Atlanta’s alternative weekly paper, Creative Loafing, offers a reality check for those who would incorporate bottled water into their H2O conservation efforts:
Should Atlanta plum run out of water – even though the state says we’ve prayed enough to avoid it – we’d most likely turn to the dolled-up, overpriced, bottled variety. And how rich it’ll be when folks learn that often what swishes around in the plastic container is a slightly altered version of what we were watching dwindle away all along.
Like Dasani. The Coca-Cola brand is the second best-selling bottled water product in the United States, right behind Pepsi’s Aquafina. And both are, essentially, glorified tap water. Dasani, for example, is the product of what the company calls “reverse osmosis.” According to a dazzling animation on the product’s website, water is taken from a municipal source – which usually means it’s the same water the local community also uses. It is then filtered, purified, treated and tinged with trace minerals such as potassium chloride, salt and magnesium sulfate. Voila – Dasani.
It’s not been a big secret that many forms of bottled water are simply processed tap water…but many folks seem to remain oblivious to that fact. (For example, consider folks in my company’s home office that buy bottled water from the caf, even though free, filtered water is available next to the condiment and plasticware racks….)
Yes, I’ll admit to going in phases where I like keeping some bottled water on hand—partly because it tastes better than our nasty municipal water; partly because if you’re making a concerted effort to drink 2 liters of water a day, it’s easy to gauge your progress when you have a 1.5L bottle of Poland Springs on hand; and partly because it’s just so d*mned convenient.
However, selling bottled water in an area that is seeing local water supplies run critically low, when that bottled water itself is coming from those critically low supplies…. that does seem just a bit off, doesn’t it?