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Bottled Water - Bad for the Environment

BPSCG

Penultimate Amazing
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I've never been much for drinking bottled water. When it's more expensive than wine, than beer, than gasoline, I figure I'm just wasting my money (BTW, why is Starbuck's coffee more expensive than gasoline?).

Anyway, now I find I'm not only saving money by not drinking bottled water; I'm actually helping the environment.
 
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A friend of mine drinks only bottled water, and berates me for drinking the tap water. "Don't you know there's all this junk and bacteria and stuff in there?" he says. Well, duh. If you don't drink your local tap water, how are you going to develop and maintain an immunity to that bacteria and stuff? It's not like you can avoid tap water-- you can't bathe in it, and who cooks with it? Does the dishes with it? Do you ever eat out? Think the restaurant cooks with bottled water?

Of course, my idiot friend goes one further: after lecturing me on the health benefits of eschewing tap water, he then adds ice cubes to his soda. Ice cubes made automatically by his nice refrigerator. From the tap water line plugged into the back.
 
Although actually, my city has some of the cleanest tap water in the country. About fifteen years ago it was discovered that the supply was tainted with some kind of chemicals that caused birth defects in pregnant women. Massive lawsuits, huge cleanups, etc. As a result, they redid the entire system so it's ultra clean and safe now, and since part of the court orders and laws and regulatory junk now require exhaustive testing of the water, it's a pretty safe bet it's going to stay clean. Nobody's going to risk that kind of thing again. I get water survey phone calls all the time, with the city, and the state, and heaven knows who else desperate to know did I taste something funny? If I ever do, call this number immediately!
 
TragicMonkey said:
A friend of mine drinks only bottled water, and berates me for drinking the tap water. "Don't you know there's all this junk and bacteria and stuff in there?" he says. Well, duh. If you don't drink your local tap water, how are you going to develop and maintain an immunity to that bacteria and stuff? It's not like you can avoid tap water-- you can't bathe in it, and who cooks with it? Does the dishes with it? Do you ever eat out? Think the restaurant cooks with bottled water?

Of course, my idiot friend goes one further: after lecturing me on the health benefits of eschewing tap water, he then adds ice cubes to his soda. Ice cubes made automatically by his nice refrigerator. From the tap water line plugged into the back.
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Is he impervious to logic? Or do you just value the friendship too much to offend him?

Or is he an Islamist who'll kill you for offending him?
 
BPSCG said:
Is he impervious to logic? Or do you just value the friendship too much to offend him?

Or is he an Islamist who'll kill you for offending him?
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I generally find it's easier to keep friends if I don't point out their idiocies. I laugh about them on the Internet instead.
 
BPSCG said:
BTW, why is Starbuck's coffee more expensive than gasoline?
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Gasoline is taxed less on account of it being better for the environment. Starbuck gives you a better millage though.
 
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TragicMonkey said:
A friend of mine drinks only bottled water, and berates me for drinking the tap water. "Don't you know there's all this junk and bacteria and stuff in there?" he says. Well, duh. If you don't drink your local tap water, how are you going to develop and maintain an immunity to that bacteria and stuff? It's not like you can avoid tap water-- you can't bathe in it, and who cooks with it? Does the dishes with it? Do you ever eat out? Think the restaurant cooks with bottled water?

Of course, my idiot friend goes one further: after lecturing me on the health benefits of eschewing tap water, he then adds ice cubes to his soda. Ice cubes made automatically by his nice refrigerator. From the tap water line plugged into the back.
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In Denmark at least it's welldokumented that tap water is far helthier than bottled water. Do you know if it's the same in the US?
 
As the link states, tap water is held to higher health standards than bottled water in the US.
 
I never buy bottled water.
But if I lived in a place where the tap water tastes of chlorine I probably would.
 
The plastic lid of my electric kettle is gradually being eaten away. Current theory is that maybe the chlorine in the water is creating steam with some hydrochloric acid in it.

It hasn't poisoned me yet though.

Rolfe.
 
Rolfe said:
The plastic lid of my electric kettle is gradually being eaten away. Current theory is that maybe the chlorine in the water is creating steam with some hydrochloric acid in it.
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I'm pretty sure that's not possible.
 
mbp said:
I never buy bottled water.
But if I lived in a place where the tap water tastes of chlorine I probably would.
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Living in Roswell, NM (Yes, that Roswell!) the water was horrible. We had an RO system for drinking (and the ice maker!), and ran it through a whole-house softener befor using it anywhere.
I just figuered that the Aliens probably were angry with us and pi**ed in it.
 
I take baths in delicious healthy bottled water. It's all I'll drink, too.

That's not true. In fact one time I drank out of a dirty stream and got sick.

I don't like paying for water.
 
Welcome to 1999

I suppose this is one of those stories that's just going to reappear every couple of years, forever.
 
The only places I've ever drank bottled water is where the tap water is only good for losing weight (if dysentery is your idea of losing weight, have a drink of this pure Nile River Water from downtown Cairo..:eek:

It would be an interesting exercise to see how much bottled water has been shipped to Iraq for the troops there, given that most of the other sources there are probably likely to give soldiers a case of Saddam's Revenge (In Egypt we called it Mummy Tummy)

Hmm, about 4 bottles a day, say $2.00 for a pack of 4 (US Government bulk rate), 120,000 troops, that's over 3,300,000 bottle of water per week.

Of course the Army has desalinazation plants and water purification trucks, but I'd still bet some bottled water folks are making a big profit on this.
 
BPSCG said:
I've never been much for drinking bottled water. When it's more expensive than wine, than beer, than gasoline, I figure I'm just wasting my money (BTW, why is Starbuck's coffee more expensive than gasoline?).

Anyway, now I find I'm not only saving money by not drinking bottled water; I'm actually helping the environment.
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Is this a valid data source? I can't confirm it anywhere.

(And that's some funky wine you drink.)
 
BPSCG said:
What, you never heard of Two Buck Chuck?
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And don't forget:
Boones%20Farm%20Strawberry%20Hill.jpg
 
aerocontrols said:
Welcome to 1999

I suppose this is one of those stories that's just going to reappear every couple of years, forever.
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We should make a list of such stories. There are the brazen repeats like this one, and then there are the "lost blonde girl" type stories that are repeats but with names changed. If we made a long enough list, we could start our own newspaper.
 
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