This ‘Pure’ Water Scam Is Wasting Your Money – And Harming Your Health
I recently read a report in The Washington Post that asks a question that shouldn’t need to be asked: “Should you drink bottled or tap water?”
Ever since I wrote my first book, “Life or Debt,” nearly 25 years ago, I’ve been telling anyone who will listen that bottled water is one of the biggest marketing scams of the last century.
We have been trained to fear the water from our kitchen taps – which we already pay for – in favor of plastic bottles that cost 2,000 times more.
If the financial absurdity of paying for water isn’t enough to convince you, maybe the latest science will. It turns out that “pure” bottled water is not only expensive. It’s plastic soup.
Here is why you need to get rid of disposable bottles.
1. You drink plastic
For a long time, we thought bottled water was cleaner than tap water. Marketing campaigns featured mountain springs and glaciers to drive this point home.
But recent technology has enabled scientists to take a closer look, and they didn’t like what they found. A landmark study from Columbia University found that a liter of bottled water contained around 240,000 pieces of plastic, called microplastics.
Small plastics are less than five millimeters in size – about one-eighth of an inch.
These fragments break down into nanoplastics that vary in size from one nanometer to one micrometer. (A single human hair is 20 to 200 micrometers, theoretically.) Nanoplastics are so small that they can pass through your intestines and lungs and directly into your bloodstream.
Where do they come from? The bottle itself. Every time you squeeze the bottle or twist the cap, small pieces of plastic shear into the water.
If you drink only bottled water, you may be ingesting tens of thousands more plastic particles each year than someone who drinks from the tap.
2. Markup is a crime
Let’s take a look at your wallet. If you buy a 20-ounce bottle of water at the gas station for $1.50, you’re paying about $10 per liter. Even if you buy in bulk at the grocery store, you’re paying more than you should.
The average cost of bottled water is about $1.22 per liter.
Average cost of tap water? Less than one penny per litre.
If you drink the recommended eight glasses a day, switching to tap water could save you hundreds — or a family of four, more than $1,000 — every year.
Imagine if a gas station opened across the street selling gas for 1 cent per gallon, but you insisted on charging $10 per gallon at the station because you like the logo better. That’s exactly what you do when you buy bottled water.
3. Tap water is usually safe
There is a persistent myth that bottled water is safer than tap water. In the US, that is often false.
Tap water is regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which enforces strict safety standards and requires utility companies to publish annual Consumer Confidence Reports detailing exactly what’s in your water. You can check yours right now.
Bottled water, on the other hand, is regulated by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as a food product. The FDA’s testing regime is not general, and according to the EPA, it does not require companies to share the same level of detailed testing data with the public.
In most cases, bottled water is just tap water that has been filtered and labeled 2,000 times.
4. The excuse of taste is easily fixed
I hear this all the time: “But Stacy, my tap water sounds like a swimming pool.”
I get it. Chlorine is used to disinfect municipal water, and it leaves a taste. But you don’t need to buy a pallet of plastic bottles to fix it.
- Pitcher method: Buy a simple filtered jar for your refrigerator. It removes the chlorine taste and costs a fraction of what you spend on bottled water.
- Faucet filter: Attach the filter directly to your faucet.
- Under sink systems: For a great upfront investment, you can install a reverse osmosis system that gives you cleaner water than anything you can buy at the store.
5. We are drowning in the river
I focus on money, but we can’t ignore the mess we make. Americans buy billions of plastic water bottles every year.
Only a fraction of them are recycled. The rest ends up in landfills or the ocean, where it breaks down into the microplastics that are now found in our blood.
What you have to do now
Stop letting marketing managers scare you into opening your wallet.
- Get your report: Search online for your local water utility’s Consumer Confidence Report to ensure your source water is safe. (For example, here’s a water quality report from Fort Lauderdale, where I live.)
- Buy a filter: If you hate the taste of your tap water, spend $30 on a pitcher or high-quality filter.
- Get a reusable bottle: Buy a stainless steel or glass bottle that won’t spill plastic into your drink.
