The Effects of Bottled Water on the Environment
It is hard to argue the fact that waste management has become a large problem in the world, with landfills growing to enormous sizes and recycling rates remaining dismally low. The number of plastic bottles produced by the bottled water industry and subsequently discarded by consumers has only exacerbated this problem.
Besides the sheer number of plastic bottles produced each year, the energy required to manufacture and transport these bottles to market severely drains limited fossil fuels. Bottled water companies, due to their unregulated use of valuable resources and their production of billions of plastic bottles have presented a significant strain on the environment.
The authors of the WWF report suggested that water bottles be washed and reused in order to lessen their negative impact on the environment.
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Unfortunately, reusing plastic bottles further compromises the quality of the water, due to the fact that more and more phthalate leaches its way into the water as the bottle gets older. In another suggestion, the authors recommended that bottled water companies use local bottling facilities in order to lessen fuel expenditures for transportation needs. Regrettably, local bottling further compromises water quality due to the reduced health standards for in-state bottled water production and consumption. It seems there is no feasible solution to this problem. The bottled water industry causes a severe strain on the environment, but solutions to this environmental damage significantly lessen the quality of water in the bottles.
Bottled water, due to several factors, is clearly not a healthier or purer alternative to tap water. Also, bottled water is outrageously expensive when compared to the cost per gallon of tap water. If one is choosing only between tap water and bottled water, tap water is plainly the more economical, and, in many cases, the healthier choice. Despite this assertion, tap water does not remain without its problems.
The concerns over the quality and safety of tap water that sparked the growth of the bottled water industry are still entirely present.
Tap water is nowhere near free from dangerous contaminants.
The most recent and innovative solution to the problems of low water quality has come about in the age of water filters.
Water filters currently provide the best and healthiest solution to the problems of both bottled water and tap water.
Water filters remove more dangerous contaminants than any other purification method, and they are uniquely designed to work with municipally treated water. The water they produce is not subject to phthalate contamination, and they are able to remove cryptosporidium from drinking water, a feat that neither municipal water treatment plants nor bottled water companies have yet managed. Also, drinking filtered water is a much more economical practice than drinking bottled water. The pure water product of a water filter costs very little more than untreated tap water. Furthermore, because water filters use no more energy than is already required to propel water through a home’s plumbing system, they circumvent several of the environmental problems of the bottled water industry.
At this point in time, there is simply no better choice-for purity and economy-than filtered water.
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