How Did We Get Duped Into Paying for Bottled Tap Water?

Today on KCRW's Evan Kleiman show Good Food, she interviewed consumer tap water advocate Eric Yaverbaum who is crusading to get people to see the error of their bottled-water ways. He argued convincingly that tap water represents a huge burden to our global well being, citing the amount of resources and waste resulting from our consumption of bottled tap water. Most bottled water is, he pointed out, from the tap.

We should stop buying bottled water and put filters on our home tap water faucets. He has a website Tappening that will give you a water analysis of your tap. Simply type in your zip code and you'll see how safe your tap water is. 

Comments

[Ed S.]

Bottled water was a brilliant stroke of marketing. Wish I'd thought of it. Hey, we used to buy milk, beer etc out of big buckets and barrels not too long ago. All they did with water was give it brand, like other commodities had.
Use a steel bottle instead of plastic for your tap water and you'll fix most of the problems.

[Scooby214]

I have a steel "Thermos" brand coffee thermos that works great with filtered water. The water in my area really isn't bad, and so my Britta filter probably makes the water as good or better than bottled water from the store.

I bought the steel thermos because I had a glass lined one that broke. I've dropped the steel lined one many times over the last 15 years without problem. It is designed on the same concept as the glass ones, so it keeps my water cool all day without ice.

[jeffrey McMahon]

I use a Brita filter and a CamelBack water bottle. I rarely buy bottled water.

[Scooby214]

I entered my zip in the tappening website, and my city's main water reservoir appears quite safe. The backup reservoir, however, has a couple of red bars on the graph. I'm glad they only use the backup reservoir in instances of failure at the main plant, or in drought situations.

[jeffrey McMahon]

I'm scared. I haven't put my zip in yet. I should.

[Tom Welch]

I use a Brita filter too.

[jeffrey McMahon]

The website shows that Torrance water has 10 contaminants. It doesn't look that good after all.

[Scooby214]

How many contaminants do you think the average store bought bottled water has?

[jeffrey McMahon]

I wonder if there's much a difference. I used to pay about $600 a year for Arrowhead delivery. I wonder how much safer, if at all, that water was.

[Tappening]

Tappening.com is a greenwashing PR firm that is out to self promote...LAME

[jeffrey McMahon]

Greenwashing or not, the dubious claims of bottled water industry make for an interesting debate and secondly people should be more aware of their water quality and his website links people to that info.