Bottled water has appeared in the news as the result of a court case about BlueTriton, which owns several brands of bottled water, including Poland Spring, Pure Life and Arrowhead, is believed to dispose hundreds of millions of pounds of plastic to landfills annually. The company also “has a history of draining aquifers to get the water that it encases in polluting plastic.”

We want to state up front that bottled water certainly has a valuable place as a beverage, such as during a water emergency. But because your tap water most likely meets or exceeds all federal, state or provincial drinking water standards, there's no need to buy bottled water outside of an emergency. In fact, some of the largest bottled water distributors use municipal water as their source.

The article states, “In truth, there is overwhelming evidence that recycling cannot solve the plastic problem. Since the 1950s, only 9 percent of plastic produced has been recycled, while the vast majority of plastic waste is either landfilled or incinerated. Six times more plastic waste is burned than recycled in the United States. Packaging, including the PET bottles that BlueTriton brands describe as recyclable, account for more than half the plastic that winds up in landfills.”

Plain Talk About Drinking Water states, “On the environmental side, 1.5 million tons (1.36 million metric tons) of plastic are used each year to bottle water, and much of that ends up in landfills. Along with the energy used to produce and recycle the plastic, energy is used to transport the product to stores around the world. While the International Bottled Water Association says that bottlers are protective of water resources, some manufacturers may be pumping up to 500 gallons per hour (1,900 liters) from valuable aquifers and other water sources.”

Visit DrinkTap’s Bottled Water page for more information.