Image from Wikimedia Commons.
Clean drinking water is the foundation of any civilization. Without a reliable source of clean, healthy, drinking water, the terrain would be a desert or tundra. As we know, these are not the most desirable places in the world to live.
It is with water in mind that I would like to introduce you to Conn’s next great man: SGA Chair of Environmental Affairs Elias Kauders. Much can be said about this brave young soul with the guts and the know-how to actually get this “environmentally friendly” campus to go green. But his message is more important: BOTTLED WATER IS BAD!
One ought to ask where bottled water comes from. There are three big bottled water companies: Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Nestlé. Each aggressively pursues supplies for their bottling plants, often taking water from sources where surrounding communities are rationing the resource due to droughts.
There’s no such thing as disposable plastic. According to studies conducted by UC San Diego only twenty percent of the one-and-a-half million bottles that Americans buy every week are recycled, which in itself is only a stopgap measure. The vast majority of wasted containers end up in incinerators. When plastic—any kind of plastic—is burned, it releases a host of highly toxic chemicals.
These chemicals end up contaminating the very water that these companies bottle and sell, but the problem isn’t just burned bottles. As the plastic bottles decompose over a span of hundreds or even thousands of years, they also release highly toxic chemicals—albeit at a slower rate than when they’re incinerated—into rivers and oceans, where they break down into small pieces, poisoning fish, shrimp, the tuna in your sushi and the salmon on your bagels.
The United States consumes a huge amount of oil to manufacture the plastic for bottled water: thirty-two million barrels annually. And the industry uses about fifty-four million barrels of oil to ship their products to points of sale. While I’m no economist, I don’t think it’s a stretch to suggest that your gas prices are increased by the success and profit of the bottled water industry.
Furthermore, the manufacture of that thin little sheet of plastic uses twice as much water as is contained in the bottle. This means that a one-liter bottle actually requires three liters of water to produce. Making matters worse, much of the water used in the manufacturing process is highly contaminated along the way. If not properly treated, this water can contaminate groundwater and municipal water sources. Since there’s only one person at the FDA covering the entire bottled water industry, I’d be skeptical of the realistic effects of regulations to protect the environment.
There are also economic reasons for us to switch to an alternative water source. The average cost of one gallon of tap water in the United States is estimated to be $0.002. That’s two tenths of a penny! Bottled water at Conn costs an average of $10.88 per gallon. That’s 5,440 times more expensive. It’s a bit cheaper when bought by the case, but it is still hundreds to thousands of times more expensive than tap water.
So, what’s the alternative? Bottleless water coolers, which connect directly to a water line, are cheaper, cleaner and healthier. We do not want our tuition money wasted on bottled water, whether it comes in one-liter bottles or five gallon jugs. While it may seem trivial at this point, it might be worth noting that twenty-five percent of bottled water is tap water, taken straight from municipal sources. There doesn’t seem to be a good reason to pay 5,440 times the price for the same product we get for free (or close to it); and of course there are a lot of bad consequences from doing what we do now.
That said, a lot of people think bottled water is healthier for them. They’re wrong. Bottled water is not cleaner than tap water. Tap water (also known as municipal water) is regulated by hundreds of Environmental Protection Agency employees, as well as employees from many state and township treatment plants. Municipal water is subject to strict standards, frequent testing, many layers of oversight and requirements to regularly publish water quality information.
Bottled water, on the other hand, is regulated as a packaged food by the Food and Drug Administration. The FDA has only one employee designated to the regulation of the entire bottled water sector. And she has other duties as well. Bottled water companies are NOT required to publish their quality information or water source, and there is no Federal oversight for water bottled and sold in the same state. So the reality is, neither you nor I know what’s in our bottled water.
According to Kauders’ research there have been one hundred twenty-three major recalls of bottled water. The reasons for some of these recalls have been (but are not limited to) “contamination with algae,” “excess levels of bromate,” “bacterial contamination,” contamination from paraffin, “beverages off-taste due to mold growth,” inclusion of diluted cleaning solution, traces of glass particles, and coliform bacteria. If that last one sounds unfamiliar, you might know it by another name, E. coli, which comes from pollution by fecal matter. The two best examples were recalls due to “undeclared aspartame” and “excessive arsenic.”
Some of this is from poor water quality standards. More, though, comes from the soft PET-1 plastic bottles in which most bottled water is sold. This plastic breaks down and leeches carcinogenic petrochemicals, especially when exposed to heat or light. These chemicals are absorbed by the water and by the body when one drinks it. So even if the water was as clean as most municipal water to begin with, the bottle itself will poison it over time. Bottled water is not required to have “bottled on” or “sell by” dates, so it is very difficult to know how long your bottle of water has been building up cancer-causing chemicals. One thing is likely, bottled water is not cleaner than tap water.
Hundreds of schools and even a few communities are mobilizing to get rid of bottled water, and the New York Times reported recently that Congress spent $190,000 in taxpayer money on bottled water during the first three months of 2010 alone. Maybe somebody should call up Mr. McBride and tell him to get the President to do something. It might lower our healthcare costs a bit.
In any event, most of our NESCAC friends are literally years ahead of us in this venture. Amherst and Williams removed bottled water from all facilities operated by their Dining Services departments. Colby phased out bottled water and now uses bottleless water coolers. Bates, Colby, Middlebury, Trinity, Wesleyan and Williams offer discounts from their dining halls if students use reusable to-go containers. We claim to be green, but we’re really just blue. •
Additional reporting by Elias Kauders.
Having just read your article with interest and whilst I agree on all of the points made in relation to bottled water, I find it hard to believe that you would consider ordinary tap water to be clean. I would have posted this article on our website which receives upto 200,000 unique visitors per month but your ommission of any mention of fluoride in public water supplies prevents me doing so.
There is no mention of fluoride added to the water which is carcinogenic, causes osteoporosis, fluoridation of the teeth which it is supposedly put into ther water to protect.
I suggest you do a little research on the most dangerously toxic chemical ever to be added to public water supplies and write an article on the subject to inform your readers of the dangers to their health of fluoridation.
Ireland accounts for almost 98% of water fluoridation in Europe with dental health, in many areas, many times worse than other non fluoridated countries.
Ireland has also the highest incidence of osteoporosis in Europe. A coincidence? I think not.
The Sovereign Independent, which also produces a hard copy newspaper, in conjunction with the National Health Federation are currently running a campaign to remove fluoride from our water supply.
For further information on fluoride, you’ll find many articles on the subject on our website: http://www.sovereignindependent.com
(your website box wouldn’t accept the web address)
I look forward to your reply.
Neil Foster,
Co-Editor,
The Sovereign Independent
This is the perfect way to break down this infomriaotn.
Wow. So many wrong facts!
1. 32.1% of water bottles were recycled in 2010. Not enough by a far measure but far more than the stated 20%. It is dumb to throw valuable stuff away and PET can be used again and again.
2. PET plastic comes 30% from natural gas and 70% from terapthalic acid, a material that is a byproduct of gasoline production. If we stopped using PET tomorrow for water bottles (or any of the other thousands of uses) we wouldn’t stopped importing one barrel of oil. And the big companies like Coke and Pepsi are beginning to use PET made out of plant material so this argument will totally useless in very short order.
3. Bottled water is highly regulated by the FDA in the same way way the EPA regulates tap water – by delegating the inspections to the state health department in which the inspections are conducted. No one is exempt by an “intrastate exemption” as the writer alleges as the federal government automatically assumes everything is under “Interstate” commerce if the water, the PET resin, the cap, the label etc travels between states.
4. Recalls of bottled water products have happened. This of course belies the writers previous statement of no regulation. The small number of recall over the years also is quite striking in comparison with the thousands of boil orders or contamination advisories issued annually by tap water systems. Anyone see “Poisoned Waters” on PBS? Bottled water is far safer than generic tap water. It’s not a close call.
5. PET plastic, recycling number 1, does not leach dangerous chemicals in water. That is why it is the plastic preferred for medical devices. All plastic is not equal. BPA comes from the hard plastic called polycarbonate or PC which carries the recycling number 7.
Not sure where you get your facts but the FDA does not use the same regulations as the EPA does. If they did, the GAO would have published this… (http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-09-610)
I will now have to order Poland Spring as there is no way tap water out of the bathroom faucets is drinkable in this community…. Thanks SGA… for being a pain instead of a relief. You can’t preach environmentalism on a distant audience….
Yes, yes, we must ban bottled water so that all you peons, uh, I mean people will drink your recommended daily allowances of fluoride, chlorine, and Iodine 131!
Wow, excellent article and such a push-back in 4 comments (3/4ths are negative).
What needs to be understood, beyond economics and the oil-load per bottle is that bottled water is dead water. Not only is it dead, it actually takes from you instead of giving. Water is a living entity. Yes, science may define it as otherwise, but alas, look around at our scientific world. Pretty pathetic job science has done.
Dead water actually takes minerals from you, in an attempt to regain it’s life. Most of all, it takes as much raw oxygen as it can. Please look up the work of Viktor Schauberger to inform yourselves of the true nature of water.
Water, the new oil, such a twisted sound-bite, full of meaning and bite.
Anadianant
http://aadivaahan.wordpress.com
Another brainwashed college student who believes everything they have been taught from grade school up, instead of questioning, researching and using their god given brain. :-(
Articles like this are very dangerous. Highlight the dangers of public tap water and let readers make up their minds. I drink bottled water because it is the lesser of two evils.
So you want to force everyone to drink the Chinese industrial toxic waste added to public drinking water – they say its flouride but its not even the right chemical, just pure slow acting poison.
Is a reverse osmosis filter a good option. I have been using one for 5 years and I am pretty healthy for 59. One thing is an absolute. The water tastes far superior than raw tap water. All it took to convince me to filter my water was seeing the deposits left on my automobile after washing it and letting it air dry.
If they wouldn’t put Florine and Chlorine in tap water (poisons), I might consider drinking filtered tap water. Until then, it’s bottled water for me.
There are company’s out there that offer Water from Air technology also known as atmospheric water generators. These systems generate water that is 100% free of chlorine, fluoride, lead, recycled water, effluent and other toxic wastes. Most filtration systems remove all trace minerals from the water, thereby producing clean water. However there are systems that are specifically designed to retain the beneficial minerals that keep you healthy whilst removing impurities. So not only does an atmospheric water generator eliminate the need for plastic bottle the water generated with these dispensers costs in the neighborhood of 6 cents per gallon. http://www.koniafl.com
Go bottle free! Check out http://www.thinkoutsidethebottle.net/index.html for stainless steel reusable bottles!
I work at Nestlé Waters North America would like to clarify several points raised in this article.
Like all consumer goods, our products have an environmental impact. At Nestlé Waters North America, scientifically based Life Cycle Analyses guide our decisions to operate in a manner that is mindful of the environment. We manage our water sources through constant monitoring to ensure their long-term sustainability.
For our Nestlé Pure Life brand, we source from municipal water supplies; however, it’s not just tap water in a bottle. We use a rigorous 10-step filtration process most municipal suppliers can’t afford or practically apply to the volume of water they produce.
We believe people should know where their water comes from, so we identify water sources on all of our bottle labels or caps. This includes a toll-free phone number and website where people can access our quality testing results. Since 2005, we have made detailed water quality reports publicly available for all of our brands.
Bottled water is also highly regulated. By law, FDA testing requirements for bottled water must be as protective of the public health as the EPA’s regulations for municipal water. For coliform bacteria and lead, bottled water federal regulations are even stronger than those for tap water.
We’ve also taken measures to reduce the amount of plastic used in our packaging and to use more recycled content to minimize our footprint. Also, bottled water requires less water to produce than other packaged beverages. It takes 1.4 gallons of water to make a gallon of our bottled water, compared to 2.4 gallons for soda and 5 gallons for beer.
Removing bottled water does not solve the problems outlined in this post – instead it removes a healthful option among packaged beverages. Studies show if bottled water weren’t available, 52% of people say they’d instead choose soda or another sugary drink, not tap water. In a time when our country is facing an obesity epidemic, people should be drinking more water, whether it comes from a bottle or the tap.
I hope you will keep these facts in mind and consider the unintended consequences of a bottled water ban at Connecticut College. Thanks for the opportunity to weigh in.
Sincerely,
Jane Lazgin
Director, Corporate Communications
Nestlé Waters North America
Jane from Nestle failed to mention that Nestle’s bottled water contains FLUORIDE – at least, when I checked with Nestle after they bought out Aberfoyle, this is what I was told.
In the years since then I have spent a lot of time searching the internet trying to find out how much fluoride content, if any, is in the major bottled waters (such as Ice Mountain, Nestle Pure Life, other brands, and major store brands) to no avail! Why can’t we get this information!?
Recently on the Coast to Coast AM radio show, the guest said that radioactive isotopes are in our water, and is passed off as “fluoride” (not that I want that either) – and that it has resulted in a severely reduced sperm count in the male population.
Other than finding a non-fluoridated bottled water, the only way I know of to get unfluoridated water is to buy a reverse osmosis filter for the tap, which I would love to do, but can’t afford.
I’m so tired of dealing with countless health problems and potential health problems by trying to counteract or avoid or substitute food, water, air, vaccinations, fillings, products, etc. because greedy lying bastards are poisoning humanity, animals, nature and the entire planet – and at least half the population doesn’t care, doesn’t help, or refuses to open their eyes and acknowledge this grim reality!
Water, water everywhere; but not a drop to drink!
Aside from the fact that municipal water systems have poisons deliberately added to them, and is otherwise undrinkable in some areas,
And the factual errors in the article, including the 2 years future best before date laser etched on the bottles,
You do realize that Germany, a “Green” country where recycling is done fanatically, must import plastic waste to BURN.
see more at http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,751469-2,00.html
Tell me – what toxins can survive a 2,000 degree incineration cycle?