The building scandal over bottled water isn’t a surprise to me. I’ve known for some time that bottled water from big distributors is nothing special. You can tell either from the disclosure on the label that it’s from a city water source, or from a lack of any clear disclosure. The good water makes sure to tell you their desirable source.
I only buy bottled water when there’s no fountain in sight, or I can’t ask a staff member at the food source to give me a cup of tap water. I don’t like to buy soda pop, because it’s gross and unhealthy, and doesn’t quench a thirst at all (it makes me more thirsty because of the sugar in it, I suspect). So I try to carry Regina (filtered) tap water with me when I go out for more than a few hours.
The thought of the waste that goes into not only producing the container for the water, but also the gasoline spent getting it to the site where you buy it from, makes me pretty uncomfortable. I spent a few years working part time for a water bottling plant in my hometown, and I’d certainly buy water from them if my home didn’t have safe water. However, I think the number of businesses set up to sell people bottled water, are acting unethically if they don’t offer a tap water source to their customers (assuming the business has a tap). I’d understand if they want to charge for the container to cover expenses, but the $3 water you find at events and in movie theaters are offensive.
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leftdog | 30-Jul-07 at 7:58 pm | Permalink
Good stuff - great post!
This is the start of exposing the scam of selling H20 for profit - big profit at that!
Red Tory | 30-Jul-07 at 11:37 pm | Permalink
Avoiding bottled water whenever possible is one of those painless, environmentally-friendly things that absolutely anybody can do. It’s a total no-brainer really.
Thanks for the link btw.
Rosie | 31-Jul-07 at 6:52 am | Permalink
I don’t understand why municipalities don’t start charging for the water bottling companies take out of the ground. In order to prevent it from becoming a “commodity” they could use the term “user fee” or something. COke, or Dasani, uses brampton drinking water. I mean, think of all the water they are sucking out of the ground. Not to mention the bottles. Then companies like Brita go on a marketing campaign comparing tap water to toilet water…….(even though the sad truth is that toilet water is as clean as tap water given your toilet is clean). Its actually another pet peeve of mine….that we are so good that the water we shit in is cleaner than water most of the world’s population drinks. Anyhow, another rant for another day.
WestmountLib | 31-Jul-07 at 6:56 am | Permalink
Thanks for the info Saskboy!
I had no idea that the source was tap nor the excessive usage of water to produce the final product.
Shame Coca Cola!!
Citizen Wilson | 01-Aug-07 at 7:57 am | Permalink
No schitt! Didn’t you know ‘DANSANI’ is french for TAP. It’s all part of the great TILMA - American- NAFTA conspiracy to steal all of Canada’s water and sell it back to us at grossly unfair profits 351 ml at a time. Thank GOD the CBC exposed this fraud. Can you believe family friendly Disney has the audacity to position carts selling bottled water on ice directly in front of fountains dispensing free warm water. I find it mildly amusing to sit and watch how long the line of idiots get forking over top dollar for what they can get for free out of a tap.
corey | 16-Aug-07 at 6:37 am | Permalink
I’ve been hearing a lot of noise lately about bottled water. It seems that people are shocked - SHOCKED - to find out that bottled water is, in many cases, simply municipal tap water that is filtered and bottled.
Excuse me guys, but no shit.
Think about two of the most popular brands of bottled water: Aquafina and Dasani. Aquafina is bottled by PepsiCo, Dasani is bottled by Coke-a-Cola. What makes these brands popular is not a) the virginal spring from which the water originated, b) the fresh, clean taste of pure glacial runoff, or c) any other characteristic of the water itself.
What makes these brands popular is that both of these companies already had established bottling facilities and distribution channels. They already had their products in every store in the country (world?), all they had to do to sell their water was to clear off a little space on their shelves.
Here’s the shocker, people: Coke and Pepsi (the beverages) are made from exactly the same tap water. This is, apparently, not newsworthy because Coke and Pepsi are marketed as Colas and not as water. Whatever.