We are hopelessly messed up as we consider bottled water cleaner than tap water when the former should merely be a desperate option at best. And we have ended up getting soaked by the bottled water industry even as they dry up the environment.
The plastic that we discard merely from bottled water, and it is millions of tons, is non-recyclable and ends up in landfills where it will stay for eternity polluting our planet. This problem is ironically more in countries where the tap water quality is comparable to the stuff that comes bottled.
Researchers at the Institute for Global Health found in a study conducted in Barcelona that if every person starts drinking the bottled variety of water instead of tap water, it could lead to a 3,500 times jump in the cost of extraction of resource which comes to $83.9 million a year.
The impact wrought by bottled water on the ecosystem is quite as bad; as high as 1,400 times that of tap water.
The benefit to the environment from converting to tap water would more than make up for the additional risk of contracting bladder cancer that some associate with tap water.
The Health Benefits Of Bottled Water Are A Marketing Gimmick
Cristina Villanueva of ISGlobal says that the use of bottled water can never be justified on health grounds, as there are no health benefits, except the minor risk associated with drinking tap water. But when you factor in the harm it does to the environment, the negative impact is huge.
Efforts should instead be concentrated on public awareness of the impact of switching to bottled water, improving the quality of tap water, and helping people get easier access to it. The benefits associated with bottled water are largely driven by corporate dollars and a balance is necessary on the other end of the scale to negate its terrible effect on the environment and the ecosystem.
Read: Kagzi Bottles Developed By Indian Women Are Biodegradable And Cheaper
Even a few decades ago, people did not feel the need for water sourced from anywhere else than the tap.
Then the beverage majors got into the act, and we consider it our duty to be constantly sipping from a bottle throughout the day. And we end up paying more for a gallon of water than for a gallon of gas. And yes, bottled water costs around 2,000 times more than tap water.
