I agree, but don't forget the age old arguement that bottled water drinkers use. "It's flavoured water, I don't like to drink regular water from the tap, it has no taste."

Funnily enough, the bottled water here in NZ comes from the tapwater of a small town in the North Island.

Edited by - Balthazar Furious on 4/2/2006 3:49:02 PM

I agree with you. Furthermore, the production, bottling and distribution of bottled water significantly contributes to pollution and wastes valuable raw materials; the oil to make the plastic and the oil to run the factories that make it and the engines of the ships/trucks/planes that move it around. What possible advantage is there to drinking water from Fiji for example, unless it's magic water maybe?

that one's a great marketing campaign, it must cost thousands to ship that water around the world just so the café crowd can pose at doing their bit for the planet by drinking water from Fiji, for God's sake. I dare say none of the Fijians get much of a look-in where the cash is concerned.

All to drink something that is almost invariably no healthier than what comes out of your tap. Myself I like that nice Italian Levissima, Plamense di Picone, and Fegucci, but that's cos I like it, not cos I delude myself it's healthier.

An irony, is you can get in home filtration systems that rival bottled water. The only bottled water useable, is the distilled, and even then, filters remove a lot of the minerals. For those wanting mineral water, ?? possible, presuming you really need all those minerals, and are not eating well.

As an australian, i cannot comment on the quality of overseas water sources, however, i can comment on ours.
Which i would like to say i am not the fondest of. Im my (sixteen-year) lifetime, water mains have broken on multiple occasions, turning the tap water into a brown sickly substance, unable to be drunk in any circumstance...
However, that aside, i find it pointless to drink bottled water (unless i bottled it, that is). Personally-available water filters are some of the best on the market, and, if you are really psycho about it, you COULD just distillate that water via evaporation/condensation.

I will admit however, that bottled water is a fir way of quickly obtaining a fair quantity of cold and filtered water(Devoid of the chemicals that i have been told enter the Australian water supply)

Ah damit, Final beat me to the filter remark...

While I do find the whole obsession over bottled water to be quite rediculous, I can see it happening in areas with poor water quality, which yes, do exist, even in the grand and utilified United States. Many places in rural Washington State suffer from severe hard water, which, while not particularly unhealthy, can taste terrible to some people (myself not included). Of course its even worse to shower with, though bottled water won't help you much there...

in the case of hard water, they make water softners that you can add as well,since I know hard water ir harder to wash clothing with.




Edited by - Finalday on 4/2/2006 4:36:15 PM

@J Dawg - i live in washington state too; in fact up until last year our home was outside the city limits and got all its water from a community owned well - when the city incorporated our area we were switched to the municipal water and i gotta say, theres no discernable difference. and there are definitely some areas around here with hard water, particularly the rural areas, but even there although the water tastes a little *off* it is still drinkable (i like to add a dash of salt to off tasting water).

@Arania - there are some areas here too which have been criminally neglected & left without drinkable water - but their bottled water is paid for and supplied by the city or county and comes in 5 gallon water jugs, which seems reasonable compared to the 20oz bottles of unflavored hydrogen dioxide sold in vending machines and stores

- anyway; to restate my main point, it's just plain snobby(and wasteful) to drink bottled water when there's nothing wrong with your tap water - bottled water snobs, i'm wagging my finger at you!

@Cold_Void: Here here! My brother lives in the east half where it can get particularly nasty, though on the west side the tap seems to be just fine. My parents always vote for Brita and other filtering nonsense, but I never bothered.

Now people that water their plants with bottles are completely silly.

And here I was, thinking I was the only one who watched Penn & Teller: Bulls***! (Season 4 starts April 4, on Shotime BTW.)

Bottled water is what, about a thousand times more expensive than tap water?

Cold, ya beat me to it. I was planning to start a thread about bottled water and go off on one of my little rants. Maybe I could beat you to this whole environmental hystaria thing, and maybe college. A while ago I was planning to do something here, that was basically like P&T BS but in the form of threads. I was going to go off on all kinds of rants ranging from the Endangered Species Act which was signed by that asshole Nixon, to college (unless you're planning to be one of three careers, college is nothing but a $400 billion dollar per year industry, and a college education doesn't really open up that many more job opportunities,) and I may have even gone off on the PATRIOT Act (basically, a legal way for the federal government to strip its citizens of their civil liberties.)

But yes, if you drink bottled water because you think it's cleaner and safer than tap water, then I really have nothing to say to you. I just hope someday you'll see the light. As Arania said, sometimes the tap water is undrinkable, that's understandable. Those of you who saw the P&T bottled water/feng shui episode, you remember what they did at that fancy-ass restuarant right? They hired the world's first, water waiter. He brought different bottles of water (the most expencive was about $22) and the customers all said they had different tastes. What the waiter didn't reviel until the end of the show was that all of those bottles had been filled up with the same garden hose on the back patio.

It just goes to show, some people will believe in anything. If John Edwards claims he can talk to the dead, and can give an excellent performance using a technique called cold reading (and his taped segments had to be edited of course, not only for time but to get rid of all the mistakes he makes and so it's not so obvious he's just guessing,) then people will believe him. It's people like him that need to be either locked up, or recieve a savage beating with a blunt object by all the people he's conned out of thousands of dollars.



w00t! All your oil are belong to U.S.

Don't forget:
In many European countries the water from the tap is not considered safe for consumption , and so bottled water is cheap because that is what they drink. If you want to drink from the tap, they recommend you boil it.

Secondly, in the UK the water is well known to have "passed through 7-13 people" before you drink it. Our water here is pretty hard, but when I first returned from Leeds i could smell the cholorine content when running a large volume of water - like a bath. They add a crap load of chemicals to treat the water (some water gets treated with Ozone to kill bacteria and germs) - some people prefer their water without this taste to it. Also, if you're out and about and just want a refreshment, then rather than coke and other crap - some may desire water... and you may only be able to find that water in a bottle at a shop

We're in a western world, capitalism is best. Lets face it, why do we shell out tons of money on fast food - when all it is, is fatty rubbish off cuts of meat? Why do we buy coke/fanta/fizzy drinks, which are only water with some syrup added and carbonated? We waste lots of money on complete and utter junk, processed meals etc - and yet you care that they buy water when thirsty? If it's just about those whom buy water for consumption at home, well - blame media and health hype crap for that one. It's like the people who buy those bio yoghuts, when the bacteria is killed by your stomach acid - you need to eat kilos of it, and only with an excellent diet, to actually do anything. Tis all balony hyped rubbish!

When we first moved into our house, we drank bottled water for a time - because the pipes were lead . Incidentally, we also found horse hair and s!*(£%(*&! in the walls My grandparents don't pay for their water at all (or sewage) - it truly is free because they have natural springs around their house (in their lakes and stream etc) where they get their water, nothing added - tastes awesome. I remember drinking the water in Scotland, which was brown due to the peat it comes though, as well as drinking water directly from small streams in Scotland when we were sailing around the coast (yeah, it was probabily full of all sorts of sheep excrement and other stuff, but we live fine eh!) - which tasted fine as well!

Incidentally, no - i don't buy bottled water, don't drink fizzy drinks, don't buy or eat junk food either. As an addition, for all those who do - they have found that plastic bottles leech chemicals into the liquid contained within, be it bottled water, coke, lilt etc. Also occurs when you place your own liquid in it afterwards (same amount of leeching). The chemical (I have forgotten, maybe it was a benzene type derivative or something) is pretty darned harmful ) - destroys blood supplies to the brain i think it was, and attacks the kidneys - but the EU says the levels are miniscule, and therefore way below their saftey level requirements. It was on the BBC news website about 2 weeks ago...

I'll sell you some Tawakalnistan water, I can guarantee it's untouched by human hand and is a spristine as the day it was produced. full of minerals and proteins, a swig of this wonderful 100% natural product straight from the simple and pious people of Tawakalnistan is just what the doctor ordered.

special discounts for bulk purchases. Tawakalnisani is stored underground and has never been exposed to 21st C atmosphere, thus keeping it's medieval and anti-modernity effects intact. One drink and you too will be growing your beard, making your woman wear a burquah and banning music and dancing! Just look at the incredible effects its had on FD already!

botted water is flavorless tap water has lots of flavor and also includes flouride

lol @ Taw - that reminds me of a classic SNL commercial spoof w/ dan akroyd pouring a fresh glass of Swill brand water, just bottled from lake michigan and loaded with so many nutritious minerals its viscocity resembles molasses at 15 deg C

@ Killa - P&T:BS is sooth indeed sir =) now to list my favorites in any particular order: war on drugs, holier than thou, endangered species(the ep. that made me cry!), big brother, college, gun control, recycling, environmental hysteria, creationism, end of the world, talking to the dead
i couldn't list them all because they're all true!!!!

Edited by - Cold_Void on 4/3/2006 6:59:19 AM

---

to restate my main point, it's just plain snobby(and wasteful) to drink bottled water when there's nothing wrong with your tap water - bottled water snobs, i'm wagging my finger at you!

---

OK, I am a snob . Are you interested to know HOW and WHY ?

First, I live in a country (Switzerland) where there is plenty of water of excellent quality from tap or in bottles. The city of Zurich is even selling their tap water in bottles too ( and it is quite an economical success story).
But bottled water has one big advantage IMO: you can have it with gas (CO2) so you have these wonderful little bubbles in your glas and on your tongue. I like it - imo drinking water from bottles WITHOUT gas is just horrible. Could you imagine drinking Coke without gas; or champagne ? Brrrrr....

Another point:
Do not tell water is tasteless - or you make a fool out of yourself In Scuol, Swiss village in Engiadina, the public fountains have eight different tastes from eight different mineral water springs (some of them even with natural gas) - and some people go there filling their daily bottles of mineral water for free.

About the different taste of water: just make a test and organize a 'water drinking party' with your friends one of you serves the different waters hidden in the kitchen in neutral glasses - and the rest of you may try to identify the different brands. You will NEVER again pretend that Perrier and Vichy do NOT taste different. It's fun - especially if you continue your party afterwards with "blind taste" of beer, wine or single malts ...

Snob's summit: Years ago from a trip to Corsica I brought home a case of 'Orezza' water. Others may bring wine, I brought bottled water