I never drink bottled water. Seems like a waste of money, to me.

Our tap water is good. If I think I may need water on the go, I have a reusable bottle I fill with tap water.

it smells like fish and I wouldn't drink it ever

so I spend $2.99 every two weeks for a case of good water....and recycle the bottles

when I go to Buffalo, I can drink the tap water, but never here in AZ

I always thought it tasted like dust

I have my own well and the water tastes excellent. Actually the best I've had anywhere.

same bad water in both

I gag from the taste!

...if PHX customers paid that much more for their water service? What, $80 million annually in non-interest-bearing capital improvement revenue?

World-class water right out of the tap. Yet we hand it to Nestlé instead.

Everyone who has a rationale for drinking bottled water is overlooking the obvious. Safe, clean drinking water is our right!
Citizens in areas where the water is considered undrinkable (whether it actually is or not) should DEMAND safe, good-tasting public water from their elected officials. The idea that people are willingly ceding something upon which all life depends to a huge, heartless corporation (OK, so I'm being redundant) utterly APPALLS me.

You know, like maybe a Brita filter? You can get one that fits over your faucet. They also have pitchers where you pour the water through the filter in the pitcher and I even have a water bottle with a mini filter in it.

I'm just asking because my local water is very hard and has a lingering sulfur smell to it. I understand why you might buy bottled but just wondered if you'd ever used the filter.

Last edited Wed May 30, 2012, 05:17 PM - Edit history (1)

also lives in a house where the iron in the tap water turns everything orange if you do not use a water softener. They drink bottled water and use it to cook. There are reasons to use bottled water in some places.

I want to thank everyone for the advice - I am going to look into it for all of our houses.

If your tap water tastes bad, you should consider some other non-bottled-water options:

1. Water filter on your faucet.
2. Pitcher with a built-in filter.
3. Water distiller

I'm not endorsing any of the above companies. Just pointing out that there are many options available that don't require the purchase of over-priced, privatized, environmentally hostile designer water.

If you like the portability of bottled water, you can always bring along your own refillable bottle.

If you like the fact that you can throw away the bottle once you've finished it, sorry, but that's a major part of the problem.

for what it's worth.

and the point of the cartoon is to show that bottled water, for many, perhaps most of its users (okay, not all) is mostly an unneeded product. in fact, not only is it not superior to tap water, it's often of lower quality than tap water --or unknown quality, whereas your tap water is tested, often rigorously.

for food products can only contain 10% recycled product. At that rate, we will be swimming in plastic bottles soon.

In-line/under sink water filters. Culligan is one brand. One can buy them at most big box home and department stores.

They still sell water coolers that have the big 5 gallon bottles, such as the ones on the link below. It's still bottled water, but the bottles are reusable. You can buy the dispensers at home improvement stores, Costco, Sam's Club, Walmart, Target.

http://www.aquaverve.com/index.cfm/category/bottled_water_coolers.html

You can use a water service, or get one of these:
http://www.homedepot.com/Kitchen-Water-Dispensers-Filters-Water-Coolers/h_d1/N-5yc1vZba5f/R-100590772/h_d2/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10053&langId=-1&storeId=10051

I don't think they can be recycled.
There is an article in our paper quite frequently that there are high levels of contaminants in our water. We also have a high level of cancer here, in my opinion because of run off from factory pig farms and agricultural pesticides. So, I buy 5 gallon bottles of water and, naturally recycle them.
The water has a high level of chlorine in an attempt to counter the contaminants in the water and chlorine combines with organic material to make cancer causing compounds. I just am NOT comfortable drinking the tap water. And I don't like dealing with non-recyclable filters. What is a enviro-conscious person to do?

comes from a safe source?

Big factories recycle the deminieralizing elements and activated carbon cartridges can be "reactivated" in a kiln.

This is common practice in business. There might be a similar service for household size system, too. I don't know that to be true, but it would make sense, as this is an existing business niche.
GAC

The filter actually can be used for a long time.
Our water has such a heavy chlorine taste I cannot abide it, and even the pets get filtered water.

one of my lab classes had us examine the efficacy of Brita filters. Granted, we only tested the filter media for lead content, but the result was surprising. Basically, we found out that the Brita media failed to remove even remotely close to the amount of lead it said it was supposed to. We did this over a wide range of concentrations of lead solutions and it didn't really seem to work well at any concentration. I am sure Brita media is great at removing chlorine and other impurities (like organics), but it definitely did not work for lead. Just my two cents.

Fellow chemist here.

The problem with the Britta is the design. There is insufficient contact time to adsorb weakly ionic dissolved metals.

The surface area is very small, so it would take time to adsorb, but it only has several tenths of a second of contact time.

I'm sure that if you cut a chunk of the material and put it into a lead salt solution, and let it sit, you'd see a significant and measurable drop in concentration. But, just pouring water through it, well i'm not at all surprised at your findings.
GAC

of the media, I can certainly agree that it is larger than it probably should be. I don't know the exact size but it definitely doesn't have much available surface area since it is in a rather large spherical shape. It would be interesting to try it out in a solution as you suggest, and just let it sit for a while.

our teeth. It was the same when we lived in an apartment ~8 miles away on the same metro water system.

We filter it, but I agree with you that this is a major reason why a lot of people buy the bottled water--and the filters aren't cheap t the consumer, and require manufacturing investment too.

The metro authorities claim the water is perfectly safe, and maybe it is, but it is vile.

Big businesses don't want you to know that though.

Just as large media conglomerates don't want you to realize that by law the airwaves are ours, not theirs.

Public places and places of business where doing business with them was not a prerequisite for partaking of their fountain. Now - with the idea permeating our society that bottled water is superior, better tasting and even healthier - why would they offer a FREE drink when they can sell you one??? Cracks me up that most waters are as much as sodas and fruit drinks......say WHAT???

A carbon/filter cartridge costs me 12 bucks at Lowe's. It filters ALL the water coming into our home and lasts about 6 weeks before rust from our pressure tank (we're on a well here) starts to inhibit flow. Now at a buck twenty for a 12 ounce bottle of Perrier, how long would it take to cancel out the 12 bucks for a filter cartridge?

Edit for typo.

We filter our drinking water. Ask your local water company for their chemical analysis and then get someone to look at it.

Some years ago, a friend of ours who was a chemist and specialized in water analysis examined the local tap water and the water from some popular bottled water companies.

She found that one of them was actually most likely bottling the tap water in our city and that the water of the other companies was either worse in terms of chemistry or no better than our city water.

A filter might help. I once lived in an area in which there were limestone quarries. That water tasted pretty bad. I don't know whether there were odd chemicals in it or whether it was the limestone. Could have been something else. But you can save a lot of money if you don't buy bottled water.

Also, if you do have to buy bottled water, I wonder whether you could purchase it in refillable glass or metal containers.

And be sure to watch the cartoon video posted by someone below. It is excellent.

and even for cooking. The tap water where I live in North Georgia is vile.

I don't like my water to be in plastic, any kind of plastic, not even a brita pitcher. So i gt a stainless filter, holds one and half gallons. can be filled twice per day. And for families you can insert more filters and it will filter 2 or 3 ties faster. (I don't need more than that.) I'm really happy with my water, and the filter can last forever if you take care of it.
This system (the gravity system: one drop at a time filters through a large ceramic porous filter) is used all over the world, and was created 2 centuries ago to remove cholera from the water in England. It is that good.

want any more info, let me know.

I don't know about the poster you're addressing but I certainly am interested in learning about this! Thanks for the informative post!

Julie

next to th sink. in brazil they re made of clay and huge, so I couldn't figure out how to bring one home. I looked around and found out that in Europe they use stainless filters which are identical in every other way. The bottom is lined with silver, which kills bacteria.
the filter is large and ceramic, identical to the filters in brazil. And in brazil you don't ever throw a filter away. you clean it once a month with either coffee or sugar.
In the American version, they have you scrub the filter with something too abrasive and then replace it, of course....

there are many brands. one lasts forever, literally.

When I started researching , I found out these are also the filters used in disaster areas, or in areas with a lot of disease, when there is no potable water. That made me trust the filter even more.

if you google gravity water filter, you will see how many there are available. The brand i bought is aquarain, I think.
The clay ones are even better because the water also stays cool, and doesn't need refrigeration, but more expensive becuase they are imported.

Fascinating stuff. One can learn so much from visiting other parts of the world! I hope to see more of the world some day but until then, I am glad to benefit from the travels of others!

Thanks so much, am going to start seeking out one of these for my house.

Julie

using a plastic filter container like brita, which I used to use, and also replacing the filters. You never need to replace a filter, just care for it.

in LA. We added a water filter to our tap and use brita water jugs. Tastes much better after those steps! Maybe you can try that?

and I used a water service, ordering a couple of five gallon carboys a week for use in cooking and drinking. That's probably why I've resisted the bottled water fad. When you need to use bottled water, the thrill is gone very quickly.

Eventually the town dug new wells away from the pollution plume. I got spoiled on water that wasn't full of chlorine so I kept the service for another couple of years until I left.

Now it's tap water put through a Brita filter.

and a sulfury smell and I use a filter. I just use the Brita filter and refrigerate it-filtered and kept cold makes it taste much better!

is a huge scam perpetrated on the general public through the use of scare tactics and clever marketing. Bottled water has its place but certainly not on the scale we see it today. It is a major waste of resources.

The tragedy is that the fear-mongering will ultimately become self-fulfilling as we starve our public services in order to add ammunition to the arguments for privatization.

I should say "ignorant", but it would offend. There are so many others, but to even bring them up causes people to be defensive. Like the act of jumping on a plane and flying around the world for a vacation. How dare I mention that. These things could have been luxuries we could all enjoy. But with this many people on the planet, we simply must conserve, or we'll literally destroy life on this tiny planet.

Like that's going to mean shit to anyone but a couple of people. Why do I even care.

Call your local water department and ask them how often they test the water quality and what that quality is.

The Los Angeles Dept. of Water and Power sends a booklet to every household that details the analysis of the water, sediments, chemicals, purity, etc. Our water is safe, but Angelenos are obsessed with wasting their money on bottled water. I have come to the conclusion that it is a status thing.

Buy a metal water bottle or a glass-lined thermos and drink tap water. That's my advice. You'll save a ton of money, and your health will not be harmed as long as you keep your bottle or thermos clean and you don't drink too much or too little.

And i live in a small city 60 miles south of Chicago. They test monthly per APHA, and do a yearly full panel screening. Then they send the results out to all residents and post them on the city website.

GAC

filled with delicious water from the faucet. My town bought into San Francisco's water project way back when, and we get great water direct from snowmelt in the Sierras.

Fun fact: municipal water supplies and and commercial bottled water are regulated by two different agencies. The latter permits a higher level of coliform bacteria than the first.

Alas, the simple truth is no match for millions of dollars of glitzy marketing.

Except in those cases when water is clearly bad, orange/brown color, etc. We should be grateful we currently have such abundant water in the first place. When we were kids we drank out of garden hoses, and then those same kids grew up to refuse to drink a nice glass of tap water. Bottled and filtered water tastes different, but not better, better is solely subjective.

I miss being a kid.

Many towns and cities fluoridate their water. The ADA has admitted, after promoting fluoridation for over 50 years, that there is no advantage to ingesting the poison. It only works topically. The great experiment in Europe where they have banned the fluoridation of water, has shown there is no benefit. Fluoride has been shown to interfere with the proper functioning of the thyroid, making us lethargic and fat. It has recently be shown that fluoride crosses the blood/brain barrier, which wasn't known before, resulting in a 7 point drop in IQ. To make things worse, food and beverage processing plants use the local water, bathing us in a sea of fluoride in every commercial beverage and food product we buy. Fluoride cannot be removed from tap water with a simple carbon filter. It requires an expensive reverse osmosis filter. I've had one installed in my office, but it seems to waste 2 gallons of water for each gallon it makes. It shows up on the water bill. So my employees fill up their reusable water containers at my office, which is some improvement over throwing out the plastic bottles, but it is not as good as not poisoning the water in the first place.

I have a thyroid condition; fluoride is extremely hazardous to my health. So besides the fact that our tap water smells like a pool when the Water Authority gets overzealous with the chlorination, I can't and won't drink the tap water solely because of the fluoride. (We do need to install a reverse osmosis filter, but we haven't yet.)

For the record, I don't have a problem with fluoride toothpaste for my son (I use the fluoride-free kind) and fluoride rinses for healthy teeth, but I see no reason to drink it.

I Live in LA, fluoridated.
I've been a health vege for 42 years. The absurdity (I thought) of WAY paying for water. One time they were replacing the main water main in my area & the water came out orange. I started buying bottled water until it was done in a month or so.
HOW ASTONISHING! The first week I went from just barely drinking water to the healthy 8 glasses or more a day. My health dramatically improved.
I realized that their reason they put fluoride in the water, is it gives them leeway in not having to fix the age old water systems at the cost of people not peeing and believe me their health. That simple truth.
There's only so much fluoride the body can take.
Try it, you'd be amazed.
So I have a carbon print. I'm not diseased or dead carbon.
PS I don't like toilets that half flush either and if everyone in the world used paper bags, there would be be no trees. Progress is a biodegradable plastic.
I'm a liberal & I get sick of "liberals" falling for their 1/2 ass crap.
I'm a vege. I use 1000's of gallons less. I'm not judgmental just saying. There is balance in everything, whatever your preference.

$3.99 + tax for a double & 1/2 size box of BAKING SODA!
Of course the GAS REPUKES want everyone to use paper bags, they're heavy!
And what do the koches manufacture..... Taa Daaah, PAPER PRODUCTS

oh wait. you didn't.

People buy bottled water for several reasons:

-It's the "healthy" option
-It's very cheap (too cheap - like gasoline, if the cost of bottled water stays cheap, people will continue to guzzle it)
-It's a fashion accessory (especially the frou-frou brands like Evian, Fiji, Voss, etc...). It's like a Starbucks cup of coffee. Walking around with your name brand bottle/cup gives you status (or so those who feel this way think).

It's so depressing. What bothers me even more than the cost/waste to bottle and transport something that comes out of your tap for free...is the fact that I see plastic bottles in garbages outside of businesses ALL THE TIME. On the rare occasion that I drink bottled water when I'm out & about, I throw the empty bottle in my back seat or trunk...take it home...& recycle it (ditto for Starbucks Frappuccino cups...which I take home, wash out, recycle). I don't understand why it's so hard for people to hold on to the bottle a bit longer and either recycle it at a store (Target has bins) or take it home and recycle it. We're so hard-wired for laziness/convenience that we always take the easy way out (just pitch it).

In defense of people (although many probably still wouldn't care and would just use the trash), why don't more businesses and cities have recycling bins all over? Target has them inside by the checkout lanes (a bunch of bins for different things). But why don't businesses either provide it themselves or be required to provide it. I think (at least some) people would use them for water bottles. It's a shame you don't see more recycling containers (at least here in the IA/WI/IL area).

If your water sucks (even if it doesn't) get a PUR filter and attach it to your faucet (or at the very least use a filtration pitcher). If you have the money, you can even get an in-home reverse osmosis system (the same thing Dasani & Aquafina uses to filter their tap water).

I go to take my cans and bottles back and wonder why there isn't a place for recyclables that don't have a deposit. I figure it is because people will just throw garbage in there. But I wish they had recycling bins in more places. I don't like to buy bottled water and have a water bottle I usually take everywhere. Sometimes I end up buying a bottle of water because I need a drink when I am out and that is all there is. In NY there is a deposit on bottled water.

As far as at home we have really bad irony water. Had culligan come in and they suggested we not drink the water. We haven't been. It curdles the creamer in the coffee. We went to Home Depot and bought a small water softener for like $400 AND have an RO unit under the sink. I am not kidding when I say our water is bad. I grew up with well water and am used to it... but this water is bad. And they stopped the town water at Lambs Farms up the road. I find that so ironic as the crap they spray all over the crops runs into the water table and contaminates the water around them. There is a high level of cancer on this street I guess. I will believe it from my friend who had a brain tumor removed a few months ago. The chances of it getting to us.... not good.

But as the saying goes, "You can't reason someone out of something they weren't reasoned into."

Bottled water marketing doesn't rely on facts. It uses fear and status, which bypass the reasoning part of the brain.

& since they don't see these pictures (or those of the Texas-size plastic mass floating in the ocean) - but rather see photos of flowing streams and trees, what they're drinking is clear and pristine and has no environmental consequence. Advertising works on dummies.

Also, I wish there was a law which required landfills to be located near each city. If people had to see (smell) their trash after they threw it out, they might be more inclined to create less (waste less). I think the fact that, after people throw their sh*t out - they never see it again, is a big problem. It just disappears, so it makes no difference how much we waste.

I have a friend who used to drink several bottles of Dr. Peppr a day. I kidded him about it how that stuff will kill you so now he's drink bottled water instead. I think its the healthy alternative for the soft-drink addicts in combatting obesity.

I drink lots of tap water from a 1 gallon jar that I fill up after letting the tap water run for a minute to get the dirty leaded pipe water out of it.

from soda. I will sweeten it with packets of cran lemonade.

I've tried to tell him that our tap water is the cleanest in the nation but its no use. Maybe if I told him the plastic bottle pollutes the water?

and show him...

I've been told by my doctors - actual MDs - not to drink much tap water because of the bacterial load. People like me are (kidney patients, etc) are the exception, though; and I'll have a filtering system in my house that will be safe for me so I can stop buying distilled or R/O water (and I recycle every bottle).

and a half gallon of iced tea that I brew with mint in the fridge, and that's all I drink in the summer- aside from the occasional G&T.

are people too my Friend. Brought to you by: Rmoney's Amercia. Amercia F Yeah!

That had been run through a filter. I don't remember the brand.

In France its considered a cure for many urological illnesses and its usage is covered under their National Health plan. They even have Evian spa's where people go to get treatments.

I really feel it cured my interstitial cystitis.

Maybe its just a coincidence but my last occurance of same ended when I started to drink only Evian, a suggested "cure" I read about on the IC forum when another person said it had helped her so much - I thought I'd try it and it gave me relief almost immediately.

I would never take a chance and go without it again. iC is a nasty, nasty condition with no known cure.

It's economical and convenient. Also, Michigan water is sweeter to me than anywhere else I been.

I used to drive by a bottling plant that produced Dasani near the Hackensack River, although I think the water came from the Passaic River watershed.

will show her this video, to see if it does the trick.

Michael Moore here.

Think about it: What restaurant would deliberately scam its customers and then admit to it?

Not plausible.

Seems about as "real" as "reality" shows. And that's a problem -- at least for me.

and really thirsty, then I'll buy a bottle--it's very rare. I take the empty bottle home and put it in my recycle bin. At home I have one of those water cooler thingies. I have bottles I fill from that. In the summer I freeze one to take out when I cut the grass or am in the pool. That way it stays cold.

I don't understand why everyone runs around with their own personal bottle of water--especially at home.

I use the water cooler cuz we drink A LOT of water. I use it when I make my tea too.

It's not as if they are filling up the bottles with bathtub water. Even if bottled water originates from municipal water supplies, the water is dechlorinated, sanitized, and the mineral content is altered to produce a consistent taste. So the final product is significantly different than the way it started.

So you can make all sorts of arguments for the economic and social disadvantages of bottled water, but one argument you can't win is taste because it's simply not feasable to replicate the taste of certain waters at home.

ATLANTA, GA – At its annual shareholders’ meeting, Coca-Cola touted a variety of initiatives dealing with product labeling, including its Clear on Calories initiative labeling calorie counts more prominently on soda bottles yet it has refused to print “public water source” on its Dasani bottled water brand labels. Dasani is sourced from the tap – a fact the corporation has been reticent to print on its labels, even as its competitors Pepsi and Nestlé have taken the basic step in response to consumer demand.

Source: Corporate Accountability Interntational

of the tap icy cold. Gravity fed from a spring.

in warm and in hot environments much more quickly.....

And why give Coke & oil corporations, etc.... our money to spend on republicans and their anti-worker bills...

Not to mention the damage being done to our environment for us and future generations---Bring back glass bottles!

but he's on the road and it's far better for him than other drinks. He can grab it out of the cooler and drink.

Here at home though, we quit buying bottled water. It took me longer than most because I just really liked it. I did give it up and now I just drink ice water or decaf ice tea.

allergic to sulpher means I have to find an alternative. Digging a new well is just not a option right now

You can't be allergic to any substance that doesn't have a protein so you might want to move on from thinking you are allergic to sulfur. http://health.howstuffworks.com/diseases-conditions/allergies/skin-allergies/sulfer-allergy-symptoms.htm

It's always sweet, and ice cold.

A few years ago, I saw spelunkers gathering in the field next to our house. They were all wearing wet suits and looking rather hot (in more ways than one), so I went out to ask what was going on and learned they were preparing to climb the mountain behind us. Evidently, there's a cave they go to and from there, they climb 50 feet down to get to what they described as a very fast flowing underground river. I got rather claustrophobic listening to their story, but felt a great sense of security knowing we draw from a long-lasting water source.

Since I do drink spring water 99.99% of the time, I can taste a huge difference in tap water as well as bottled water. To me, they both taste the same and not anywhere near as delicious as our water. I guess I've been spoiled.

hard water, heavy with minerals and iron. Use for everything except drinking - just can't bring myself to do that.

Will buy water from the "gallon" dispensers, but usually ask friends if I can fill up from their faucets for my "tea" water

Back in the seventies I took a marketing class. The instructor told us that, with proper marketing, people could even be induced to buy bottles containing only water...

My how we laughed....

one is for emergency or camping use, the other is a scam to fleece customers.

Find a quart glass container with a top and put in about a handful or more of clean natural quartz crystals, fill with tap water or whatever drinking water you are currently using and let it set for a day or two.

Then pour a glass and see if you notice a difference in the taste of the water. I think that you will very surprised with the results.

At least people aren't buying COKES and other soft drinks when they're thirsty. That's the only time I buy bottled water....is if I'm out & about and have already emptied my own water supply that I brought with me, in my non-toxic reusable water bottle.

I'm just glad for every person that isn't drinking a sugar-laced soft drink, who is instead buying a bottle of water.

kids' teeth. Kids who drink mostly bottled water will get more cavities. The only mineral water with a naturally high fluoride content is Perrier. So, drink Perrier in a glass bottle and help out the economy of our friends in France!

It really does suck, I should get a bottle, but I keep losing the damned things.

The soda fountains have a water option on them.

I keep a metal water bottle in my car and fill it with ice at convenience stores.

The only time I drank bottled water regularly was when I was in KY--- I didn't like the taste of the tap water there.

Brand name bottled water is simply local tap water pushed at high pressure through a special filter

Source: Public Water Supply, Pasadena TX.

At least they're upfront about it. Buy a case now and then at the local Wally Mart. Cheapest they sell. I'm not proud of drinking bottled water, but I'm on the road and outside a lot in my job. Probably should plan ahead more and fill a water jug in the morning with cold ice water from the tap.

...So who knows what's in this water? Maybe I should think twice about drinking this stuff!!

there. Also Deer Park Tx has refineries right next door

someones piss from up stream, enjoy.

Your corporate propaganda ain't gonna work here, have a nice short stay!

Think about it. You pee, it goes into the sewer system to your local water treatment plant, they treat it and put it right back in the stream or river, it flows down stream to the next town, they bring it in and treat it and put it in your pipes to your home. someones eleses pee. I drink it after I run it through a PURR water filter. I do not drink it right out of the tap. Have a nice stay.

Thought-provoking stuff. The comparison in cost to gasoline and tap water is amazing. And most of us don't bat an eye when we buy bottled water.

for $220 on line, it takes about 8 hours to fill the container, but --you won't believe the gunk that gets filtered out. I know that ideally mineral water is better, but I have used this in areas where the water was questionable, so I wouldn't have to buy plastic bottles. I eat well and make sure I am getting minerals in my diet.

I bought the stainless one with the glass container, it's held up well:
http://www.nutriteam.com/servlet/the-Water-Distillers-cln-Water-Distillers/Categories?gclid=CPyYk9m-qbACFUEGRQodtXDlVg

I've also imagined making a solar distiller out of a solar reflector with a tea pot on top with a stopper and glass pipe (laying in cold water) leading to a receptacle, for the off the grid life but never tried it out. There are many homemade distiller designs on line.

I've been doing it for over 20 years. Mine makes a gallon in about 5 hours. After just one gallon, the amount of brown residue left in the distiller will give one pause.

We fill old half gallon milk bottles with water and keep a stock in the refrigerator; and refill smaller plastic bottles for taking with.

I haven't bought bottled water for years.

It's always cold, and it tastes great. It doesn't cost much (the filter for one person lasts months; it costs about $8 I think).

My dogs love it when I pour a bit of that filtered water in their water bowls. They can tell the difference.

My bottled water has a better flavor.

And there's something about seeing it come from the tap that makes it unappetizing to me.

This is one battle I will not pick.

since air is free, shouldn't our water be free too? Like air, humans need water in order to live.

And market it as more pure than the air you currently breathe. I can see it now, people walking down the street taking big whiffs from air bottles. With the right marketing campaign, you can sell stupid and gullible Americans anything.

I don't care for "bottled water" unless it's got gas (not gasland gas, bubbles) in it---then, I'll go for a nice bottle with a meal. That usually comes in a glass bottle, though.

That big business is buying up water resources. Entities in other countries are also buying up water resources. I would bet the mortgage that after or while the oil wars are done, there will be a war for water.
But now, corporations charge us for "clean" water, and people foolishly buy it. Water used to be free. There used to be water fountains all over, but it seems that they are gone. Now you have to BUY freakin' water!
I wonder if they have plans to sell us clean air as well.

you have to add your own flouride!!

I drink softened water ran thru a filter on the spout of our kitchen sink, I run it into Gatorade bottles I sanitize regularly. Tastes great and costs next to nothing.

they do its bottled tap water from upstate.

Many major brands of bottled water use tap water as their water source, but may put it through additional treatment steps. The FDA has set specific definitions for different water source types, such as "spring water". Check the bottle label for information on the water source.

http://waterquality.cce.cornell.edu/bottled.htm

Saved a boatload of money and it may have been better for my health.

in the Story of Stuff

http://www.storyofstuff.org/movies-all/story-of-bottled-water/

A few years back I read up on several types of filters, but none would get the salt out. If I could do that easily, i would stop drinking bottled water. As it is, I only buy the large jugs and drink out of a glass, unless I am out and about and need something to drink.

of the tonsils. I must carry water with me and sip every 15 minutes or so day and night. I refill my trusty H2O bottles from my tap and keep about 4 in my fridge at all times. I won't think about buying bottled water here in the USA. Only times I purchase bottled water is in foreign countries.

Amount spent on all municipal water treatment in the US: $50 billion.

We could double the output or quality of our municipal water with the money spent on bottled. Every year.