Tap Water In Elizabeth Royte's Bottlemania

“The Story of Bottled Water” by Annie Leonard’s central purpose is about how bottled water is less environmentally-friendly, less tasty, and less safe, but more expensive. The author wants action to be taken to ban water bottles and increase the access of safe tap water to all.

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.

Water is essential to life, scientific fact, not debatable (Tracy). More than half of all Americans drink bottled water; about a third of the public consumes it regularly (Olsen). Many drink or buy bottled water simply because they believe it is of better quality, cleaner, and better tasting. On the contrary, several individuals do not know the cons of drinking bottled water. Today, there are many misconceptions and myths about bottled water. Many people are uneducated about what goes into our bottles and how it not only affects us but also our environment. In the article “The New Oil” by Jeneen Interlandi and Ryan Tracy they discuss the issues that have to do with water and the privatization of it. They believe there is a crisis and something has to be done. Due to the cost, pollution, shortage, and health issues, bottled water should be outlawed. Water should not be controlled by water bottle companies and should not be allowed to be sold in plastic bottles.

Author Michael I. Niman is a professor of journalism at Buffalo State College. In his article “Bottled Insanity," Niman claims that the rage for imported bottled water is unnecessary. Niman argues that people in America are “mad” for Fiji Water because they are “being sold a fantasy. A moment in Fiji. A taste of Fiji”. The author describes how this craze for “designer water” is negatively effecting our environment. According to the Niman, to transport a bottle of water from Fiji to Western New York State requires packing the water into cardboard boxes made from rain forest trees, loading the bottles onto trucks that require gasoline that are driven to a cargo ships powered by fossil fuels, which are then shipped to The United States, and again loaded onto trains and trucks and transported all across the country, then from the warehouses the bottles are delivered everywhere you buy Fiji Water. The author supports his claim that this infatuation of “designer water” is “bottled insanity” by informing the reader that this process “threatens the very existence of the tropical paradise” because of how it is negatively effecting Fiji including the island’s “chronic water shortage”. In continuation, Niman brings up the fact that where he lives, in Western New York State he is fairly close to both the great lakes and Adirondack mountain aquifers. In addition, the author reveals that his region already has “some of the best water on the planet”. Overall, according to Niman the

Tom Standage’s essay “Bad to the Last Drop” first appeared in the New York Times on the first of August, 2005. And it appears on pages 662-664 in the textbook; Practical Argument, compiled by Laurie G. Kirszner and Stephen R. Mandell. In his essay, Standage argues that we, as a society, should do away with bottled water. He justifies his stance with several points including the shear monetary cost to the consumer, the lack of any nutritional benefit in bottled water, and even his results in a “water tasting”, a parody of a wine tasting which he partook in with the help of a few of his friends (Standage). By far, one of Tom’s strongest points, though, is the plight of impoverished nations around the world and their lack of clean water. One can almost feel his contempt for the seeming hypocrisy of first-world countries and their rejection of their perfectly adequate tap water, especially in the face of such global need. He demonizes the “illogical enthusiasm” with which wealthy nations turn up their noses at tap water (Standage). But in the midst of his tirade, he is certain to pardon developing countries, as bottled water is often times the cleanest water available to them. As his final point, Standage concludes that the most reasonable course of action is that the populace of developed nations, in light of the deficiency of water in other countries, ought to cease consumption of bottled water and send that money to water charities instead.

The chapter “Selling Bottled Water”, by Peter Gleick, works within the argument of Cynthia Barnett’s “Business in a Bottle”, which illustrates the superficial and deceptive image of bottled water, due to false advertising and pseudoscientific claims by greedy bottling companies. The companies take advantage of a free resource and make millions in profit. Although utilizing different styles, Gleick and Barnett’s grounds intertwine, exposing bottling companies’ manipulative tricks while opening the population’s eyes to the lie that bottled water is cleaner, healthier, and safer than tap water. Barnett focuses on specific bottling companies’ data and incorporates statistics for support, while Gleick separates his argument into various segments and provides a brief historical lesson on false advertising; these techniques expose the psychological effect of false advertising in the population and neatly organize the information proving false advertising exists.

"We can’t change the bottled water industry, but we can change our own ignorance." –Paul W. Mason

U.S. Landfills alone are filled with 2 million tons of filthy, old, discarded water bottles (Healthy Human LIfe). Around the world many people have the choice of tap or bottled water but, what is the better choice? Bottled water is supposed to be a cheap, safe, and convenient way to get clean water but, believe it or not they’re not. The decision between tap and bottled water is an important choice because it can affect many factors of everyday life. Tap water is the better choice because it is safer, cost efficient, and Earth friendly.

Tom Standage’s essay “Bad to the Last Drop first appeared in the New York Times” (pages 662-664) on the first of August, 2005. In his essay, Standage argues that we, as a society, should do away with bottled water. He justifies his stance with several points including the shear monetary cost to the consumer, the lack of any nutritional benefit in bottled water, and even his results in a “water tasting”, a parody of a wine tasting which he partook in with the help of a few of his friends. By far, one of Tom’s strongest points, though, is the plight of impoverished nations around the world and their lack of clean water. One can almost feel his contempt for the seeming hypocrisy of first-world countries and their rejection of their perfectly adequate tap water, especially in the face of such global need. He demonizes the “illogical enthusiasm” with which wealthy nations turn up their noses at tap water. But in the midst of his tirade, he makes sure to pardon developing countries as bottled water is often times the cleanest water available to them. As his final point, Standage concludes that the most reasonable thing for the populace of developed nations to do, in light of the deficiency of water in other countries, is to cease consumption of bottled water and send that money to water charities instead.

In addition to the likelihood of bottled water, the majority of the population of Americans may prefer bottled water over tap water since they think it is safer. Mothers use bottled water or jug water for their baby’s bottles considering that the tap water here may consist of glass, lead, or other particles that are not robust for their baby to ingest. People feel as if it is healthier for them to drink bottled water due to it being processed and checked for contamination of unknown particles, so they feel as if it is safe for them to drink. Bottled water cannot become contaminated from pollution as tap water may since it is checked before they are placed into the bottles and manufactured to be put onto the shelves of stores. Bottled water has a longer shelf life before it is opened than tap water,

“This is a story about a world obsessed with stuff. It 's a story about a system in crisis. We are trashing the planet, we are trashing each other, and we 're not even having fun”. This quote by writer; Annie Leonard, in her video The Study of Water explains how companies such as Coca-Cola and Pepsi used manufactured demand to get Americans to buy more than half a billion bottles a week (Leonard, 2010). In the late 1970s, giant soft drink companies such as PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, Nestle, and DANONE used manufactured demand in order to get the general public to drink to their bottled water. However, it was did not do so well in the beginning at all. With the introduction of Perrier in the United States in the late 1960s, bottled was seen as a upper class fad that only middle class to upper class adults would drink instead of their regular tap water. People used to say, “Water is free, what will they sell us next air”? But due to manufactured demand these companies were able to successfully make individuals purchase bottle water with cheap tactics. For example, one of the first marketing tactic to scare people away from tap water was from Fiji Water, in which they placed many ads in Cleveland that announced that its water will taste better than the regular city tap (Leonard, 2010). This placement, like many others, were used to basically give tap water a bad image. That drinking water from the bottle is one of the more pure forms of consuming water then going to

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.

“In the US, tap water is underfunded by $24 billion partly because people believe drinking water only comes from a bottle!” (qt. in The Story of Bottled Water). Are people even aware why this is happening? As much as everyone in the world needs water every day, do they realize where exactly does the water that big corporations are getting it from? Annie Leonard, Rick Anderson, and Adam Smith all want to show the public what these companies are doing to the environment. They don’t know what’s happening outside of their own town. Now, from the looks of the amount of people purchasing plastic bottled water, they have to mentally get into their heads now and think. Is commercially bottled water a sustainable practice?

Arnold, E 2006, ‘Bottled water drains natural resources’, Earth Policy Institute, 1 April , viewed 22 Octobe

Water is a simple molecule consisting of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom, however this simple molecule is vital to humans, without it we cannot survive. Water is an absolute necessity in everyday life, the maximum amount that a human being can go without water is around three days. In recent years the bottled water market has sky rocketed, making jaw dropping profit off of a molecule that most consider a human right. The 2009 documentary Tapped seeks out the origin of bottled water and the reason why consumers today are infatuated with plastic water bottles. The documentary also showcases where the water comes from, how it is effecting the environment, and exactly where most of the plastic bottles end up.