1]

I used to buy those really big 5l bottles of spring water for my cat. I gave it her once and then she simply hated tap-water. She likes it out of the fridge in a porcalain bowl 1/2 full. I know it's silly, but she knows the difference.
The joke water is that Dasani stuff which is filtered tap water. It was brought out in the UK and when it was revealed as a crock it lasted about 3 months. I mean, if it was loads cheaper than the spring-waters, then fine, but it was still 89p for a small bottle.

 

[getreal]

A waste of money, people who buy it are idiots. Bottles empty > fill it up. How fucking hard is that.

What difference s it if you can afford it? Why should I fill it up if I dont ever feel like it???? BLah on your comment

 

[Jabberwocky]

I like distilled water the best. I have one of those water machines in my house cuz I have well water and need to drink the bottled stuff.

when I buy individual bottles, though, I prefer Dasani.

Why drink distilled water when you can drink double distilled water(!)? Two heads are better than one!!

 

[Oswald]

LaWLZ0rZZZ 4nd RAWFUL @ Fiji.

 

[Chronik Fatigue]

What difference s it if you can afford it? Why should I fill it up if I dont ever feel like it????

Because you and 300 million other people are going to kill the fucking planet. Come the revolution, comrade, you will be the first with your back up against the wall

 

[Chronik Fatigue]

Seems a waste but it does create lots of jobs and the economy keeps turning over...

Yeah who needs an ecosystem when you have an economy!@!@!@!@!@!@ lolwtfbbq!@!@!@!@!

Tool

8(

 

[thujone]

Because you and 300 million other people are going to kill the fucking planet. Come the revolution, comrade, you will be the first with your back up against the wall

bit of an overreaction eh? it's not like we live in the industrial age; there are pretty strict government limitations on industry that's harmful to the environment. You don't think you're part of the 300 million that are harming the planet? Do you smoke cigarettes? Butts that you flick on the street harm the environment. Do you drive a car? those emissions are also harmful to the environment. Do you recycle? That also requires use of extra petroleum resources that you're speaking out against right now!

Now... I buy bottled water, and I truly enjoy water with extremely low mineral contents because it's softer water that actually quenches my thirst instead of making me fucking thirstier then crap like Dasani does. I even go as far as to recycle by simply refilling bottles I've used, and lately I've been buying water bottled in glass over concerns about the negative health impact of water contained for long periods of time in cheap plastic. But me, or you, or even your whole neighbourhood boycotting bottled water isn't going to do any less harm for the environment. Have you ever even seen an assembly line? The machine just goes on and on, completely oblivious and regardless of us or our concerns. The only thing we can do is put our faith in the government of the land where that factory resides, and hope that they ensure the plant uses as many green technologies as possible.

If you're actually as concerned about the environment as your tone seems to suggest, why not find out about ways you can support your local government passing and maintaining bylaws that benefit your neighbourhood? If you speak out against a product that has it's roots and engages the economies of all developed and most developing nations worldwide, you'll just be making yourself angry instead over things you can't help. But supporting environmental initiatives locally is something that you actually can succeed at and enjoy the benefits of. I know I sure am, as I sip my ostentatious bottle of british colombian glacier water with less than 5ppm mineral content in the public park I helped beautify

 

[Tranced]

I dont like any water other than natural spring water and even then i really dislike water.

I refuse to buy dasani etc...due to their only being 'purified'

When that first came out I thought I was being clever by filling my college bag with free hand outs from central station.

It wasn't untill I started buying it again that I found out it was Thames water and gave you cancer.

 

[haribo1]

Because you and 300 million other people are going to kill the fucking planet. Come the revolution, comrade, you will be the first with your back up against the wall

Errr... possibly a SLIGHT over-reaction there, mate. Isn't flying one of the worst wastes of oil & greatest pollutant? Or driving? There are a lot of worse things than bottled water. At least you can recycle the bottles... plus my cat wouldn't drink tap water again and she was the boss...

To be fair, now I'm back in Manchester, the tap-water is fine. Straight from the Lake District, soft & sweet.

 

[getreal]

Because you and 300 million other people are going to kill the fucking planet. Come the revolution, comrade, you will be the first with your back up against the wall

Ha ha ha ha!

Yea, I'm gonna kill the planet- Bang Bang and throw my water bottle!
Dont worry about it ok? Settle down! Geez....... You should really try an ECO board to get these frustrations out.

You may be bashing very nice people but you'll never know it huh?

By the time the planet is dead- a VERY long time from now, YOU will be way DEAD and gone. Oh, and my back wont be against the wall cause I'll too, be dead by then!

I put this in a NSFW so you arent embarassed~

NSFW:

OH SHIT- I forgot to tell you- dont be bummed but they have bottled water in hell...LMFAO