Progressive Wednesday

The Case Against Bottled Water, Part I

July 15th, 2007 by Matt

Let me start by saying this: for nearly a decade now I’ve regularly consumed bottled water (hell, I’m drinking one right now). Let me continue by saying this: I think it’s safe to say that that’s about to change. Why? Well, this topic’s so big it’ll take a few posts, but how about this sobering statistic, courtesy of the fine rag Fast Company, about bottled water consumption in this here U.S. of A. of ours:

We–a generation raised on tap water and water fountains–drink a billion bottles of water a week, and we’re raising a generation that views tap water with disdain and water fountains with suspicion.

Wait, there’s more:

We’re moving 1 billion bottles of water around a week in ships, trains, and trucks in the United States alone. That’s a weekly convoy equivalent to 37,800 18-wheelers delivering water.

Oh, and here’s another factoid for the factoid fanatics out there:

Last year, we spent more on [bottled water] than we spent on movie tickets–$15 billion.

So, we spend more money each year on bottled H2O than the Gross Domestic Product of the Kingdom of Jordan. And the problem’s not really the money (though it costs us “two or three or four times the cost of gasoline“), but the environmental damage: carting water around on big-rigs pumps oodles of fossil-fuel greenhouse gas into ye ole atmosphere.

So, here’s reason numero uno to cool it with the bottled water: by drinking it, we damage the air we’re all trying to breath. Thankfully, there’s an easy alternative that we’ve already covered: filtered or distilled tap water. Just click this sentence to learn more.

Photo c/o this picture-clicker.