Thursday, September 30, 2010

I'm not a Big Fan of Bottled Water

It's not that I don't think it tastes better, it's just that it seems stupid to extrude a plastic bottle for a one-time delivery of some water to me. I thought we were supposed to be an environmentally conscious society. The whole thing seems like a colossal waste.

6 comments:

tim eisele said...

For that matter, I've seen at least one demonstration where people couldn't distinguish bottled water from garden-hose water in a double-blind taste test.

You know, we all pay our taxes so that the public water supply is available and safe to drink. I figure, why not just drink it? It's fine. Really.

K T Cat said...

I find the bottles convenient. I refill them from the tap and take them with me. I can get many uses out of them before I lose track of them.

As for the taste, here in San Diego, I can tell the difference. Having said that, there are several pitchers made that have simple filters built in that remove most of the bad-tasting dissolved junk.

Jedi Knight Ivyan said...

Tim, I could tell the difference between filtered tap water where I live and bottled water. The water here tastes that bad. I'm seriously considering buying 2 gallon jugs. If the water tastes good, I'll drink more of it.

The 20 oz bottles do seem wasteful. I try to reuse them if I do get them.

Mostly Nothing said...

Typically, tap water has more stringent regulations imposed on it than that of bottled water.

We have a door tap on our refrigerator which has a filter built in. We still have the bottles.

They are very convenient, for baseball, basketball, soccer, cycling, etc, etc.

It comes down to, we are very conscious about being environmentally frugal. Unless it becomes the least little bit inconvient for us.

Foxfier said...

A lot of cities may have safer water, but it still tastes horrible-- the pipes it goes through in the building matter, too.

(The water here tastes quite nice, really-- I just use Arizona bottles. Makes it easy to tell if I'm drinking the amount I aim for, too-- the jug is 42 oz, I am for two of them, should counter the coffee, breast feeding and have a bit more for the theory that it helps with weight.)

My folks swear by their brita filter, and they live on a well that's so hard you have to be careful showering so the water won't knock you out. (Humor)

Secular Apostate said...

Having spent most of my life in homes with wells, I honestly do dislike the smell of chlorine in my drinking water.

But chlorine isn't so bad in comparison to hydrogen sulfide, which was dissolved in the well water in a house I rented in WV. Back home, we call that "egg water". Disgusting. Even taking a shower was a trial.

The reason I drink bottled water is because I like my water carbonated. Sometimes I even buy 1-liter bottles of seltzer or club soda for drinking water. It's got a little zazz.

Hose water is a different story. Particularly if the hose is in the sun. Blech. After it's been running a while, though, it's not so... so... rubbery-tasting.

But yeah, tap water is just fine, too. Memphis, amazingly, has excellent tap water because of the Memphis Sand aquifer. Very soft, very pure.