Think Before You Drink!
Posted in Announcements, In The News by Eric on July 17th, 2007 at 10:54 am
This is early warning. Starting sometime in the near future we are going to stop selling bottled water at our studio. I have always been uncomfortable selling bottled water but have considered it a necessity. I no longer believe that. Municipal tap water is actually more highly regulated than bottled water and much bottled water turns out to be nothing more than filtered tap water. Bottled water has become a gigantic industry with many harmful effects on the environment.
Americans went through about 50 billion plastic water bottles last year, 167 for each person. Durable, lightweight containers manufactured just to be discarded. Water bottles are made of totally recyclable polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic, so we share responsibility for their impact: Our recycling rate for PET is only 23%, which means we pitch into landfills 38 billion water bottles a year–more than $1 billion worth of plastic.
If you’re like me, you started drinking bottled water largely due to health concerns about the quality of tap water but those fears are unfounded. Bottled water isn’t usually any different or better than tap water.
We buy bottled water because we think it’s healthy. Which it is, of course: Every 12-year-old who buys a bottle of water from a vending machine instead of a 16-ounce Coke is inarguably making a healthier choice. But bottled water isn’t healthier, or safer, than tap water. Indeed, while the United States is the single biggest consumer in the world’s $50 billion bottled-water market, it is the only one of the top four–the others are Brazil, China, and Mexico–that has universally reliable tap water. Tap water in this country, with rare exceptions, is impressively safe. It is monitored constantly, and the test results made public.
Also consider
24% of the bottled water we buy is tap water repackaged by Coke and Pepsi.
Bottled water may seem relatively inexpensive compared to other bottled drinks like juice and soda but it’s outrageously expensive compared to tap.
And for this healthy convenience, we’re paying what amounts to an unbelievable premium. You can buy a half- liter Evian for $1.35–17 ounces of water imported from France for pocket change. That water seems cheap, but only because we aren’t paying attention.In San Francisco, the municipal water comes from inside Yosemite National Park. It’s so good the EPA doesn’t require San Francisco to filter it. If you bought and drank a bottle of Evian, you could refill that bottle once a day for 10 years, 5 months, and 21 days with San Francisco tap water before that water would cost $1.35. Put another way, if the water we use at home cost what even cheap bottled water costs, our monthly water bills would run $9,000.
These quotes are taken from a lengthy Fast Company article called Message in a Bottle. It largely looks at the issue in economic terms but it also highlights some of the human costs of the bottled water industry.
…in Fiji, a state-of-the-art factory spins out more than a million bottles a day of the hippest bottled water on the U.S. market today, while more than half the people in Fiji do not have safe, reliable drinking water. Which means it is easier for the typical American in Beverly Hills or Baltimore to get a drink of safe, pure, refreshing Fiji water than it is for most people in Fiji.
The author almost sounds like he’s writing for an environmental magazine instead of a business magazine.
Bottled water is not a sin. But it is a choice.
Before we discontinue the sale of bottled water we need to do two things. First is to find an inexpensive source for reusable bottles to accommodate people who come unprepared. The SIGG bottles we sell are great but we don’t want to make you purchase a $15 product just because you were running late and may have left your reusable bottle at home or in the car. I’m looking for something that we will be able to sell for only a couple bucks. The second thing we need to do is replace at least one of the bathroom faucets with something that will allow you to easily refill your bottles. Until then, please don’t purchase bottled water from us unless you absolutely have to and, if you do, please reuse and recycle your disposable water bottles.
[update - we have a filtered water fountain in the yoga room, we found a source for inexpensive re-usable bottles and changed the faucet in one of the bathrooms (not filtered). Cheers.]
July 28th, 2007 at 12:22 pm
Good for you Flaming Yogi.
Tap water is great! If only it wern’t for the bleachey taste most tap water has. A filter on the bathroom faucet would be nice to improve the taste.
Love the Sigg bottles, but like you say - it is hard to always remember to bring it.
July 28th, 2007 at 1:11 pm
Thanks for the support, Jeanette. I’ve also received several encouraging comments from people at the studio. I was a little nervous that this change might alienate some people but I think it’s the right thing to do.
The water fountain in the studio is filtered but the bathrooms are not. I was looking at filters at Home Depot the other day and didn’t see any that looked like they will work with our existing fixtures. I will continue to look into it. I agree that Atlanta tap water has a bleach taste but the more I drink it the less I notice.
July 28th, 2007 at 1:13 pm
“Pepsi-Cola announced Friday that the labels of its Aquafina brand bottled water will be changed to make it clear the product is tap water.”
http://money.cnn.com/2007/07/27/news/companies/pepsi_coke/
August 3rd, 2007 at 11:38 am
I stopped drinking bottled water because I started recycling. I had a visual of how many plastic bottles I went through, and I was embarassed by it. Now I drink tap water filtered using a Brita pitcher. A guy friend that had a drink of the filtered water commented on how good my water tasted, and I told him I used the Brita. I wish more people would notice how crazy the price of bottled water is and how unnecessary it is to drink it regularly and would make a better choice for both our environment and financial resources.
August 3rd, 2007 at 11:48 am
The NY Times must have been influenced by the same Fast Company article I reference above because they cited some of the same statistics in their August 1 editorial titled, In Praise of Tap Water.
August 6th, 2007 at 9:46 am
Thank you for an excellent article. I hope that other studios - including mine - follow suit. Have you heard about the SIGG bottle? It’s such a great alternative.
August 6th, 2007 at 2:46 pm
Hi Katy, Yes, I sell SIGG Bottles at my studio — they’re great. I’m also in the process of ordering some other less expensive bottles so people have a choice between the two.
Thanks for the comment.
August 7th, 2007 at 11:18 am
Eric, another thing to mention is the problem of Bisphenol A, a chemical found in most stiff water bottles. Many people think they are doing the right thing refilling their reusable water bottle with water from a cooler. It turns out that “Bisphenol A “mimics estrogen and when it gets in our body, it sends mixed messages to our endocrine system, especially if we’re exposed to it in the womb or as small children. When lab mice and rats are exposed to BPA at levels similar to those currently found in humans, they show altered behavior and menstrual cycles and an increase in prostate cancer, breast cancer and type II diabetes.”
I wrote a piece on it yesterday if you’re interested: http://lotuspadyogamats.com/2007/08/05/the-end-of-the-bottled-water-era/
August 7th, 2007 at 11:59 am
Unfortunately, BPA is also used in most bottles or canned foods and therefore almost impossible to avoid ingesting which makes it wise to minimize potential intake when possible. There were some rumors floating around a while back that SIGG bottles also used BPA but the president of SIGG issued statement denying it.
On the plus side, I think some of the concerns about BPA are somewhat exaggerated but I still think it’s a good idea to err on the side of safety and good health.
August 14th, 2007 at 3:23 pm
this is terrific Eric — not only doing something respectful to the environment, educating lots of folks and in a very convincing way. with your permission, may I copy your text on bottled water so I can help spread the word?
August 14th, 2007 at 3:26 pm
ps - I also agree with your response on refilling bottles (of course partly because I reuse the same one over and over) — but I’d worry more about other more pervasive and toxic chemicals in our environment.
August 15th, 2007 at 10:14 am
Sue - Feel free to copy and paste my text. A link back to this site would be nice but not mandatory. Also, please note that the original article I was quoting from is located here.
August 23rd, 2007 at 7:46 pm
Consider distilled water. You can purchase a distiller which will last long time and distilled water is very pure. From the distiller you can fill your own bottles for your water cooler/warmer.