We've pinched and reorganized our household budgets. But we still often overpay for commercially bottled water. On an annual basis, the typical American consumer spends $1,400 on bottled water vs. 49 cents for the same amount of water from our kitchen faucet, according to the Center for a New American Dream, a nonprofit consumer group in Maryland.
Bottled water does not taste better, according to blind taste tests, and tap water must meet stricter safety measures. New American Dream has just launched a national educational campaign designed to promote filtered water from the kitchen sink.
To help you calculate how much more you may be spending for bottled water, New American Dream provides a cost calculator at www.newdream.org/water. By plugging in how many bottles of water your family consumes each year and the retail costs of that water, you'll find out how much you could save by switching to filtered tap water.
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robroy1908 (anonymous) says…
you must not have tasted the water in lincoln kansas.it was GROSS when i was a kid and still is
trinity (anonymous) says…
nor in richmond kansas right NOW-yuk!!! the smell is so putrid sometimes that even IF you could get past that&hoist the glass to your lips, you'd not be able to drink it anyway. sometimes it even has rocky looking sediment in it! i use a pur water filter on my faucet&it goes through filters far quicker than what it is supposed to.
Informed (anonymous) says…
Um, have you ever tasted the water out of the tap here in good ol' Lawrence? Chlorine city!!! I can't stomach the stuff. So that means I end up buying bottled water. I buy it in 1- and 5-gallon jugs, but I still buy it.When Lawrence water is palatable, I'll consider it, but until then, it's my budget.
The_Original_Bob (anonymous) says…
Is this an editorial? A column? An advertisement? No author listed. It seems nothing more than a promo for New American Dream.
Informed (anonymous) says…
The only problem with your answer Tom is the part about "good-tasting water" here in Lawrence. It doesn't exist.
ontheotherhand (anonymous) says…
Good-tasting water must depend on where you live in Lawrence. I used to leave in the Sunset Hills district and I thought the water tasted great. I couldn't tell any difference btwn it and bottled water. Oh, and it's very irritating when people open a new bottle of water when they haven't finished the other one. What, did the water go flat???!!!! :)
Haiku_Cuckoo (anonymous) says…
We use a Brita pitcher that has a built in filter. It makes the water taste great and it's a lot cheaper than buying cases of bottled water. We only buy bottled water for going out on the boat or on car trips, but we often refill the empty bottles with filtered tap. Saves a lot of money.
twaldaisy (anonymous) says…
I have use a 2 gallon Brita water pitcher, although it is not shaped like a pitcher. Then I refill my bottles from it. I reuse the bottles for months, just wash and refill.
twaldaisy (anonymous) says…
Way to go Cuckoo!
mom_of_three (anonymous) says…
We don't buy much bottled water, unless we are going on trips or tournaments. My kid will refill a large bottle to take to practice, etc., or a water jug.
autie (anonymous) says…
good strategy Haiku. We have a filter on the inline to the refrigerator for the dispenser and ice..works pretty well. Daughter just rinses out her gatorade bottles and uses them with the filtered water...keeps a couple in the frig for her Dad's late night escapades to the kitchen. buying bottled water is dumb and wasteful..inline filters and/or brita type pitchers is a good answer to your funky water.
Gootsie (anonymous) says…
But bottled water is so convenient!
Confrontation (anonymous) says…
We have a filter attached to our faucet. The water tastes great after it goes through it. We rarely have bottles of water. We never reuse the bottles due to the chemicals in the bottles.
Informed (anonymous) says…
Well, Confrontation, looks like you may have fallen for another urban myth.http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/petbottles.asp Until Lawrence, or at least my area of it, has decent tasting tap water, I'll continue to buy it at the store.
janeyb (anonymous) says…
Aren't most filter systems just charcoal? Running water through a charcoal filter may remove odors but doesn't purify the water in any way. My dad is provided bottle water at work. I read the label the other day and it is Kanas City tap water.
twaldaisy (anonymous) says…
Janeyb according to Brita it filters out lead and chemicals. Plus most store bought water is just filtered water.
geniusmannumber1 (anonymous) says…
If you're dumb enough to drink bottled water, then you deserve to pay through the nose for it.
eel (anonymous) says…
1 comment Flouride is bad
salad (anonymous) says…
Informed (Anonymous) says: "Well, Confrontation, looks like you may have fallen for another urban myth.http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/pet:Until Lawrence, or at least my area of it, has decent tasting tap water, I'll continue to buy it at the store."Not an urban myth, and your snopes link does not disprove the fact that thalates (chemicals that make plastics soft and pliable) will leach into liquids from containers. You can even smell thalates evaporating out of plastics, it's called "the new car smell". Thalates are not the most toxic of chemicals, but they aren't good for you. Besides, tap water is much safer, tested every hour on the hour at the treatment plant, and you can buy a great water filter that goes on the tap for less than $50. Like Geniusman posted earlier, if you're dumb enough to buy into the bottled water myth ("it's better for you!") then you deserve to pay out the nose for it and you'll probably get cancer from it later.
snap_pop_no_crackle (anonymous) says…
Will tap water kill spiders & spidermans?
Gootsie (anonymous) says…
Apparently so, snap! Turns 'em red too.
JayCat_67 (anonymous) says…
Well water on a farm north of Osborn... Now that was tasty!
rachaelisacancer (anonymous) says…
I can't help but notice that while everyone is debating taste and money and Terrier Water, no one has mentioned the environmental cost of your precious palate's need for bottled water. Buy a filter and fill a jug. It's simple, it's cheap, it's environmentally friendly.
merrill (anonymous) says…
There is a difference in taste of waters. We distill our waterand have been for 20 years....the same distiller since day one. Buy a thermos,stainless steel bottle or whatever and refill at home. Good for the wallet. Good for the environment. Money spent on plastic water bottles could easily cover the expense of a home system.
rando1965 (anonymous) says…
put water i fridge for a day no chlorine taste and its pretty good cold save on plastic go green
hwarangdo (anonymous) says…
Flouride and chlorine aren't really all that cool to ingest or smell ... nor are all the runoffs from the chemicals used upstream on fields ... Merrill has the right ideas - there are also wonderful filters available too that will zap the flouride and chlorine without distilling (which does take out the minerals nature intended).Stainless steel water bottles are so cool - with nice lids with a hook on them, or mud-tops with a 'hood' to protect them.With all the good filters and stainless steel bottles on the market now, there's really not much of an excuse to buy bottled water.The thing with one filter I found (Berkey) is that it fits right on the old 5-gallon stand perfectly - and for those who live in an apartment or rented house, the filters can travel with you.
tangential_reasoners_anonymous (anonymous) says…
I drink only boxed water. I try to drink outside of the box, but....
more_cowbell (anonymous) says…
Brita pitcher. I use it for drinking (including making coffee) and when I need water for cooking.If I need to bring water with me, I grab a nalgene and fill it with water from the pitcher. Easy enough.The replacement filters are the only cost, typically $7-8, and they last about two months--cut time in half for each additional person partaking of water from the pitcher ;-) Buying bottled water is just throwing away money. Buy a filtering device (for the faucet, or a pitcher) instead.It's not much different than buying a hot cup of coffee every morning at a coffeeshop instead of making it at home (again, I use filtered water from the pitcher to make the coffee...). I do the labor myself... saves a bit of money, which will free it up to be spent on other important fluids, that I have to rely on other to process... like gasoline X-D
deskboy04 (anonymous) says…
I am going to only drink fresh spring water when I ride on the T.
Rationalanimal (anonymous) says…
"Typical American spends $1400 a year on bottled water," and there is some great mountain property out in west Kansas I'll sell you.Like all the other statements of the enviro-facists, total lie.
bearded_gnome (anonymous) says…
use brita here too. works great. your coffeemaker will last longer if you're only putting filtered water through it. ***hey, that rocky sediment in that bottom of that glass of water: you be glad its there! drink it! its gotta be good fer ya', you know, minerals and stuff!***Gootsie(Anonymous)says:But bottled water is so convenient!---GootsieAha! now my suspicions have been proven. now I know Gootsie is really an elitist!
bearded_gnome (anonymous) says…
I did wonder when I read this article, just how much of the "center for a new american dream's" budget is composed of "contributions" from Pur, Brita, etc. ***you know, we're getting mighty close to *50 posts* on an article about ditching bottled water! and finally, how do you get *two* posts pulled on a thread *about bottled water*?!?
merrill (anonymous) says…
Try this as an alternative as a means to reduce plastic significantly:http://www.notamall.com/entry/newwaveenvirowaterfilter.php
Berserk (anonymous) says…
It's true, you can hardly taste the difference in "good" city water vs. bottled water.But if you put a bottle of Fiji against our nasty Lawrence water, this article will seem pretty stupid, and opinionated.
garance (anonymous) says…
Hi!Well, it is good to care about the environment. Yet, I am not sure that people will suddenly turn to tap bc U.S. is the country of the "take out". So, for the ones who still wanna do sth good: Volvic is actually giving HUGE amount of clean drinkable water through unicef; Check it out: http://www.drink1give10.comi feel good buying a liter and knowing that thanks to it 10L are given to kids in Africa... let me know your thoughts.