Increase in Bottled Water Sales in the US

However, in response to the previous paragraph there are plenty of people in the world who are for bottled water and think that it is worth the cost. “Bottled water has the lightest environmental footprint of all packaged beverages”. (Lauria, 665).

In fact 22% of test water bottle brands had chemical contaminants higher than the state limit (ABC, 1). So why do Americans think bottled water is so great? Maybe it’s because of how much companies advertise the product, advertising expenses for bottled water totaled $61 million in 2012 ("International Bottled Water Association" 1). Whatever the reason may be, bottled water is the second most popular beverage in the U.S.A., and more and more bottles of water are being produced and distributed this very second.

Bottled water is often more available. For example, when going on vacation and having to drive over ten hours, tap water is not available in the car. A few families bring a cooler with bottled water in them so that they can have water available to everyone when they want a drink. To get their bottled water, they

Billions of gallons of bottled water are consumed in the United States every year. Many Americans choose bottled water for its convenience and say that the taste is much better than tap water. They say tap water is flat and tasteless. Some argue that the cost of bottled water far exceeds the cost of tap water. One study showed that one bottled water per day would cost the consumer $365 per year while the same amount of tap water would cost ten cents. While bottled water is more expensive, it provides over 130,000 jobs resulting in over six billion dollars in salaries for american workers “Bottled Water Matters.” In the article, “ Bad To The Last Drop,” Tom Standage says that bottled water is too expensive and encourages people to stop buying bottled water and give the money to charity. In the article “ In Defense of Bottled Water,” Thomas J. Lauria says that eliminating bottled water would have the unintended consequence of driving people to choose more unhealthy beverages which have thicker plastic bottles and would be worse on the environment. He also says that bottled water is an important choice in situations where there is a lack of tap water or concern about water

In terms of bottled water there are a lot of substitutes and it can be difficult to capture a targeted market and retain them as consumers have many similar products to choose from.

I have always found it sort of curious when I see people buying bottled water. My grandfather told me that when he was a boy they drank water from the hose and it was free. I know growing up our household certainly didn’t bother with things like that, so facet water is what we got as well. The costs of groceries these days is expensive, spending extra money on water always seemed like such a waste to me. Now, that being said, some people live in areas where the water isn’t very clean, and buying bottled water is much safer than drinking the city’s water. Also, bottled water has become more popular because it is paired as a service; Bottled water is easy to grab on the go. It takes more time to find a water bottle, with a lid, and fill it up than to grab an already bottled water.

From helping the daily jogger stay hydrated during a run to that mom and family trying to stay hydrated at the amusement park, bottled water has had a lot of good to it. However do those goods outweigh the bad? In “Bottled Water: Friend or Foe?” by Christopher Castillo, Diana Goettsch, Angela Reid, and Catherine Sterling argue bottled water are our worst enemy, reasons being the bottle itself has harming chemicals within it which we are drinking, bottled water damages our environment, and lastly we are spending more on bottled water when we have the same water coming from our sinks.

In Peter Gleick’s “Selling Bottled Water: The Modern Medicine Show” and Cynthia Barnett’s “Business in a Bottle”, bottled water is argued to be an excessive commodity falsely advertised as healthier and more beneficial than tap water to society and the environment. Both authors discuss that bottled water is actually equivalent in quality to tap water and in some cases even more hazardous to the human body. Public water itself is a less expensive resource that is more accessible to the masses. However, due to fraudulent companies focused on profit and the lack of effective oversight, people are deterred from realizing that there does not need to be an alternative to municipal water. Gleick

Tap water is extremely cheaper than bottled water is. According to Livingston, tap water costs only $2.00 every thousand gallons, whereas the cost per gallon of bottled water is $1.21. "That means, priced by gallon, bottled water is more than 600 times more expensive than tap water" (Livingston). Buying a bottled water may be cheaper at the time, however, that $1.00 or so adds up. When people buy bottled water, it is often the same as tap, just that’s been filtered or purified (Livington). So, why spend money on bottled water when it's rather identical to tap, with no

According to The Water Project, “Bottles used to package water take over 1,000 years to bio-degrade and if incinerated, they produce toxic fumes. It is estimated that over 80% of all single-use water bottles used in the U.S. simply become ‘litter’” (“Bottled Water is Wasteful”). This fact is not the only reason I believe that bottled water does not outweigh its costs. Although statistics show that bottled water is efficient, there are many reasons to believe otherwise.

11). Also, for the most part, bottled water is basically packaged tap water: “Much of the bottled water for sale comes from municipal taps (40 percent in the U.S.)” (Natural Life, 2007, p. 10). Essentially, consumers are paying 2,000 times more for bottled water than the price for water that could easily be poured from the kitchen faucet. The amount of oil that is consumed for shipment and production of plastic bottles is the main reason why the price of bottled water is marked up so high. In addition to paying higher costs for bottled water, consumers’ tax dollars are responsible for paying to recycle the bottles. “More than four billion pounds of plastic water bottles go into landfills each year. This costs $70 million of taxpayers money each year in the United States alone” (Adeland, 2011, p. 230). The bottled water industry has made their products readily available and more convenient making it is easier to purchase a bottle of water than it is to pour a glass of water from a tap. This results in a high demand for the product and, therefore, costs to manufacture, ship, and purchase bottled water are extreme.

Priscilla Torres goes on to describe the many downsides bottles of water bring to people as well as the environment in “Bottled Water Vs. Tap Water: Rethink What You Drink”. Torres first claims that the water bottles companies can be “misleading” (Torres) with where they tell the public of the waters source. In some cases, companies turn to flat out lying in their “labels” (Torres) and could be serving you potentially “hazardous” (Torres) products.

There are articles, flyers, and even books out in the market that try to persuade people to either use bottled water or tap water. While many believe that tap water is more beneficial to the body, others believe that the convenience and advertising of purified bottled water is acceptable enough for themselves. As we consume water, we concern ourselves with issues such as if it is harmful to the environment, if it is harmful to our health and whether the product is convenient for us. Ultimately, the choice is personal because both sides provide pros and cons to these issues.

Refilling a plastic bottle can have unforeseen consequences. Using a refillable water bottle is better for the drinker’s health than drinking out of plastic bottles only meant to be used once because they are not good quality.“Plastic bottles contain a harmful substance called polyethylene terephthalate, or PET, which is dangerous to human health” (“Think” par. 2). If that is not a serious enough reason, there are even more chemicals that are found in plastic bottles. “BPA has been connected to cases of hormonal issues and even cancer” (Speer par. 4). No one should be consuming harmful chemicals. Use of plastic bottles, whether for

Have you ever had any concerns about bottled water? Do you think that bottled water consumption should be banned? Bottled water is water packed in plastic containers and sold for human consumption (Health Canada, 2013). Currently, the amount of bottled water consumed has increased considerably since many people feel it is safer drinking bottled water than tap water (Parent and Wrong, 2014). According to The Statistics Portal, the global sale of bottled water took a leap from 161, 589 to 181, 608 liters from 2009 to 2011. Only in the United States, each American citizen consumed around 32 gallons of bottled water in 2013, thus meaning an equivalent growth of 15, 94% over 2009 (The Statistics Portal, 2014). In fact, due to good portability, bottled water has been helpful in both simple and complex situations such as daily exercises and natural disasters. Even though having those few considerable advantages, bottled water still have been less beneficial; especially due to the negative impacts in the socio-economic, health and environmental fields.