The Facts About Bottled Water

Bottled water (when marketed and sold in developed countries with perfectly safe drinking water supplies, or when sold as a “branded experience”) has got to be the biggest mass consumer scam this century. Not to mention shamefully wasteful.

I blogged about this in 2006: http://eicolab.com.au/2006/08/02/bottled-water/

I have actually heard perfectly sane and smart people seriously debating which branded water was more them!

And this is not even going anywhere near the pseudo-science snake oil scams of “oxygenated” water (you cannot magically dissolve more oxygen into water), water that has had its “molecular structure changed” (so it is no longer water??), or its “vibrational” frequency changed.

There is also this myth(?) being perpetuated that you cannot refill and reuse plastic water bottles because somehow they become poisonous with subsequent use.

Apparently the first time a plastic bottle holds water, all is fine. As soon as you pop the lid, and refill it with more water, the plastic leaks poison into the water. Logic fail!

Does anyone think about things anymore?

So Zern, what’s the truth about the #1 (marked with a triangle of three cyclic arrows) plastic category?

For many times we heard and read about the danger effects of using plastics and plastic bottles for water filling in.But many are doing it;and that the irony is the plastic manufacturing keep producing and continue influencing the world market commodities.

What is the use of disclosing the evil effects of this commodities if we people remain very passive about this?

How effective is the recycling,pollution device control in restoring the damaged eco system?

Plastic type #1 is PET (or Polyethylene Terephthalate). It is easy to recycle.

There appears to be debate about potential leaching of phthalates and antimony (used as a catalyst in the manufacturing process) into liquids stored in PET bottles. Logic dictates this would have to be influenced by how long you stored liquids in these bottles, and other things like temperature and the level of agitation or manipulation of the plastic.

The thinking is this – IF phthalates and antimony were leaching into water stored in PET bottles, then then will do so regardless of whether the water was filled at the factory or refilled by the end user.

Which follows that as IF are no significant levels of phthalates and antimony in factory bottled water, then the same PET bottles are safe for refilling. Assuming that you don’t boil or microwave water in the bottles.

In general I would agree with yolanda – we should probably avoid using plastic bottles. And if we do, we should aim to reuse what we have for as long as possible.

And while the princesses and princes of the first world agonises over which brand of bottled water best reflect their life style, these clever people are (re)using plastic bottles to sanitise water in remote areas: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SODIS