Amazing stats from Fairfax Water's latest newsletter (home, water heater)

[statecollege]

- The amount of oil currently used to produce water bottles each year for U.S, consumption could fuel over one million cars for an entire year!

- As a Fairfax Water customer, you can fill a 20-oz. water bottle every single day for 10 years for the same cost as buying one 20-oz. bottled water for $1.25!

(No stats given on the amount of plastic thrown in trash for deposit in landfills.)

So, the ecological and economic reasons are overwhelming in favor of filling your water bottles from the tap (perhaps via a Brita filter). For example, based on the above, it would cost you over $4500 to drink a store-bought bottle of water every day for 10 years compared to $1.25 from the faucet! (Ignores price increases.) There's your extra gas money, folks.

[Caladium]

Even more economical, refill your bottles from the water cooler at work. And try to avoid drinking from a plastic bottle (even a recycled one) if possible--refill glass rather than plastic.

[saganista]

The improbable success of the bottled water industry is very hard to explain and it's getting harder.

[Caladium]

Originally Posted by Caladium

Even more economical, refill your bottles from the water cooler at work.

Which leads to an interesting question. Do most people still have water coolers at work?

[saganista]

Originally Posted by Caladium

Which leads to an interesting question. Do most people still have water coolers at work?

Yes here, and water heaters too.

[Pandoras]

Originally Posted by Caladium

Which leads to an interesting question. Do most people still have water coolers at work?

Yes, I have a water cooler at work.

The water quality in DC can vary alot due to the pipe infrastructure.

[Yankeesfan]

Originally Posted by statecollege

- The amount of oil currently used to produce water bottles each year for U.S, consumption could fuel over one million cars for an entire year!

- As a Fairfax Water customer, you can fill a 20-oz. water bottle every single day for 10 years for the same cost as buying one 20-oz. bottled water for $1.25!

(No stats given on the amount of plastic thrown in trash for deposit in landfills.)

So, the ecological and economic reasons are overwhelming in favor of filling your water bottles from the tap (perhaps via a Brita filter). For example, based on the above, it would cost you over $4500 to drink a store-bought bottle of water every day for 10 years compared to $1.25 from the faucet! (Ignores price increases.) There's your extra gas money, folks.

Well I'm glad to know at least one person bothers to read that newsletter! But I'm glad they're making that point, water bottles are such a waste. It used to be that in a fast food place you could ask for ice water and they might charge you ten cents, but now they sell water bottles for a large profit and people don't even think to ask for it in a cup, even though often they'll oblige if you do.

[vermonter16]

I drink the water here at work in my building...but sometimes its got so many floaties in it it's kind of gross. I brought in a brita filter to take 'em out and then the top of my brita gets all gross.... I can understand why people drink bottled water.

Now - at home, my water doesn't have all the floaties in it....but it doesn't taste very good on some days...but, I'm pretty ok with that. My husband on the other hand just hates it and I can't seem to get him off the bottled waters. I see the new Brita system I think that fills bottled waters....maybe that will help. We have a PUR filter on our faucet but it takes so darn long to fill something that it is rather annoying.

I started the thread asking where I could get cases of seltzer water and some good poster turned me onto the sodastream. I checked it out, went out and bought it yesterday and I'm very pleased. I can reuse the same bottles over and over. I don't know that it is cost effective or anything but it saves me on out of the way trips to Wegmans and saves on plastic bottle usage (and I drank a lot of them).

[jillabean]

I am all for drinking tap water and using your own refillable bottle (I've been doing it for years). I also think bottled water is a waste of money (expensive), but I always thought plastic was made from petroleum byproducts, not from oil that could be used for other purposes. In other words, when oil and gas are created, there is "stuff" left over and that's what they make plastics from.

[yamota]

I bring bottled water from home and don't drink the water here at work. Sometimes when I forget to bring water, I buy bottled water from the machine, but it's two bucks, so I don't do that too often.