Partnerships

More Reasons to Skip the Bottled Water

By now most of us are familiar with the standard reasons to avoid plastic single-serve water bottles. They live on indefinitely in landfills; they pollute natural areas and are increasingly found in even the most remote locations. In the past Energy Shift has noted the fact that they are just one more plastic (read petroleum-based) item in a long list that we can do without (or greatly reduce our rate of consumption). Now, Arlingtonians for a Clean Environment (www.arlingtonenvironment.org) has gathered together a few more reasons to opt for a reusable container:

-Tap water in Arlington costs less than one cent per gallon; bottled it costs about a dollar

-While plastic water bottles are recyclable, only about 30% are recycled

-Taste tests have shown definitively that people cannot taste the difference between tap and bottled water

-Tap water is subject to Safe Drinking Water Standards, including an Annual Drinking Water Report issued by the local utility; bottled water, regulated by the Food and Drug Administration requires no such reporting

-The Natural Resources Defense Council tested 1,000 bottles of water from 103 different brands; while most were of high quality, one third contained synthetic organic chemicals, arsenic, and bacteria

-We throw away 1,500 plastic bottles a second in the US and while it takes energy to bring water to your tap, it takes far, far more to bottle and package and truck it to the store!!