Eco-friendly plastic bottled water? A Scam is a Scam is a Scam

Like coffee, we consume a lot of water in our house. I have to tell you that up until about 3 months ago, we were the ones loading several cases of bottled water from Costco into our truck every couple of weeks. And so there it was, a convenient bottle of pure water available to us anytime we wanted. And it looked good in our Sub Zero fridge - organized in several rows, sitting at attention everytime we opened the fridge door begging us to drink up. This post is about a lot of things gone bad...bottled water, bottled water in PLASTIC bottles, and marketing "eco-friendly" bottled water! I was at Costco and saw the New and Improved "eco-friendly" bottled water by Arrowhead (more on that later). I thought, "Wow, this is bad, really bad." This is almost like BMW when they show wind turbines in the car commercials when their cars have nothing to do with wind turbines. It's cool to be green these days and the companies are keen to it. Why is the eco-friendly plastic water bottle a scam? Consider the issues of water quality, fuel consumption and plastic concerns.

I have been reading a lot about bottled water, the quality myth (it's not better quality) and the huge toll it puts on the environment with the fuel needed to truck the water to stores and the bottles that dont get recycled because it's not convenient. Not to mention that bottled water costs 1000 times more than dear old TAP water. Did you know that some brands of bottled water were no better than TAP and TAP water is actually treated more thoroughly. And did you know that some of your favorite bottled waters are actually TAP water just in convenient plastic bottles? For example, Aquafina sold in Michigan comes from the city of Detroit's water system. Dasani sold in Michigan is also Detroit city water; and the Propel sold in Michigan is flavored water from municipal water systems in Indianapolis and New Jersey, company officials said.

If you want to find out if you are a "daft" consumer when it comes to bottled water, check out the article in The Economist The Economist is good reading if your brain is receptive :) The net net is that Pepsi (Aquafina) and Coke (Dasani) promote bottled water as a healthier alternative to tap water when those products are, in fact, purified tap water. So now what do you believe?

So while I haven't completed transitioned to tap water, I have stopped buying any bottled water and now go to a neighborhood water store and fill 4 GLASS 3 gallon bottles that we use to dispense our water. And due to lead concerns, we did not opt for a ceramic crock but instead a hand-powered pump (it works fine and does wonders for the biceps). Some day I will transition to tap but because of the water concerns in our own city and because I have young children, I will continue to fill up at the water store to be sure the water is thoroughly processed.

I recommend you try this if you still drinking from bottles, you'll be doing a lot for the environment and for your health (no plastic). And not to mention your kitchen - you free up space in your pantry and your fridge - it's very liberating! I recommend the glass bottles over the plastic ones - they are more expensive and the store usually has to order, BUT they wont leach harmful chemicals (BPA) into your water and into your body (yes plastic is bad) but the water in glass bottles just twinkles and looks so pure and wonderful! Glass is back in vogue!

Okay now about the eco-friendly water bottles by Arrowhead this is an attempt by the company to get on the "environment" bandwagon. It's still bottled so it takes fuel to get it to you, it's still tap water, and it's still in plastic bottle (which is bad for your health and adds to recycling problems).

More on the plastic concerns later - I have a ton of stuff on that (soon to be organized on a website) and I want to keep you coming back... so stay tuned. In the meantime, drink up, but drink sensibly - from your TAP (check your local municipal water company's latest quality report) or try switching from bottles to 3-5 gallon water bottles to dispense your pure water.

And if you are looking for the new chic bottles to tote your water in, Check out SIGG and Klean Kanteen. We have purchased both products for the whole family - they even make a sippy for the kids (our boys love them!). The great thing is they are reusable, cool looking AND NO PLASTIC!!!! (there are lots of horomone disrupting chemicals in plastic that leach out into your drinks... more on that in another post...)

Thirsty now?