From a Consumerist article:
We think it’s more likely that a lot of consumers who buy bottled water have started to figure out that:
- It’s hugely expensive—a back of the envelope estimate puts it at 5 cents an ouce versus less than 1 cent per gallon from a municipal water supply;
- It might be loaded with bad things you don’t want to ingest, like disinfection byproducts, fertilizer residue, and pain medication;
- It has less safety oversight than plain old tap water, which is why bottlers don’t have to tell you where the water came from or what’s actually in it.
Consumerist has the links and details.
All it took was a global economic meltdown!
Not saying one should buy bottled water, but I never get where the inflated price estimates/comparisons come from. Are they talking bottled Evian in a French cafe?
If you buy bottles of water a case at a time, the average cost is around 16.6 cents each, and they contain about 16.6 ounces. When I do the math, that comes out to a penny an ounce, not 5 cents. Granted, that’s certainly more than the penny a gallon they quote for city water; I’m just wondering why the estimates are always 500% higher than the reality.
Plus, if you have to filter the city water to make it palatable, plus buy a take-along container if you’re on the go a lot, and that container requires frequent washings (using soap and water to clean it, then maybe using a towel that needs laundering, or a paper towel, to dry it), there are hidden costs to drinking city water that they never seem to mention in the comparisons.
Crap in the plastic and recycling issues are another matter altogether.
Again, I’m not suggesting that people drink bottled water, I just don’t know why they exaggerate the math so. It’s a pet peeve of mine.