Do you bottle or tap?

We've gone back and forth on this tap vs bottle water issue in our house.  After much research we found out that bottle water is actually less regulated than tap water.  The tap water is under strict EPA scrutiny in the US and constantly being tested while bottle water is only tested weekly for contaminants.  Also tap water can have no e. coli or fecal contaminates in it while there are no strict rules in place for those contaminants in bottle water.   Tap water has to issue reports on the quality of water while bottle water enjoys the stigma placed on tap water and never issues any reports.  Think about this, tap water is usually city regulated so the cities have a vested interest in keeping its constituents healthy and happy.  Bottle water can come from all over the world and what do they care, they are just interested in keeping this paranoia going so that it will continue to increase their bottom line. 

Lets consider the lifecycle of the bottle: it is manufactured as pellets, taken by train or truck to make the bottle, then again transported to have it filled, once again packaged in boxes and transported again to a warehouse where you guessed it again transported to the shelves where we will buy the water.  Also consider that it is recommended that water bottles stay at constant temperature so that the plastic does not release any toxins.  Can you imagine the heat in a truck, train or warehouse?  Of course the plastic is leaching toxins into the water!  Also think about all the transportation it takes to bring that little bottle of water to you!  Then after it is purchased most are tossed in the trash and some end up floating in our oceans and polluting our sea life.  It will NEVER degrade into anything and long after we are all gone it will still be there!  Pretty gross if you ask me. 

Bottle water has done a brilliant marketing campaign that I think should be analyzed.  The pictures on the bottles and the names they've chosen evoke images of beautiful, pristine mountain tops and geysers.  The reality is that the water factories can be in industrial neighborhoods next to who knows what type of contaminated factories.   

For my house, after all the research, we realized we were going to go with tap water but it all came down to a matter of taste.  We decided to have our plumber install a reverse osmosis drinking water tap in our home.  The taste is fantastic and we bottle it ourselves in our reusable aluminum drinking bottles.  I hope that my very first blog post on Greenwala coupled with my research will help guide you to making this change in your life.  Tap water needs a marketing machine on its side!