A little background info on Bottled water

So there has been a big controversy between which is better: Tap water or Bottled Water.


Water bottles were first brought up as "miracle cures" and were generally sold at the springs where the water came from. It started that people would go to the springs to get water and take a bottle or two with them and take some water home.

 Today people purchase water bottles for a completely different reason: to stay healthy and it doesn't mean it will cure them from illnesses. The majority want to look good and sophisticated with bottled waters. In the time of the mid-1800s bottled water was viewed as sophisticated and showed high class such as today. Historically bottled water was perceived to be a gift from God given to the Almighty in his will.
In the twentieth century, bottled water went out of style when chlorination was found in water making it unsafe to drink and dangerous to health. Though in 1977, bottled water was brought back by the imported Perrier. It made headlines giving people less of a worry about the health issues that had risen from tap water. Giving so, the industry grew to its current sales right now, with a handful of bottled water industries selling their "pure water" to consumers. http://www.greatlakeslaw.org/blog/2009/03/a-brief-history-of-bottled-water-in-america.html
Bottles are not being recycled  by the American population which causes harm to our environment. Though in developing countries, bottled water industries are being created as an alternative to tap water, which is not safe to drink. Thus making tap water a safer option for the population. Policymakers are now encouraging people to drink tap water due to the dangers bottled water has caused. Some cities like Seattle now have a 5 cent tax on each bottles and San Francisco is no longer buys water. Other concerns are that bottled companies are using public water resources and putting it in bottled water. They are selling the water 2,900 times the price of regular tap water! http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/03/100310/why-tap-water-is-better/


Grand Rapids from Michigan is now launching Boxed Water. Boxed Water is environmentally friendly since it uses milk carton instead of plastic bottles.
All in all, bottled water isn't as redefined as its thought to be, in reality its just a nice looking container which contains regular filtered water in some cases. Tap water is just as healthy as bottled water apparently. So why spend money on water that can be gotten at home for a really cheap price? Its recommended to even drink tap water instead of buying bottled water due to its false advertisements.

Questions Surrounding & Answers

 

Is bottled water really safer than tap water?

Overall, there is no reason to believe that bottled water is any safer than tap water from a regulated public water supply or from a proper, tested private well. These drinking water sources are normally safe and high quality.

How safe is tap water?

The public water supply is regulated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). All municipal water systems serving 25 or more people are tested regularly for up to 118 chemicals and bacteria specified by the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA). Individual states may require additional testing. Everyone who gets their tap water from a public system is therefore assured of regular testing and certain standards. And, when testing indicates a problem, corrective actions are instituted. These actions include notifying residents about the problem and informing them of any special precautions that may be necessary.

What’s in that bottle?

Yes, some bottled water comes from sparkling springs and other pristine sources. But more than 25 percent of it comes from a municipal supply. The water is treated, purified and sold to us, often at a thousandfold increase in price. Most people are surprised to learn that they’re drinking glorified tap water, but bottlers aren’t required to list the source on the label.

Are the plastic bottles safe to reuse?
An issue of concern is the reuse of the bottles. Reused bottles may be contaminated with bacteria and other disease-causing organisms. Reusing the bottles may expose people to unhealthy microorganisms, especially if the bottles are not washed appropriately after each use.

How should bottled water be stored?

The FDA considers bottled water to have an indefinite shelf life if it’s produced in accordance with regulations and remains unopened. Therefore, expiration dates on bottles are voluntary, and may reflect concerns for taste and odor rather than safety. Bottled water should be stored in a cool location away from direct sunlight.

    In California alone, more than 1 billion water bottles are thrown out annually, according to the California Department of Conservation. Nationwide, just 15% of the tens of billions of bottles consumed each year are recycled. The Pacific Institute, a research group based in Oakland, calculates that in 2006, manufacturing those billions of bottles required 17 million barrels of oil.

That bottle that takes just three minutes to drink can take up to a thousand years to biodegrade

http://www.health.state.mn.us/divs/eh/water/factsheet/com/bottledwater.html
http://www.rd.com/health/rethink-what-you-drink/

The Carbon foot print stands for the effect it has on the planet in a negative way, in other words bottled water  creates approximatley 600 times more waste than tap water.Bottled water is the same quality as tap water but the plastic contains many chemicals. For example, the plastic contains a compound called Bisphenol A or BPA for short; this compound mimics the effects of Estrogen which causes breast cancer, decreased sperm count and prostate cancer. The health section in the image above describes how tap water undergoes more tests than bottled water. According to a Canadian researcher on this topic"The high levels of bacteria in bottled water could pose a risk for vulnerable populations such as pregnant women, infants, immunocompromised patients and the elderly."All in all tap water ranks in the top three of purest and tastiest water including brand named bottles."If on the rare occasion tap water is unsafe, bottled water is a good alternative."




The link below will take you to a video that explains the differences of tap water and bottled water.(2min 10sec)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcTyhd_4TUE


The following link is another video but unlike the first video this video has more humor to it and is about how many people regulate tap water and how many people regulate bottled water.(20 sec)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwrUWiQIf8Q

which is better??

Is bottled water really better than tap? Bottled water is basically brought from the same source as tap water. Coca-Cola's water Dasani has been discovered that "Rather than deriving its water from natural springs, Coca-Cola had actually been filling its Dasani bottles with purified tap water." (allboutwater.org).

Water is just suppose to be safer if it comes out of a water bottle, as they say but actually “…there is no assurance that just because water comes out of a bottle it is any cleaner or safer than water from the tap. And in fact, an estimated 25 percent or more of bottled water is really just tap water in a bottle -- sometimes further treated, sometimes not.” http://greenlifestylemagazine.net/issue-3/bottled-water-vs-tap-water.php
Tap water is basically the same as bottled water only processed in a better container than a faucet. Some water companies don't go all the way to the spring mountains to bring pure water, they simply use filters to make them pure. Honestly, tap water does not harm as much as it is portrayed to harm.

Well in the end we all came to a conclusion that when it comes to tap water vs plastic bottled water then the bottled water would lose pretty much every time. Bottled water com pains are some of the biggest growing companies just because they have been putting the tap water everyone has into bottles that are supposedly "cleaner" well in reality these companies are just brainwashing people into thinking this is true. We realized that not only is tap water the same as bottled its sometimes even better to drink tap than bottled because when people drink out of bottles they some times contain bacteria in them especially when they are recycled bottles those are the worse. Also the cost of having to buy bottled water over and over again is outrageous when you can just buy a filter and you will be doing water water com pains are doing anyway but in your own homes which will save you a lot of money and as well lots of time since you won't need to be going out to buy water. So make sure when you want some water don't ask for bottled all you have to do is tap that !

this video below shows how bottled water is a huge problem in our lives today and that tap is the way to go way to go to help us in the future . bottled water is a way bigger problem than you may think it is! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72MCumz5lq4