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Bottled Water Dilemma

Eos of the Eons

Mad Scientist
Eos of the Eons
Joined
Jul 23, 2003
Messages
13,749
It's the only thing I think of ! The tons of wasted plastic and oil, and the gas to transport it, compared to the pipes built under the city.
 
Huh.

Watch the Bull$h!t episode on it. Pretty good. Not to mention it's bad for your teeth...no Fluoride.

I buy a bottle a week and fill it from the tap here at work. I buy the cheapest I can find, and usually buy it for the convienence of having the bottle.


But, really, it's no better than the tap water at home. I guess if I were intelligent, I would buy a sports bottle and be done with it.
 
Water must be one thing that people are willing to pay heaps more for a product that is worse than the cheaper product with no added benefit.
 
rjh01 said:
Water must be one thing that people are willing to pay heaps more for a product that is worse than the cheaper product with no added benefit.
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In the Penn and Teller episode these ying yangs were buying the water from a restaurant and they were paying like ten bucks a glass for it. They gave them water right out of the garden hose and that was the kind they liked the best. They were swishing it around in their mouth and crap like it was wine or something.

I don't drink water unless it's got a bunch of soda mixed with it. ;)
 
Not to mention that the source for many of the bottled waters was not "Elysian Springs" or "Golden Mountain River", but municipal water supplies. Many use city water, run through a filtration/addative system (to remove flouride and add in trace mineral elements).
 
How is paying for bottled water different than paying for bottled sweetened, artificially flavoured sugar water? Why is there a double standard?
 
You have to admit that bottled water is one of the cleverest and most lucrative scams perpetrated on the modern public. It would be a hilarious joke if it weren't take so seriously. OK, it's funny anyway.

AS
 
ChristineR said:
How is paying for bottled water different than paying for bottled sweetened, artificially flavoured sugar water?
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Because I don't have a tap in my house that delivers high-quality sweetened, artificially flavoured, carbonated, water. So there doesn't appear to be a less-environmentally-intrusive way of getting it.

Similarly, I have a few uses for distilled water -- and I don't have a tap in my house that delivers that, either, so I need to buy it in bottles and pay the appropriate premiums.

On the other hand, if what I'm buying is equivalent to the stuff that comes out of the tap already, only more expensive and less environmentally friendly, then I'm a fool or a sucker.
 
:D We drilled a well. We love it!!!! No additives. Since I keep freshwater fish this is the absolute best - I don't have to treat the water. It is even safe for fish. (If there are water snobs in the world, they would have to be fish.) Not everyone can drill a well, but if you can, it is SO cool. (AND expensive.) Next we are working on a water catchement system for the roof. We are starting off simple - garbage cans at the corners to catch the water - but the garden will not care in the least. Eventually we hope to have the underground cistern. We already have a grey water system.

Buy it in bottles??? :eek: I don't THINK so. :D
 
ChristineR said:
How is paying for bottled water different than paying for bottled sweetened, artificially flavoured sugar water? Why is there a double standard?
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No double standard. Water and carbonated soft drinks are not the same products. Bottled water and municipal water are, however. Although municipal tap water isn't "free," you're paying for it anyway if you live in town and have municipally provided utitlities. It's silly to go out and buy outrageously priced bottled water (compared to the same amount from the tap) when you already have it and you're already paying for it.

People buy carbonated soft drinks for the taste. They don't brush their teeth with it, boil rice in it, or shower with it. It is unnecessary, of course, but at least it's not something you already pay for and is a commodity that comes from your tap.

AS

ETA: oops. Cross post with drkitten
 
drkitten said:
Because I don't have a tap in my house that delivers high-quality sweetened, artificially flavoured, carbonated, water. So there doesn't appear to be a less-environmentally-intrusive way of getting it.

Similarly, I have a few uses for distilled water -- and I don't have a tap in my house that delivers that, either, so I need to buy it in bottles and pay the appropriate premiums.

On the other hand, if what I'm buying is equivalent to the stuff that comes out of the tap already, only more expensive and less environmentally friendly, then I'm a fool or a sucker.
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The stuff in the bottles is not equivalent to what comes out of the tap. It tastes different. I happen to think soft drinks taste horrid, and tap water is healthier, cheaper, and more environmentally friendly. Therefore, you should be drinking tap water instead of soft drinks.

BTW, there are certainly more eco-friendly ways of getting soft drinks. You can make them yourself if you really want to.
 
Look up - in many, if not all, cases, the stuff in the bottles IS what's coming out of the tap - minus things like Flouride. Also in that P&T episode, they had a blind taste test, and most of their testers got mixed up, thinking the bottled water was NYC Tap, and the NYC Tap was bottled.
 
AmateurScientist said:
No double standard. Water and carbonated soft drinks are not the same products. Bottled water and municipal water are, however. Although municipal tap water isn't "free," you're paying for it anyway if you live in town and have municipally provided utitlities. It's silly to go out and buy outrageously priced bottled water (compared to the same amount from the tap) when you already have it and you're already paying for it.

People buy carbonated soft drinks for the taste. They don't brush their teeth with it, boil rice in it, or shower with it. It is unnecessary, of course, but at least it's not something you already pay for and is a commodity that comes from your tap.

AS

ETA: oops. Cross post with drkitten
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Bottled water and municipal water are not the same thing. They taste differently. Indeed, there is a huge taste difference between municipalities. Soft drinks also taste differently. I see no reason why it's drinking soft drinks for the taste should be thought of any differently than drinking bottled water for the taste.

If anything, it seems silly to me that you should pay for anything as insanely unhealthy as soft drinks. But if you like them, that's your business.
 
ChristineR said:
BTW, there are certainly more eco-friendly ways of getting soft drinks. You can make them yourself if you really want to.
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No, I can't. I happen to like the taste of Coke, and I can't duplicate it at home. (I've tried.) I suspect that if I could, I could sell the duplication formula to one of the local low-end soft-drink bottlers for a small fortune.

Similarly, I'm willing to pay to have cherry-flavoured beer shipped to me from Belgium; I can't duplicate the proper taste of a genuine Kriek at home. I can duplicate -- in fact, improve upon -- the love-in-a-canoe flavour of a typical American pilsener like Coors or Budwieser, which is why I don't pay for them.
 
Stormraven said:
Look up - in many, if not all, cases, the stuff in the bottles IS what's coming out of the tap - minus things like Flouride. Also in that P&T episode, they had a blind taste test, and most of their testers got mixed up, thinking the bottled water was NYC Tap, and the NYC Tap was bottled.
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Actually, there are a lot of things that go into bottled water. There are filtered tap waters, spring waters, well waters, carbonated water, mineralized water, etc.. The biggest thing that bottled water lacks is chlorine, which has a very strong taste many people don't like. I don't have much experience with NYC tap water, so I can't comment. I'm not terrribly impressed that P&T found a bottled water that was similar to NYC tap.
 
drkitten said:
No, I can't. I happen to like the taste of Coke, and I can't duplicate it at home. (I've tried.) I suspect that if I could, I could sell the duplication formula to one of the local low-end soft-drink bottlers for a small fortune.

Similarly, I'm willing to pay to have cherry-flavoured beer shipped to me from Belgium; I can't duplicate the proper taste of a genuine Kriek at home. I can duplicate -- in fact, improve upon -- the love-in-a-canoe flavour of a typical American pilsener like Coors or Budwieser, which is why I don't pay for them.
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If you really want to do Coke at home, you can buy Coke syrup and carbonate the water yourself. In any case, I have no problem with you buying something unhealthy and overpriced because it has properties that you like but that I just can't see. I'm just complaining that there's a double standard.
 
I'm always amused by the labelling on water.

If it says Natural Mineral Water, then it's just that, straight from the natural source, nothing added and nothing taken away.

If it says Spring Water, then it's water from the natural source that has been treated, de-mineralised or mineralised etc.

If it says Still Water (and nothing more - supermarket's own 'no-frills' labels tend to be this) then it's filtered tap water.

I keep meaning to conduct a blind taste test for examples of the above, it would be enormous fun. I drink nothing but water, and I have favourite bottled brands (I love Volvic, but Evian sets my teeth on edge, but the best-tasting water of all is good old Birmingham tap water run through my Brita filter). However, I wouldn't put any money on my being able to taste a difference blinded.

I'll post back with my results when I finally get around to doing it!
 
drkitten said:
No, I can't. I happen to like the taste of Coke, and I can't duplicate it at home. (I've tried.) I suspect that if I could, I could sell the duplication formula to one of the local low-end soft-drink bottlers for a small fortune.
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Isn't that the same as people who say they like the taste of Evian and can't duplicate it at home?
 
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