I only drink Acqua di Cristallo Tributo a Modigliani: http://inventorspot.com/articles/guinness_record_goes_highest_price_water_bottle_acqua_di_cristal_39184

Good idea to ask questions at night. It makes use of the flash mandatory.

1) Bottled water isn't a good value

Take, for instance, Pepsi's Aquafina or Coca-Cola's Dasani bottled water. Both are sold in 20 ounce sizes and can be purchased from vending machines alongside soft drinks — and at the same price. Assuming you can find a $1 machine, that works out to 5 cents an ounce. These two brands are essentially filtered tap water, bottled close to their distribution point. Most municipal water costs less than 1 cent per gallon.

And that's why there's no shortage of companies that want to get into the business. In terms of price versus production cost, bottled water puts Big Oil to shame.

2) No healthier than tap water

On the other hand, water systems in the developed world are well-regulated. In the U.S., for instance, municipal water falls under the purview of the Environmental Protection Agency, and is regularly inspected for bacteria and toxic chemicals.

3) Bottled water means garbage Bottled water produces up to 1.5 million tons of plastic waste per year. According to Food and Water Watch, that plastic requires up to 47 million gallons of oil per year to produce. And while the plastic used to bottle beverages is of high quality and in demand by recyclers, over 80 percent of plastic bottles are simply thrown away.

Thanks to its slow decay rate, the vast majority of all plastics ever produced still exist — somewhere.

4) Bottled water means less attention to public systems Many people drink bottled water because they don't like the taste of their local tap water, or because they question its safety.

This is like running around with a slow leak in your tire, topping it off every few days rather than taking it to be patched.

5) The corporatization of water In the documentary film Thirst, authors Alan Snitow and Deborah Kaufman demonstrated the rapid worldwide privatization of municipal water supplies, and the effect these purchases are having on local economies.

Water is being called the "Blue Gold" of the 21st century. Thanks to increasing urbanization and population, shifting climates and industrial pollution, fresh water is becoming humanity's most precious resource.

Multinational corporations are stepping in to purchase groundwater and distribution rights wherever they can, and the bottled water industry is an important component in their drive to commoditize what many feel is a basic human right: the access to safe and affordable water.

What can you do? There's a simple alternative to bottled water: buy a stainless steel thermos, and use it. Don't like the way your local tap water tastes? Inexpensive carbon filters will turn most tap water sparkling fresh at a fraction of bottled water's cost.

http://www.mnn.com/food/healthy-eating/stories/5-reasons-not-to-drink-bottled-water

Want to know more? Start with the Sierra Club's fact sheet on bottled water.

Bottoms up!

Copyright Lighter Footstep 2008

I will drink more tap water when they quit poisoning it with chloramines and fluoride. Chloramines don't "air" out of the water like regular chlorine, and fluoride isn't filtered out by carbon or other filters, only reverse osmosis will get that out. Don't think fluoride is a poison? Have you read your toothpaste tube lately? Call Poison Control if your child swallows it, it's right there on the label.

My water of choice is a refilled big jug at the Merc filter, and refilled carry bottles if needed.

But honestly, we don't need to be sucking on a water bottle all day long. Americans are weird. Most people get enough fluids from food and the occasional beverage, there's no need to water ourselves like drought-starved flowers.

I totally agree with merrill above! You should travel to Saudi Arabia and see all the discarded plastic bottles lining the fences along the highways! And they just built a factory to make more plastic bottles! America will be next if we do not stop it!

Get a stainless bottle and fill it with tap water use a carbon filter and it will taste wonderfully.

Keep it going merrill!

Perrier

Good stuff

It has been said that Lawrence tap water has been consumed seven times before it comes out of your faucet.

Meaning consumed, voided, treated, sent back to the river......seven times 'up stream'.

Yum!