The Truth about Bottled Water

*This is a speech I gave today. I thought that it was blog worthy.

What would you do if your father died from dehydration in the desert while serving in the Peace Corps? Well, if you’re Bobby Boucher from the famous 1998 Adam Sandler movie, “The Waterboy,” you would become the most skilled water purification expert in all of Louisiana. Turns out Bobby’s dad didn’t actually die from dehydration, but because of his mother’s cruel lie, the Louisiana State University Mud Dogs benefitted from some “high quality H20.” As a first world country, we have an unlimited supply of clean, fresh water and don’t have to rely on a Waterboy for it. We have access to it directly from the tap and use it to boil our potatoes for dinner, to wash the filth off of our cars, to filter coffee grinds, and to surprise attack our friends with Super Soakers. However, the way that humanity as a whole uses water the most is obviously for hydration. Doctors recommend drinking at least 8 to 12 glasses of water each day. If a person were to drink 12 eight ounce glasses of water every day for a year, they would consume 273 gallons of water, which is equivalent to almost seven bathtubs full of water. However, according to USA Today, 16 percent of Americans do not drink water from a glass anymore at all; all of the water they consume is packaged in a plastic bottle and labeled as purified. In the same article, we read that 59 percent of Americans drink bottled water on occasion. These surprisingly high percentages prove that Americans depend too highly on bottled water as a main source of drinking water. Over the next few minutes I will inform you of the history of bottled water, myths concerning the quality and source of bottled water, the environmental detriments caused by the production and consumption of bottled water, and some steps we can take to correct this issue.

To begin, let’s look at the history of bottled water in the United States. Although bottled water seems like a recent development due to its recent popularity in the marketplace, it has been around for a long time. The research and findings of Professor Noah Hall of Wayne State University Law School show that bottled water predates the country’s independence. Records show that bottled water was sold in Boston as early as the year 1767. In the earlier nineteenth century, when glass technologies advanced, bottled water was made and sold to a large clientele. Bottled water went out of style in the earlier twentieth century when municipal public water infrastructures made tap water consistently healthy to drink. In 1977, Perrier, a company based out of France, launched a 5 million dollar campaign to resurrect bottled water by importing it from overseas. Perrier’s success in the market led directly to the 61 billion dollar industry that exists today.

This water bottle industry has flourished in recent history due to creative marketing skills. Water bottle manufacturers use scare tactics to convince the public that tap water is of low quality and isn’t safe to drink. According to the video, “The Story of Bottled Water,” by Annie Leonard, FIJI Water, a company based on the island of Fiji, started a campaign in Cleveland, Ohio to promote their product. According to the FIJI Water website, their state-of-the-art facility was designed to protect the purity of the water and ensure that no human hands are allowed to touch it. The advertising tagline that was plastered all over billboards read, “The label says FIJI because it’s not bottled in Cleveland.” Many Cleveland natives, including some prestigious researchers, were offended by FIJI’s advertising, so they decided to test FIJI Water for themselves. These tests proved that FIJI brand bottled water was of lower quality and continually lost in taste tests when compared to Cleveland tap water, not to mention that is costs 2,000 times more than water from the tap.

Several misleading myths surround the bottled water craze. Aside from their scare tactics, bottled water producers often try to seduce us with the labels placed on the bottles. Snow capped mountains and secluded streams cover the water bottle labels, tricking us into thinking that the source of the water is pure, pristine and natural. But guess where 25 percent of bottled water actually comes from? Tap water. Pepsi and Coke have both admitted that their products, Dasani and Aquafina, are both filtered from municipal water sources. According to the online article, The Facts about Bottled Water, 22% of tested brands contained chemical contaminants at levels above strict health standards, proving that the screening process before the water is bottled is flawed. Municipal water sources, better known as your local tap water sources, must be tested for e-coli, are required to provide information regarding the source of the water, and must produce regular quality reports. Bottled water manufacturers are not held to these same standards. One of the only benefits that bottled water can claim over tap water is that it can still be distributed even when tap water standards are not met.

Now that we’ve uncovered some truths about bottled water, let’s look at the impact the bottled water industry is having economically and environmentally. Let’s start with the production of the bottles. In the United States alone manufacturing companies use 17 million barrels of oil annually to produce the plastic bottles. That is enough oil and energy to fuel 1 million cars. Although that is a shocking number, what may be even more surprising is that only one in five water bottles produced is ever recycled, which means the other four line landfills and contribute to the 3 billion pounds of waste created by water bottles. Annie Leonard, creator of the video I mentioned earlier, “The Story of Bottled Water,” was curious to see what happened to the water bottles that she recycled at her local recycling center in California. She discovered that the bottles she recycled were shipped to India, where they lay in landfill-like piles until someone makes an attempt to recycle them. However, she noted that the bottles were not being truly recycled at all. True recycling would turn a water bottle back into a water bottle. Her recycled bottles were being “downcycled,” a process which turns the plastic into a lower quality plastic which eventually becomes unrecyclable and is added to a landfill. In short, she found that her recycling bottles were ending up in another country’s backyard.

Although some of these issues seem insurmountable, there are steps that you can take individually to reduce the amount of oil used by manufacturing companies, diminish the waste caused by unrecycled water bottles, and to save some of your hard earned money. You could join a campaign to bring back public water fountains. You could also lobby local politicians and urge them to consider increasing funding for municipal water infrastructures. At Friends University a movement could be started within the student government association’s GoGreen committee to ban bottled water sales on campus

On a more practical and individual note, you can commit to not purchasing bottled water. I will admit that for my first two years at Friends University, I purchased a case of bottled water nearly every two weeks. Over those two years I consumed approximately 1,500 bottles of water, of which hardly any were recycled. Considering this from a financial standpoint, I spent close to $250 dollars on bottled water over two years. This Christmas, however, I received a gift that has eliminated my use of bottled water. This simple machine is a Filtrete Water Purifier. For an initial expense of 30 dollars, I have enjoyed three months of clean, purified water straight from the tap. The only maintenance expense is the filter, which costs around 10 dollars and should be replaced every three months. With this water purifier, I will save over 140 dollars over the span of two years. You can purchase water purifiers at Wal-Mart, and they typically cost around 30 dollars. Another gift I received is something that you probably see me carrying around campus every day: my bright green ninja turtle water bottle. For an initial expense of around ten dollars, I now enjoy the freedom to fill my bottle at any time I choose, and it’s absolutely free. Refillable personal water bottles can be purchased at stores like Wal-Mart and Target for anywhere between 3 and 15 dollars.

Americans have become too reliant on bottled water as a main source of drinking water. The water is often of lower quality and typically 2,000 times the amount of water straight from the tap. Next time you consider purchasing a bottle of water, don’t be fooled by clever advertisement schemes and remember that 25% of bottled water is just filtered tap water. There are simple steps that we can take to solve this issue. Please join me in saying “no” to bottled water and making a personal effort to counteract the wasteful habit of bottled water consumption.