Bottled Water: The Height of Stupidity

[marmar]

via AlterNet:



Bottled Water: The Height of Stupidity

By Diane Francis, Huffington Post. Posted August 6, 2008.

Bottled water is a joke, one of the biggest consumer and taxpayer ripoffs ever.



Bottled water is a joke, one of the biggest consumer and taxpayer ripoffs ever. I applaud California's Attorney General Jerry Brown who said recently that he will sue to block a proposed water-bottling operation in Northern California by Nestle.

Next, Attorneys General everywhere should require recycling of all plastic bottles and containers by requiring deposits to be paid to encourage returns, as is the case with aluminum cans. Not only do society and the environment pay an unfair price for this consumer hoax, but consumers are being hoodwinked. They are paying from 300 to 3,000 times more than the cost of tap water without any benefit.

An estimate by a University of Toronto geology professor Andrew Miall, who took a picture of a grocery store skid of bottled water and calculated the extent of the ripoff, found the stack of bottles:

* Contains 24,192 bottles, each containing 500 ml of water, a total of 12,096 liters of water, in 314.5 kg of plastic

* Purchase price of the $4.99 per 24-bottle pack is $0.42 per liter for a total retail value of $5,029.92

* To purchase the same volume of water in bulk through Toronto's domestic water supply would cost $16.93

The scam

The water is usually not superior to "city" water or tap water, and is merely a big branding hoax by soda makers. In some cases, this "designer" water is drawn from tap water and labeled for suckers to buy as though it is a superior product.

Dasani in Britain was caught doing this. There are not regulations or proper labeling requirements governing bottled water as there is involving tap water. Some water may be contaminated. ....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/water/94174/bottled_water%3A_the_height_of_stupidity/

[Warpy]

1. It's silly in the first world where potable water comes out of the tap

I have lived in a place where the water wasn't potable and I had a water service deliver it in 5 gallon jugs.

Since I've had the luxury of turning on a tap and drinking a glass of water out of it, no way. I can't imagine lugging all those damn bottles home from the grocery every week if I don't have to.

I do use a Brita filter for the ice water I keep in the fridge, just to remove the chlorine that makes my tea taste funny.

[Nederland]

2. My ex-wife used to by tons of bottled water

bugged the shit out of me.

[kestrel91316]

3. I pride myself on never having fallen for the bottled water scam.

Now soda, lol, that's another matter. I do enjoy the Coke Zero fairly often.......