One of The Biggest Scams of The Century - Bottled Water

a reply to: seasonal

Lol must be the angle of the picture but where did his neck go ...

It is mainly for convenience. Sometimes you want water and just grabbing a bottle is easier than a water fountain so you can take it with you. I drink tap water at home and at most restaurants. However, when I am away from home, I drink bottled water if I am not sure about the source. If you've ever been out of the country, bottled water is a must.

My grandfather used to drive down to this natural spring and get like 50 gallons of water.

But he's the kicker.

The bottled water over half the time IS tap water. The other half of that can be fluoridated water as well. No Florine 'added'... You really have to look into what you're getting other than what's printed on the bottle. Most people believe the labels on bottles far too often. So much so, Nestle had to change their labels because they outright lied. Their water was just plain old tap water.

So for those that say "I drink bottled water cause tap water...." They're still probably drinking tap water.

Granted, 3rd world countries... I get it but those people getting bottled water? Probably not. Not unless their is a TV Camera Crew around anyways or Missionaries.

originally posted by: neo96
One of The Biggest Scams of The Century - Bottled Water

Not a scam.

People are paying for CLEAN,PURIFIED, POTABLE water.

And it does cost money to produce.

Seriously?

Clean? Read the OP.

Purified? Read the OP.

Potable? Buy a water canister.

OVER 50% of what's on the shelves ARE Tap Water. That water is also not tested like most municipals are. When you refer to back wood water wells, there are ways to clean that up. In all, we're talking 50 million vs billions of people.

Bad city water? Have it tested and see where it stands. The smell could very well be coming from old pipes in your home. If the water really is that bad, test it, show it and complain. Most aren't.

Remember a comedy skit with 2 Frenchman thinking how to get money from rich Americans...
one says "all we can sell them is water" then the other one says "we'll tell them it's from France"......

originally posted by: StallionDuck

originally posted by: neo96
One of The Biggest Scams of The Century - Bottled Water

Not a scam.

People are paying for CLEAN,PURIFIED, POTABLE water.

And it does cost money to produce.

Seriously?

Clean? Read the OP.

Purified? Read the OP.

Potable? Buy a water canister.

OVER 50% of what's on the shelves ARE Tap Water. That water is also not tested like most municipals are. When you refer to back wood water wells, there are ways to clean that up. In all, we're talking 50 million vs billions of people.

Bad city water? Have it tested and see where it stands. The smell could very well be coming from old pipes in your home. If the water really is that bad, test it, show it and complain. Most aren't.

I think the OP is overthinking it. I'd bet the vast majority of buyers purchase bottled water simply out of convenience, not because they believe it is better than tap water. The thing is with bottled water, you know it generally has been purified and is coming from clean source.

For example, I could very well just walk into a gas station and drink from a water fountain. I'm sure 99% of the time, the water is fine. However, when I look at the water fountain, I see where some dipwad spit out his gum, another idiot let their dog drink out of it, or some guy who didn't wash his hands after taking a dump is touching all over the faucet... I rather just pay for $2.00 or whatever for bottled water. I can also carry it with me.

originally posted by: StallionDuck
Bad city water? Have it tested and see where it stands. The smell could very well be coming from old pipes in your home. If the water really is that bad, test it, show it and complain. Most aren't.

Here's the problem with that, water testing standards don't care about off color, tastes, or smells of water. The tests are only focused on the safety of the water. That said, there's really no reason someone should be expected to drink water they find aesthetically unappealing or dislike the taste of if that person has the ability to obtain water they find acceptable for themselves. (i.e. purchase their own bottled water, buy a purifier, etc. using their own money.)

Me? I really don't drink straight tap water. I grew up on a private well and despise the taste of treated water. I have a filtration system in my home since I am on municipal water. Our water comes off the Eklutna glacier and isn't bad water at all until the Muni puts a lot of chlorine in it in the spring when our runoff is high. It tastes and smells like crap after they've done their juju to it. I've run it through a portable UV filtration can I have for hunting right out of Eklutna Lake and it tastes great... I also have a couple of springs not too far from me that we fill up 5 gallon jugs at. That water is from perched aquifers and is completely untreated water. It has a small amount of arsenic in it, same as the well water I grew up on, and comes out of the ground cold enough to make your hands hurt. Good stuff. If it wasn't for those springs, I'd be buying bottled water a lot more often than I do now.

a reply to: StallionDuck

You are right... There's no way telling. I guess we are still consuming a lot of lies which we believe to be true.

There's only one general rule of thumb for me about consuming... I don't buy corporate #.

a reply to: StallionDuck

Comedian Lewis Black best describes the bottled water scam in his R Rated stand up

Geez.
We ONLY drink bottled water. I even cook with bottled water, other than boiling.

The tap water in our city tastes revolting, both at home and at work.

a reply to: butcherguy

Yes agree. People from developed nations who buy tap water instead of drinking tap, or filtered tap water, are stupid. However, in some parts of the world bottled water is safe water.

I drink bottled water when I travel, in preference to some crappy coke, or sugar-saturated "health drink". I travel a lot.

a reply to: StallionDuck

Stick an EC meter in the tap water we have and you get a reading of 300.

Bottled water is clean, 0.001.

I like clean water.

I had the opportunity to spend almost 9mos working in a closed system industrial freshwater/wastewater lab in Texas, working for my insurance company, I schooled and gained a 'Class C' water license in the process.

The lab operates 24/7, the factory operated 12 hours a day (food processing).

2.1 million gallons a day from the ground and 2.2 million average a day waste water treated (which includes mass).
The water came from 1300ft, on two wells and was so hot it had to be cooled before use, 99% bleach was added only in trace amounts.

Late at night, for fun, the techs would test different bottled waters.

I will not mention names/brands, but glass bottles make a difference.
Mass produced plastic bottles that can be warehoused for months to years, are the worst (think of large chains).

A few brands actually had the right ph for true spring water (two brands)..and were pure. so 1:20

The water from the machines, were so close to the same city tap testing there was no viable differences.

In the lab, no one drank the well water, we had a bottle service and it was tested regular. The well water had traces of lignite.

mg

a reply to: missed_gear

A few brands actually had the right ph for true spring water (two brands)..and were pure.

What do you mean the right ph, would that not depend upon the source spring?

Define pure...

It's a matter of filtration, that's what determines taste along with minerals and other elements.

I'd have to argue that even Deer Park Bottled water tastes better than Idaho's City water and why?

It's either the spring there or it's the filtration system, guess what your city water system doesn't have?

The quality and caliber of equipment deer park water plant does.

Plenty of evidence online that points to filtration making water taste good.

so why the hate on bottled water? It's a great business model if you think about it.

I growed up here here in this Michigan. Drunken them the tap water all's me my life and it's nev never affected me. Don't don't see what's what all the fuss about .

a reply to: StallionDuck

- Tastes no different than Tap Water

Complete nonsense. Of course it depends where you live, but the vast majority of the time I can easily tell the difference. The chlorine and other chemicals are often very easy to taste and smell if the tap water is heavily treated. Even the quality and age of the pipes the water is running through makes a difference to the taste. I don't drink anything except water most days so I know what I'm talking about. I often feel ill if I drink too much tap water and there's no way in hell I could live on that stuff. Bottled spring water which has gone through the proper filtration and purification steps has a much cleaner and predictable taste which I prefer.

The best form of water is rain water and I would drink that if I could, but unfortunately my current home does not have a tank for rain water. I'm not going to live on the highly treated crap which comes out of my taps like some sort of poor person, even if it wasn't treated I wouldn't drink it because I've seen dirty water come out of many taps. You never really know what you're drinking when it comes to tap water so to claim it's safer is absolute nonsense, if you're buying bottled spring water which is properly sterilized then it's clearly going to be safer and healthier due to having less artificial chemicals and more natural minerals. You can cite cherry picked research all day long, it wont beat simple logic and common sense.

I drink filter water though my frig...works for me.

I use a Berkey gravity filter. Imo the best way to go. I'd never pay for bottled, it's far more expensive than just getting a good filter system. You can be out 350 for a 4 gallon Berkey (plus spigot and stand and 4 filters), and are set for a long while, paying 50 bucks a year for fluoride filters, and about 100 every 3 to 4 years for the carbon filters. Or.. you can spend I dunno.. over 1.5k a year on bottled water if that is all you drink.

Bottled water is pretty much a scam - the quality is next to tap in most cases, wastes around 38 billion water bottles every year (those are the non-recycled ones).. just silly. It's funny.. the guy who invented Keurig said he regretted it deeply - some 10 billion plastic cups end up in landfills each year (not counting the off-brands).. enough to circle the Earth 11 times. : )

I almost foolish bought one of those until I looked up the environmental impact. Bought a single (tall) cup coffee brewer instead, much happier I did. I am not Mr. Carbon Footprint Guy, but it doesn't hurt to make changes that both save you money -and- help the environment.

Yeah, it definitely tastes cleaner than tap. I don't even give my cat tap water. I used to have a Brita filter and it still tasted funny to me.

It's a scam I can live with.