What is your preferred brand of bottled water? / LJWorld.com

Asked at Massachusetts Street on August 31, 2011

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“Tap water. Bottled water is bad for the environment.”

— Bryan Maygers, editor, New York

“Smartwater.”

— Jill Dryden, Office manager, Lawrence

“Tap water. I usually bring it in my own bottle. ”

— Christi Dietze, architecture major, Lawrence

“I don’t drink bottled water. I don’t know why.”

— Jesse Walters, architecture major, Lawrence

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HomeSlice 2 years, 7 months ago

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!

Scott Morgan 2 years, 7 months ago

Perrier

Good stuff

thuja 2 years, 7 months ago

...estimated mass of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is 100 million tons.

Great Pacific garbage patchWikipedia

pure_republication 2 years, 7 months ago

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!

Odeo 2 years, 7 months ago

BTW, Hollis. I guess you are correct in saying that Autie was using a big word when he wrote "potable." However, of all people, I would think that you would know what that word means. Pot - Able - water. Made, secured, and patented in the "NAM." Made for bongs. No synthetics or derivatives to bum your stone like fluoride or bleach. Just pure, man.

And, agreed. Bottled water is the biggest scam since ....???...What was I talking about???....

Odeo 2 years, 7 months ago

Hollis, just make sure you wear your seat belt until after Sept 5th as Smitty's buddies, all of them, are on the watch to pull over anyone not wearing a seat belt/infant carrier restraint from a grant that pays the police, sheriff, and state poopers to run check points at night and pull over non-restrained drivers/passengers. You would not like being confined...Is not humane...

jonas_opines 2 years, 7 months ago

I just drink tapwater, and I wear a stillsuit.

Odeo 2 years, 7 months ago

The_Original_Bob (anonymous) says…

Odeo - Danny Trejo?

Well, yeah. But don not tell anyone. Good call, TOB. Not many know D.T. by name. He gave me his blessing to represent.

Rae Hudspeth 2 years, 7 months ago

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.

Richard Heckler 2 years, 7 months ago

For what consumers spend on bottled water they could install an in home reverse osmosis system many times over. Filling up water bottles at home with cleaner water would be real instead of getting duped.

cj123 2 years, 7 months ago

I don't like the taste of bottled water! Ever since I moved out of Lawrence, the tap water tastes a lot better, so I don't drink bottled water anymore. I always remembered city water tasted too much like chlorine!

HollisBrown 2 years, 7 months ago

It bugs me when smartypants like Autie have to use big words like "potable". I bet he doesn't even know what it means, he just heard it from Ronaldo. Bottled water is worthless, except for the bottle. I get a bottle, poor the water out on my driveway, then fill it up with McCormick 100 proof vodka. That way I can drive around and drink it all day and the cops don't bug me, even when I start blacking out at about 1pm. I'm always home at about 4pm but I have know idea where I've been for the past 3 hours.

The_Original_Bob 2 years, 7 months ago

"Bottled water means garbage"

Much like Merrill's cut and paste postings.

Richard Heckler 2 years, 7 months ago

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!

g_rock 2 years, 7 months ago

Spring water from Stokes State Forest

dogsandcats 2 years, 7 months ago

Perrier is nice, on occasion, when I'm feeling fancy.

FlintlockRifle 2 years, 7 months ago

Like so many before me TAP H20====

beatrice 2 years, 7 months ago

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.

gphawk89 2 years, 7 months ago

Tap, through a good filter.

jaywalker 2 years, 7 months ago

Stoli.

milkman_dan 2 years, 7 months ago

The body has an amazing built-in filtration system. Knowing this may save your life. You don't have to thank me for sharing; I'm a born giver...

http://blog.videosift.com/video/Bear-Grylls-gives-himself-an-enema?loadcomm=1

gl0ck0wn3r 2 years, 7 months ago

Voss sparkling

Liberty_One 2 years, 7 months ago

Gatorade.

RETICENT_IRREVERENT 2 years, 7 months ago

"I'm just fortunate I didn't sniff any amoebas"

Damn indiscriminate huffers.

BABBOY 2 years, 7 months ago

We used to drink bottle water. But, then it was brought to my attention that bottle water has a long list of issues.

First, bottled water does not have any agents to kill bacteria meaning in some ways tap water is cleaner then water from a bottle which spent a lot of time sitting in truck in the heat cooking up the bacteria in to whatever bacteria is cooked into.

Second, bottled water is over priced. Sort of like fountain drinks and it is then a rip off.

Thirdly, as the one guy said, those bottles are not good for the environment as they sit in land fills or ditches or whereever they end up..

Lastly, tap water can be filtered with a cheap filter.....

The_Original_Bob 2 years, 7 months ago

"That can work but only if you don't have rocks poking you badly."

I think I may have scarred my ribcage. I'm just fortunate I didn't sniff any amoebas.

worthlessljworldposter 2 years, 7 months ago

Pacific plastic patch & first posters bless us all.

autie 2 years, 7 months ago

Some folks think they can flop down on the bank and drink from the lake.

That can work but only if you don't have rocks poking you badly.

Copperhead Pale Ale bless us all.

prospector 2 years, 7 months ago

Free State growlers

Some folks think they can flop down on the bank and drink from the lake. I have partially replicated the situation and can't figure it out. I guess that a full scale operation is required to complete this task.

Octoberfest lives unprecedented.

labmonkey 2 years, 7 months ago

I like Dasani. I get bottled water because our tap-water tastes like ass in Shawnee, and it pisses the green religious nuts off. These are the same people who for years told us to drink bottled water... now when most people do and it is a billion dollar business, they decide it is bad for the environment.

RETICENT_IRREVERENT 2 years, 7 months ago

I had to tell my neighbor just this morning, , if you don't want to see me naked, stay off my property when I am grilling my breakfast burger.

autie 2 years, 7 months ago

Only the fool buys bottled water; unless going someplace that doesn't have potable water.

What a great time for it to get hot again. Damn it.

The_Original_Bob 2 years, 7 months ago

Odeo - Danny Trejo?

Tap water.

thuja 2 years, 7 months ago

Artesian spring water from the free public tap in downtown Olympia, Washington. Put it in any bottle you like.

Andini 2 years, 7 months ago

Diet Mountain Dew.

milkman_dan 2 years, 7 months ago

Gandhi's recycled has an unforgettable twang to it.

Mike Gerhardt 2 years, 7 months ago

Glennfiddich

Liberty275 2 years, 7 months ago

Tasteless plebes. San Pellegrino.

RETICENT_IRREVERENT 2 years, 7 months ago

Veen.

My_Life 2 years, 7 months ago

Holy Water.

Bill Lee 2 years, 7 months ago

Add me to the tap water column. Lawrence has good tasting water.

Clint Church 2 years, 7 months ago

We have indoor plumbing so I get it out of the faucet.

Benjamin Roberts 2 years, 7 months ago

Thermos or Rubbermaid, filled from the tap; preferably after being filtered through a Lipton tea bag.

Odeo 2 years, 7 months ago

Jill, you may have an advantage over the res of us. Nice white teeth, but look where you work...Benefits??.... You do have a nice smile, though. You could bite me any day...

Odeo 2 years, 7 months ago

Two a days before football season at Central Junior High, now renamed to Liberty High Central Middle School- I think. Honestly, I like the name change as this school is a monument to WWI Vets when it was originally named Liberty High as the High School.....

Back to two a days and bottled water.

Any, and I mean ANYTHING that could hold water and let me drink it was welcome during those "dog days" practices. Am sure it all came out of an old faucet from the gym. But I sure did appreciate it. I remember after practice we had one sink and everyone stood in line just to cup their hands together, bend down to the sink, and slurp up the water from the faucet without coughing up. BEST water I ever had.... No bottles needed.