Despite tough economic times, people are still shelling out money for bottled water. Why? The primary motivator is convenience, not perceived health benefits, according to a study conducted in the United Kingdom.
Although most study participants said there were general health benefits to bottled water, they were unsure exactly what these benefits were and considered them negligible.
Despite a vague belief about increased healthfulness, most could not identify the health benefit. The most commonly given reason for purchasing bottled water was convenience. Many participants said they drank tap water at home, but purchased bottled water when they were out and about.
“Interestingly, while the majority of participants expressed the belief that bottled water has health benefits of some kind, paradoxically these same participants also stated that the health benefits of bottled water are negligible or nonexistent,” researchers write in the study. “This perhaps reflects confusion in the general public.”
No wonder they are confused. Although Americans drank 9 billion gallons of bottled water last year, or slightly more than 29 gallons for every man, woman, and child in the country, they also spent $22 billion on a product that critics of the bottled water industry say they should be getting for free from their home faucets.
Roughly 45% of the water sold in single-serve bottles comes from a municipal water source!
By law, bottled water that comes from a municipal water supply has to disclose this on its label unless the bottler takes steps to further purify the water, which most do. In this case, the label will say "purified water" or "purified drinking water," but the original source is probably tap water.
Water labeled "spring water" comes from an underground water spring, but it may be piped to the bottling plant.
"Mineral water" comes from an underground source and must contain no less than 250 parts per million total dissolved solids, such as salts, sulfur compounds, and gasses. No minerals may be added to the water by the bottler.
"Artesian water" or "artesian well water" must come from a well that taps a confined aquifer.
Are you someone who spends money on bottled water? If so, what's your reason for it?
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Comments (44)
Uh, I drink bottled water because my local water supply tastes BAD. Besides, the cheap store brand bottles cost about 2 dollars for a 12 pack so why worry? I recycle the plastic...
No. I drink the purified water that comes in my house.
I'm just wondering why people won't invest in a Brita purifier or some such mechanism and simply keep using their own tap? Then buy one bottle of water, and refill from the tap when it's empty... then you get the "purified" water without having to constantly pay, at least that is my understanding...
I drink bottled water because the tap water from my town tastes awful. I know it's bad for the environment even with recycling, but I puke if I try to drink enough of the water from the faucet. My family gets Nestle, but I really enjoy spring water the best...it tastes the most clear (if that makes any sense).
@Passionflwr86@xanga - I have a Brita purifier, but it didn't do much good. I'm not sure why, perhaps it's just that certain things aren't filtered out.
I fill my own reusable water bottle. It helps the enviornment, by not using plastic bottles every day, and it is a breast cancer so it helps that :D
My family uses bottled water. I just don't get it
I drink bottled water when I'm traveling abroad or living at school. So around 80% of the year, that's what I drink. The taps at school taste like metal, and you never know what's going on with the water abroad.
There is no difference in taste. Except mineral water.... it tastes better : )
I'm not a big water drinker, so I don't much bottled water unless offered, given, or I get it from home (b/c my mom buys it. She doesn't like drinking water from the faucet unless it's going into the kettle then has a tea bag dipped in it or being use to make coffee). I do drink water from the faucet and I drink bottle water on occasion. However, I don't buy it for myself.
I drink bottled water when I'm on a trip 'cause... it's hard to carry around all that water from home.
Otherwise, I strictly drink water from my Brita pitcher or just the tap... I have my own water bottle too. =D
i buy carry a plastic bottle and fill it up whenever i can.
the only time i buy bottled water is when i want perrier. :)
I have the Brita water cooler. I drink a lot of water, so the water filter is the way to go for me. I have my own reusable bottles to fill, so I won't feel guilty about all the plastic bottles I would waste.
yes.....the water from my tap tastes like chlorine pool water.
I never buy bottled water anymore. I just drink water in glasses at home or fill up a reusable water bottle when I'm away from home.
I used to go through 2 bottles of dasani every day.... wow.. what a waste of money and landfills!
of course not! always bring bottled water :)
always have, always will :)
Because the tap water smells like sulfur and looks like urine.
pro tip: fill a pitcher full of tap water and leave it in the fridge
it tastes a lot better. I never buy bottled water.
i drink bottled water because it tastes gooooooooood.
i love dasani and smart water.
I like bottled water because it taste better than tap water!
My family uses bottled water, because our tap tastes like sulfur. I don't know why we haven't invested in a purifier yet...
I'm guilty. I buy bottled water a lot. It's convenient and it's just.. something I like. I do drink faucet water as well, but it's just easier to take bottled water to the gym and on the go.
i try to get as much free water as possible...the issue is sometimes let's say like today i went to a museum and didn't take water fr home...u go out then u want water.....u have to buy bottle water....when i can like at a restaurant or somewhere i'll just get tap......at home tap for sure....i also sometimes do just feel up my eddie bauer water bottle with water it all depends how prepared i am....nyc has good tap water too...
i heard it's bad to take a plastic bottle then fill it up again and again bc the plastic has toxins that enter the water?
Boo...this is so bad for the environment.
I don't particularly applaud people who are in the habit of buying bottled water regularly. My mom bought a whole Cosco pack for me once during college, and it made me feel so bad, the only way I got rid of it eventually was by letting people who hung out in my room take as many as they wanted.
@ELIZerson@xanga - You don't REALLY know what's going on in the water here, though, either...
But really...all of you should go buy a Brita, and on top of that, buy a Nalgene bottle or something similar. :/ Cheaper and environmentally sound. Plus, the reusable bottles are often more attractice than your bottle of Dasani.
Spring water does not usually mean CLEAN water. Springs are usually associated with karst landscapes- areas that are KNOWN for less than perfect water quality because water does not have the time in wetlands that purify the water. They move quickly through cave systems instead and pollutants are not removed.
Confined aquifers are good places to get water because they are less likely to be polluted, however.
And people say it tastes better than tap water. In tests where people drank out of unidentified cups of water, some bottled some tap, they could not tell the difference. It's more a mind set than anything else.
Edit: source, myself, who has a bachelors degree in environmental geoscience.
Well, I have a pretty good reason for drinking bottled water, aside from my mom constantly buying it and it having better taste. In the '90s, Milwaukee, WI had a serious problem with our water. It somehow got contaminated with a type of bacteria called cryptospuridium (we natives call it "crypto" for short), and lots of people got sick from it------it was like a really bad flu. Anyway, the hype around it and the sickness was so serious that no one's trusted the water or our local sewage company since. We all make jokes like, "Don't drink that water!" if it's from the tap or say the Lake (that would be Lake Michigan, for the clueless) is toxic and you can't swim in it