digitalia

my brother (an ex-bike courier who now does track and road races) pointed out to me how dumb people can be.

the same type of person who would ***** about the price of gas getting up to $1.00CAN/L (sorry, don't know the current U$/Gal.) would turn around and grab a $2.00/500mL bottle from the cooler at a gas stop.

Petrol is a cumbustable source of energy that SHOULD cost more - water comes out of the freakin tap!

hoboy...

Ricardo

Your brother has a respectable point of view. But he is missing one big variable of the equation; and is the fact that an average income family spends more of their money on gas than on 500ml sodas each month.

Ricardo

adgrant

The water that comes out of the tap is loaded with clorine and other contaminents. It often tasts like crap.

cosmo starr

surly you understand the implications of bottled water...right?

adgrant

Presumably you are referring to the shipping costs.

jeff-o

People spend their money on a lot of completely rediculous things. Like cigarettes. Or excess alcohol. Or 300 channels of TV. Or cellphones. Or car leases. And yes, bottled water (I've never understood the need for bottled water when tap water is just fine).

Eatadonut

the tap water where I live is terrible. Actually, it tastes fine, but we're 24th worst in the nation in terms of arsenic and other bad stuff.

A carbon filter does me just fine. Bottled water is ridiculous.

adgrant

Cellphones are often cheaper than landlines and much more versatile.
Leasing a car can be cheaper than owning the same car.
Tapwater tastes like crap (then again so does some bottled water).

adgrant

Have you tested the water for contamination after it has been filtered?

Artkansas 

Also think of all the petroleum used to make all those clear plastic bottles and wrap them into the cardboard flats and the trees cut to make the cardboard and labels, and the recycling costs of all of the above. Not to mention the costs, fuel, and pollution of shipping such heavy items up to halfway around the world.

As for bottled water necessarily being better than tap or filtered water, just remember all the benzene problems that Perrier had in the '90s? Is such expensive water worth it? As Richard Heckmann, the president of U.S. Filter then the biggest water filtration equipment supplier in the world, once told me, "Spell Evian backwards."

Here's More... The Bottle Boom

adgrant

If you buy water in the 5 gallon jugs, the containers are reused.

Roody

There are implications that you all are missing. People vote with their pocketbooks. As gas becomes more expensive, they may decide to continue buying gas--but cut way back on discretionary purchases like bottled water, lattes, gym memberships, bicycles, etc. Who knows? Time will tell.....

Artkansas 

You are right. Of course, we will hope that many will pass on the gym membership to get a bicycle Most people really believe that there is no way they cannot exist without a car. It's a very strong meme.

Eli_Damon

Many people have dangerous amounts of plastic in their bodies from drinking out of plastic bottles so much.

Eatadonut

more info on this please.

Az B

I've noticed in some women it tends to congregrate in the chestal area.

Az

bragi

I don't think tap water tastes that bad. In addition, it's just as pure as most brands of bottled water. No, really. I've used water test kits on tap water and various brands of bottled water, and there is virtually no difference between them. If you live in a relatively new building in an industrialized country, it's silly to spend extra money to buy bottled water. (it's the pipes, not the water system that's the problem.)

As for the price of gas, even car-free people should worry about this. It's not like food gets from the field to the grocery strore via a huge fleet of bikes...

jakub.ner

I recently got persuaded that chlorine is not as bad as lack of chlorine.

Went on a one week tour with a friend and filled up my 3L camelbak twice+ daily. My friend said to use chlorinated water since I'm using my camelbak non stop (with a rinse each morning). Made sense to me. Made even more sense when I came back and was checking out water filtration solutions at MEC (for hikers/etc). Other than the filters, the chemical solution that took care of all the microbes was a $20 two bottle chlorinating kit. The $6 pills (which I took on the trip with me) don't take care of some stuff.

jakub.ner

Of course the local water supply is only as good as the providers.

Not to long ago there was a tragedy in Walkerton Ontario whereby the chlorine levels in the supply were not in check and 2000 people got sick and 6 died.

cacatfish

I am another who never gets the appeal of bottled wated. Oddly enough, tap water is generally held to stricter standards of oversight than bottled wated. I usually find bottled water to taste just like th eplastic bottle it comes from..meaning it's probably got no lack of dioxins, esters and whatnot.
I just use a filter on the tap and fill up a couple used liter glass bottles for the day.
I have to admit I do slam plently of water from my plastic bike-bottles, and it does taste just like poo. oh well, whataya gonna do?

PS: great forum..I am not carless, but would love to be.

wahoonc

There have been numerous "consumer" tests on the purity of bottled water vs tap water. In developed countries the tap water is held to a higher standard. However! just recently in our area we had two muncipal water systems contaminated with E.coli with everybody affected on a "boil before using order" they also shut down all restaurants and food preparation establishments. So you never really know. I don't like the proliferation of plastic water bottles and I think paying $8-9 a gallon for water is insane. I have both well and city water at home. Both are tested bi-annually. When traveling on the road I take a portable water filter (pitcher). I also "bottle" mine own water for drinking in Lexan Nalgene bottles that can be reused indefintely. It all boils down to Convience and Marketing. You could sell dog poop on a stick if you market it properly...remember Pet Rocks

Aaron

Weeks

I am intrigued about this Lexus nalgene bottle. I use an old gallon milk jug for drinking chilled tap water (it helps me to try and drink a gallon of water a day to stay as hydrated as possible) but I'm always worried about plastic residue

wahoonc

Here is the Nalgene website. They are availble at most if not all outdoor and sports stores like REI or Campmor Nalgene was orginally in the lab bottle business and apparently college students started taking the bottles out of the labs and using them for backpacking (those were a polyethelyne)...and a new business was born. Lexan is virtually indestructible, I have actually left a bottle sitting on the bumper of my truck and had it fall off going down the interstate, saw it bouncing in the rear view, picked it up on the return trip and it was scuffed up but still serviceable. IIRC Lexan is the least likely of the plastics to leach anything into the water and it doesn't pickup odors from the contents. It is second only to glass in those respects. I prefer to buy Nalgene name brand. I have some of their old white soft bottles that are over 15 years old and still going strong. Kind of ugly and funky...but still very usable.

Aaron

jeff-o

Just to expand on this, it was actually E.Coli bacteria that made the population sick. The water wasn't treated properly (perhpas lack of chlorine?) due to mis-management of the water treatment plant.


I drink tap water, but I do have an under-sink water filter. I think the water from it tastes better than bottled water.

slagjumper

I once went to dinner with a date who ordered a $30 bottle of water. Yes that's right. Talk about high maintenance. Also I've heard that millions of years ago the Grand Canyon, (a one mile deep hole), was 2 miles under the sea!

Gas may be a bargin on some levels. For example a gallon of gas is equal to 500 man-hours. At minimum wage that is over $2500.