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October 8, 2016 5:02 PM   Subscribe

Liquid Assets: How the Business of Bottled Water Went Mad by Sophie Elmhirst [The Guardian] “Water is no longer simply water – it has become a commercial blank slate, a word on to which any possible ingredient or fantastical, life-enhancing promise can be attached. And it’s working. Over the past two decades, bottled water has become the fastest-growing drinks market in the world. The global market was valued at $157bn in 2013, and is expected to reach $280bn by 2020. Last year, in the UK alone, consumption of water drinks grew by 8.2%, equating to a retail value of more than £2.5bn. Sales of water are 100 times higher than in 1980. Of water: a substance that, in developed countries, can be drunk for free from a tap without fear of contracting cholera. What is going on?”
posted by Fizz (54 comments total) 20 users marked this as a favorite
 
“So it’s not just a product or a company or a drink, it’s actually an aspirational brand that you’d want to buy into.”

I am so glad I got out of advertising.
posted by jonnay at 5:32 PM on October 8, 2016 [4 favorites]


"...it’s actually an aspirational brand that you’d want to buy into.”

I dont buy into it.
posted by clavdivs at 5:57 PM on October 8, 2016 [3 favorites]


What? No mention of seltzer?

New England is in the grips of seltzer fever:
The cult of Polar Seltzer.
What do 'Unicorn Kisses' taste like?

But going back further, to the days when New Yorkers could get seltzer home delivered by the seltzer man in those thick blue clown bottles: Seltzer Boy, by Allan Sherman, featuring the immortal line: "If you don't bring that seltza, I'm gon' tell Mistah Meltzah on youuu."
posted by adamg at 6:26 PM on October 8, 2016 [1 favorite]


I have long considered the sale of bottled water in the US a measure of the decline of rational thinking. The more real estate devoted to bottles of plain old water in the grocery store, the more I worry about the local population.

(Flint, MI excluded.)
posted by she's not there at 6:40 PM on October 8, 2016 [16 favorites]


I'm sick of being villainized or called an idiot for using bottled water. Bottled water is both a convenience and a known quality. Water is a difficult thing to lug around everywhere. It'd also difficult to keep refrigerated as public equipment requires maintenance and can be vandalized both of which can't be afforded anymore by public municipalities. Bottled water on the other hand can go in the same fridge as other drinks with very little overhead and so no matter where you go it can always be found chilled and refreshing at retail.

Tap water and public water sources often pick up the taste of the pipes like zinc when slightly acidic water flows through galvanized steel or iron that may be in the water naturally depending on the source. Compared to most bottled water which are purified by reverse osmosis and then have some minor added minerals so that you don't die from drinking what is effectively pure water.

I use tap water at home along with a filter but when I'm out or on the road I buy water not take it with me or use municipal facilities where available. I can take the bottle home to recycle it if I'm at a gas station or recycle it at the airport or train station if I'm not. It's always cold, it tastes better, it's available everywhere and it only costs a dollar at point of sale. You can complain that you can get a thousand gallons for the same from the municipal supply but you're mostly paying for convenience not volume.
posted by Talez at 6:58 PM on October 8, 2016 [20 favorites]


I try to use my water bottle filled from a tap for traveling when I can but I find that I never can bring enough with me.

I tried using jumbo refillable bottles but those are very hard to drink from when driving so I donno.

I'm down to drinking through maybe only two cases of water a summer but I would like it to be lower.

Has anyone got "hot tips" on how to bring non-bottled water with you on trips?
posted by rebent at 7:47 PM on October 8, 2016 [2 favorites]


... in developed countries, can be drunk for free from a tap without fear...

Eh, cholera may not be a problem, but if you live in Flint, or your water catches fire out of the tap (thanks, mother-frackers,) or it tastes of jet fuel or dry cleaning fluid, then you might be suspicious of capitalist municipal tap water and prefer bottled.
posted by BlueHorse at 7:49 PM on October 8, 2016 [5 favorites]


I understand what you're saying, Talez. My partner teaches workshops and seminars, and bottled water helps their work tremendously. They have and use Nalgenes (for years), but teaching a 6 hour workshop in vastly different conditions, sometimes without easy refill access is helped so much with a flat of water from Costco. I don't think you are a villain or idiot any more than my partner.

But the Bottled water industry has many alarming features:

The wasteful and unethical way corporations secure rights to freshwater resources, even in drought conditions.

The CEO of Nestle declaring that he doesn't consider water a human right.

The erosion of public water infrastructure. I keenly remember commonplace, well-maintained public water fountains as a younger person that have either flat-out disappeared or have been 'temporarily out of order' for years. When I grumble about this, the reaction of most people is "just buy a bottle - it's less than a dollar". It's WATER. It is our most precious, most necessary resource. It's shameful to not have good-tasting easily accessed water in major public places for everyone free of change. Bottled water makes it easier for people who can afford it to forget how important water infrastructure is.
posted by AAALASTAIR at 7:58 PM on October 8, 2016 [41 favorites]


I wish that in the States, I could reliably find bottled carbonated water at convenience stores, like I can in Europe or Mexico...
posted by leahwrenn at 8:03 PM on October 8, 2016 [4 favorites]


Nestle is probably the most hated company in the bottled water industry, but that doesn't hold them back.
posted by adamvasco at 8:09 PM on October 8, 2016 [1 favorite]


The most important part of bottled water culture is learning how to take epic chugs, just like they do in the ads. You gotta slake that thirst, not just drink, son! The side effect of epic dook-dook-dook chugs is drinking frankly more water than you need to. Contrary to the Great American Hydration Myth, unless you're peeing varnish, you're hydrated. It's okay to have a slightly dry mouth. No, you can't hydrate your brain by drinking water. Sure, it's a pleasurable hit horsing down that ice-cold aitch-too-eau, but it's easy to get addicted.

It's interesting to compare water drinking styles from early bottled water product placement to current depictions. Watch some early Fresh Prince, and they're just sipping daintily after they break a bottle out of the fridge. Now, anything less than full-on WHARRGARBL sprinkler dog shows you're not a contender. In the future, I predict that we'll all carry about fire hoses of super-chilled water, and the smallest drink will be a 20 litre deluge, soaking all around.
posted by scruss at 8:21 PM on October 8, 2016 [13 favorites]


I'm an idiot for drinking bottled water but all those other people drinking soda, juice, their fancy craft beer...are somehow smarter? They could all be drinking tap water and would save a looot of money and calories. And all those arguments that bottled tastes just like tap...I mean that's obvious nonsense. Evian tastes very different from Bay Area tap water. I don't particularly care for Evian (just like I don't care for apple juice or kombucha or wine) but I don't get what makes it so horrible. Tap water is fine but the outrage about bottled is incomprehensible to me.
posted by The Toad at 8:24 PM on October 8, 2016 [6 favorites]


but the outrage about bottled is incomprehensible to me.

really, it's incomprehensible? Water is a human right and there are billion dollar companies trying to turn it into a controlled commodity - worldwide. Every dime you give them gets them closer to that reality. They are so powerful they won't even allow a fucking 5 cent deposit on there bottles so they just end up in the landfills. You don't find anything wrong with that?
posted by any major dude at 8:32 PM on October 8, 2016 [48 favorites]


Rebent: carry empty or collapsible containers that can be filled and refilled, as needed. My grandma used to carry a collapsible metal cup that came in handy in her little town, which was dotted with artesian wells.

I don't know if this qualifies for as a "hot tip", but it's all I've got.
posted by she's not there at 8:35 PM on October 8, 2016


  and then have some minor added minerals

So, uh, it's got … electrolytes?
posted by scruss at 8:50 PM on October 8, 2016 [2 favorites]


I admit I buy bottled water. It's handy for grabbing before I leave the house and I have a tendency not to drink enough during the day so the convenience of the bottle helps me stay hydrated.

I am very picky about my bottled water. Dasani is garbage. Same with Aquafina and Nestle. Don't get me started on Fiji. Giant Eagle and Meijer have fair bottled water, but I wouldn't buy from them given the choice. Kroger bottled water is the only brand for me.
posted by demiurge at 8:55 PM on October 8, 2016



really, it's incomprehensible? Water is a human right and there are billion dollar companies trying to turn it into a controlled commodity - worldwide. Every dime you give them gets them closer to that reality. They are so powerful they won't even allow a fucking 5 cent deposit on there bottles so they just end up in the landfills. You don't find anything wrong with that?


Um... this doesn't quite seem to reflect reality. There are big companies selling water, mineral water, bubbly water, sweetened, fortified, colored, alkaline water... you name it. Some of them aren't too bad. We still have drinkable water coming out of the tap. I don't know where you are, but every water bottle around here gets five cents tacked on to the price, redeemable when empty. Over 24 oz. get ten cents tacked on. While it does help keep them out of landfills that doesn't actually seem to be an issue so much as keeping them out of the streets and parks and roadsides. Works pretty well that way.
posted by 2N2222 at 10:20 PM on October 8, 2016 [1 favorite]


Nestle is probably the most hated company in the bottled water industry

Honestly, hiring Immortan Joe to do their PR was probably not the best choice.
posted by stet at 10:53 PM on October 8, 2016 [1 favorite]


Learning to take a bottle of water with you everywhere is just like remembering to take a reusable bag to the shops - it's a habit you have to work towards, but once you're there it makes things like paying a buck to get what is essentially tap water seem really silly.

I'm an idiot for drinking bottled water but all those other people drinking soda, juice, their fancy craft beer...are somehow smarter?

Those are not the same commodities with the same properties. Tap water run through a filter jug is basically indistinguishable from most bottled spring water. But I'm not paying the environmental costs of all that plastic, shipping, or processing. That's the cost, not the buck you pay at the counter.
posted by Jilder at 11:21 PM on October 8, 2016 [15 favorites]


I don't buy bottled water...well except for Topo Chico. Topo Chico is LIFE
posted by Doleful Creature at 11:36 PM on October 8, 2016 [1 favorite]


We still have drinkable water coming out of the tap

Offer not valid for all values of "we"
posted by lumensimus at 1:28 AM on October 9, 2016 [3 favorites]


Every dime you give them gets them closer to that reality.

I'm afraid that actually is incomprehensible to me. Am I missing part of the argument? Does buying bottled water somehow mean the mains water is likely to be cut off? Does buying electric batteries pose a threat to the mains power supply? Are bread and potatoes "controlled commodities" because people buy them in shops?

Those are not the same commodities with the same properties.

But you're not addressing the point that was made. Surely the environmental costs of plastic, shipping, and processing are at least as bad with soda or other drinks? So the point is, why is it only bottled water that is to be criticised?
posted by Segundus at 2:41 AM on October 9, 2016 [4 favorites]


I use one of these filter bottles. The filters are replaceable, cheap, and last a long time, and really do make tap water taste better. With a small plastic S-biner on the bottle's bail, I can clip it onto a pocket or bag, so it's readily available. I normally fill it at home before I go out, but if I empty it, it's trivially easy to fill it up anywhere without worrying about the source.

I haven't bought a bottle of water for myself in years. There is no deposit on water bottles here, so they are large component of litter.

To those who think that bottled water is a "known quality," I suggest that you investigate whether that water is tested, as pretty much all muni water supplies are. Most bottled water is not independently tested.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 3:16 AM on October 9, 2016 [8 favorites]


So the point is, why is it only bottled water that is to be criticised?

That is not the point; it is a point -- and a strawman. Nobody here is saying bottled soft drinks are swell.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 3:18 AM on October 9, 2016 [10 favorites]


The CEO of Nestle declaring that he doesn't consider water a human right.

That's a brave position. And probably our cue to don stillsuits, walk him a discrete distance out into the desert, and reclaim his water, for the tribe of all humanity.
posted by sebastienbailard at 4:01 AM on October 9, 2016 [6 favorites]


I live in a home on a well. The well water in East Central Indiana tastes horrible. Not merely "ew." But, "OMFGWHATWASTHAT!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!AMIGOINGTODIE?!?!?!?!?!" In addition, it is so iron-laden that, unfiltered, it will (and I have seen this with my own eyes) turn an entire bathroom mother-fucking orange.

To adequately filter it to make it palatable would require thousands of dollars of specialized filtration equipment, and you'd be changing the filters monthly.

Even with a water softener (which removes a good deal of the nastiness) we will only bathe, shit/piss, or wash dishes with the well water. So, every Saturday, we fill four or five gallon jugs from a filtration station down at out local mega mart for 37¢ each.

Our single quirk is that, because his feeding station is on the other end of the house from where the water jugs are, our cat has his own small supply of tasty bottled water next to his water bowl. We call it "cat water."

There's a Nestlé plant just down the interstate from us, running 24-7, churning out bottled water especially for Lucas.
posted by Thorzdad at 5:07 AM on October 9, 2016 [1 favorite]


you might be suspicious of capitalist municipal tap water and prefer bottled

Publicly-funded-and-controlled water is capitalist but bottled water sold for profit by huge multinational corporations is, what, exactly?

Does buying bottled water somehow mean the mains water is likely to be cut off?

Yes. Bottling operations are muscling out municipalities from having access to water sources. This is absolutely a zero-sum game.
posted by enn at 5:32 AM on October 9, 2016 [24 favorites]


Public water is increasingly capitalist and decreasingly municipal. American Water Works and it's various state subsidiaries are aggressively buying out publicly-owned systems all across the country. I pay one of their subsidiaries, Pennsylvania American Water Company, for both my tap water and my sewage service. I don't like the taste of chlorine, so I carry much of my drinking water from a spring, though I still make my coffee with tap water.
posted by tommyD at 6:04 AM on October 9, 2016 [2 favorites]


I'm an idiot for drinking bottled water but all those other people drinking soda, juice, their fancy craft beer...are somehow smarter?

I envy you your hot and cold running beer faucets
posted by indubitable at 6:30 AM on October 9, 2016 [8 favorites]


I find regular use of bottled water appalling, and I get angry whenever I have to buy some (lost my own bottle, can't find a tap to fill from, etc).

I feel this way for environmental reasons. Packaging and transport. Water is heavy; how much carbon in transport does that case of water cost? And it's not just the customer paying that cost, they're forcing it on the rest of us.

And yes, the more market share bottled water has, the more likely mains water is to be unusable. Why is this? Well, when the people in government don't drink from the public water supply, then why should they care if it goes bad?

Flint is a perfect example here-- it used to have potable water, and now doesn't. In this case it may be that the decisions were simply made by people not living in Flint, but the principle is the same: the government was happy to ruin the water source because it didn't affect them. Too bad for the people who live there who now don't have a choice about buying bottled water (and thus must pay for it - this is why the markup for bottled water matters!).

I'm an American living in Europe, and I've been told by several people that my habit of carrying a (reusable) water bottle around marks me as American. I have to say, it's one (evidently) American trait I'm really proud to have.

I have also noticed it's much harder to fill my bottle in Europe than in the US- fewer public water sources. I guess weirdly I have the temperance movement to thank for that (there was a nice fpp about that some time ago, I think?). Perhaps that difference drives some of the cultural difference in willingness to use reusables?

Lastly- from the fpp-
Leonard loves water so much he has water parties. This is not to be mocked.
Oh yes it is. Just because it is possible to be obsessive about anything doesn't mean it's not hilarious.
posted by nat at 6:35 AM on October 9, 2016 [7 favorites]


I think bottled tap water (Dasani, Aquafina) tastes like crap. I mean, Coke and Pepsi's food scientists have managed to dispense with the flavor and mouthfeel of water, somehow. It's really quite remarkable.

That said, I buy my six tall bottles off 365 spring water every week. It tastes right, i.e., almost not at all but sufficiently different from the other spring water WFM tries to sneak in sometimes. And I'm not claiming supertaster status. It's as if in the absence of discernible flavor, any other change becomes noticeable.

And don't get me started on lifestyle waters like the kind Jennifer Aniston has been ceaselessly hawking for years. Whatever the brand name is, they need to change it to Liquid Status for Easily Impressed Young Woman Who Still Associates 47-Year-Old Jennifer Aniston With 20-Something Pluck and Aspiration.
posted by the sobsister at 6:40 AM on October 9, 2016 [1 favorite]


The documentary Tapped (2009) was pretty good. Among the revelations was that every municipal water authority does multiple daily checks of water safety and quality . Meanwhile all the bottled water in America is regulated by a single FDA bureaucrat - and it's only a part of her portfolio.
posted by BinGregory at 6:54 AM on October 9, 2016 [11 favorites]


The documentary Tapped (2009) was pretty good. Among the revelations was that every municipal water authority does multiple daily checks of water safety and quality . Meanwhile all the bottled water in America is regulated by a single FDA bureaucrat - and it's only a part of her portfolio.BinGregory

Flint, Michigan basically busted that myth that you can always trust municipal water because of all the water quality checks that they do.
posted by eye of newt at 9:23 AM on October 9, 2016 [1 favorite]


I need to get it together and do a corollary FPP on the Italian cultural fixation with bottled water. Not only do tv commercials advertise along the lines of how their water helps one eliminate bodily waste and "make peepee," but there are also certain waters supposedly best for various conditions or ages and this is considered common knowledge . Like, during my first pregnancy one gyno I saw told me to "of course" drink only Acqua Panna and my husband was the one who told me San Geminio is "for children and babies." In both cases I was all ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ WTF ever, but it's very much a somewhat fascinating parallel to the FPP.
posted by romakimmy at 10:03 AM on October 9, 2016 [4 favorites]


I must say the direction of this conversation is quite startling to me. I thought it was pretty uncontroversial that the for-profit water industry was pretty much unabated evil.

I guess I shouldn't be shocked, when personal lifestyle conflicts with ethical issues, personal lifestyle almost always wins. (I'm not immune to this myself, although I don't buy bottled water, I certainly purchase items from places with awful workplace conditions, and personally contribute to the world being a shittier place through my purchasing decisions).
posted by el io at 11:06 AM on October 9, 2016 [16 favorites]


Oh pleeeaase do the Italian bottled water FPP, romakimmy. Our local international supermarket has a baffling array of Italian waters, along with some crystalline type things to add to water to make them more … digestive? Dunno; it's all labelled in Italian. Still, I miss guzzling Lora di Recoaro along with excellent pizza years back, and was disappointed when the multinationals muscled in and produced weak clones carrying the same source name.

All this typing has made me thirsty for a nice chewy water like Vichy Célestins.
posted by scruss at 11:29 AM on October 9, 2016


I guess I shouldn't be shocked, when personal lifestyle conflicts with ethical issues, personal lifestyle almost always wins.

Yeah, it's just that bottled water is particularly galling when the people who buy it have easy access to perfectly good (not to mention relatively free) tap water at home and work and other places. They are buying and throwing away hundreds of plastic bottles because they don't want to buy and refill one.
posted by pracowity at 12:03 PM on October 9, 2016 [1 favorite]


Yes every dime you give to nestle makes them stronger. As for Kroger et al--Most bottled water including Kroger is just filtered municipal water. Nothing wrong with it but own up to the waste it creates and hopefully move away from it some day, it's a worthy goal and there isn't a whole lot of recycling going on with cheap squishy bottles.

I had a couple years there where I bought $4 cases of water like it was nothing and shrugged my shoulders but eventually came to prefer not drinking from squishy plastic bottles (I was addicted to the "crack open something new and chug" sensation) even if the PETE bottles are relatively low risk in terms of endocrine disruption. I wouldn't touch any hard plastic bottle again unless I had no choice. The new BPA free replacements are largely just as bad.

I enjoy the privilege of owning a fridge that filters water for me and I put it into a $40 dual lined steel bottle that keeps it super cold all day instead of cranking through $4 cases of water every couple days conspicuously. I am a chronically dehydrated type if I don't work at it and if your pee is typically smelly and not watered down to a near colorless state, so are you. Yes we were made to function while slightly dehydrated but the difference between a hydrated and slightly dehydrated physique is night and day to me, as someone who is very sensitive to seasonal changes, lighting, etc. We can handle having dry mouths and such for years but it's not optimal for your oral health, your colon, or your cardiovascular system.

To each their own, but turning the consumption of an essential component of life into a reason to amass a pile of bottles every day is a questionable choice if you're concerned with how your choices affect the world around you.
posted by aydeejones at 12:03 PM on October 9, 2016 [2 favorites]


Btw: I did have a fetish of sorts for plastic bottles because I've been a soda drinker my whole life. I love cracking open drinks for whatever reason. Yes most cans are lined with BPA :(

I consciously converted from a guy who likes cracking warm or cold water bottles into a guy who likes having a quart of ice water around at all times. The yeti style bottles are amazing at keeping water cold all day long. I bought mine from a local Colorado business and just made a commitment to use it forever more, even as I know that cold water takes longer to absorb, I'm drinking it first and foremost for pleasure because I'm a hedonistic bastard.
posted by aydeejones at 12:09 PM on October 9, 2016


I need to get it together and do a corollary FPP on the Italian cultural fixation with bottled water.

Well, silly advertising aside, what looks entirely like a fixation may also have a series of other reasons that are not so inscrutable. And keep in mind that throughout the day generally Italians tend to drink more water than I don’t know tea or fizzy drinks or giant lattes, compared to other European nationalities. (Or, beer, even), and they love the carbonated version, which you can’t really get from tap. And sure some claims of near-magical properties are ridiculous but then again there are variations in content of some minerals and they can make a difference for particular needs. Say, when you’re blessed with an irritable or difficult bowel or other such fun GI afflictions, you could find out that that difference is not all in your head, and not all an advertisers trick that your family doctor bought into. Sometimes one specific brand of bottled water will work more wonders than pills and tablets and godawful herbal concoctions. That noticeable difference can also happen with tap water in a completely different area when you’re on holiday, for instance. But since you can’t bring that back with you, you look for the bottled equivalent.

Sure, for everyone else with no such afflictions it may be a useless fixation, in many areas the tap water is very sweet and palatable, especially in the less polluted areas and mountain areas.

But in some areas there have been issues in the past about environmental pollution and even if the tap water is official drinkable, there may be a more understandable general distrust and suspicion.

In fact, if I don’t recall wrong, a few years ago the American military sent out a warning to their personnel in southern Italy to avoid drinking the tap water in a specific area. The local administration didn’t particularly like that. There was a "disagreement" on the official measured values of certain substances.

On the other hand, public water dispensers are catching on a lot. It’s basically tap water but extra filtered, less hard, and comes in carbonated version too. It’s a lot cheaper than bottled and more environmentally friendly and it does taste better than tap water.

In some other places in Europe that shall not be named, water especially in old buildings can be really hard, you will notice the damage it does to your hair and skin and shower tiles and kitchen pots and kettles, even if you’re lucky to have stronger insides that won’t react to it. And in some places (which may or may not be cited in the linked article), it can taste really bad, only drinkable in tea form.

So I would keep in mind the huge variations in reasons why - other than advertising and habit and availability and convenience when away from home - people end up preferring bottled water even in countries where the tap water is officially fine.
posted by bitteschoen at 12:55 PM on October 9, 2016


Flint, Michigan basically busted that myth that you can always trust municipal water because of all the water quality checks that they do.

And, like most stories, this one is more complicated than that. Flint's problems are arguably the result of lengthy neglect on the part of municipal officials, in an environment of long-term budget stress. That doesn't excuse what they did, and it doesn't justify the claim that all municipal water supplies are suspect.
posted by sneebler at 1:28 PM on October 9, 2016 [2 favorites]


Surely the environmental costs of plastic, shipping, and processing are at least as bad with soda or other drinks? So the point is, why is it only bottled water that is to be criticised?

Bottled water used to be a expensive, show-offy sort of aspirational air-of-virtue purchase, while lowbrow soda pop has not been, at least not for a very long time. The backlash against it is surely related to that image.

And also, soda pop is bad for you, is arguably partly to blame for the modern prevalence of adult onset diabetes, and no, you shouldn't buy that shit either, OK?

Some of the biggest purveyors of bottled water are Coca-Cola and Pepsi, anyway. They earn a profit by selling hugely-marked-up beverages in disposable containers (which always seem to be someone else's problem) that no one actually needs. You're right, the water and the soda are very similar.
posted by Western Infidels at 1:57 PM on October 9, 2016


Flint, Michigan basically busted that myth that you can always trust municipal water because of all the water quality checks that they do.

And, like most stories, this one is more complicated than that. Flint's problems are arguably the result of lengthy neglect on the part of municipal officials, in an environment of long-term budget stress. That doesn't excuse what they did, and it doesn't justify the claim that all municipal water supplies are suspect.
--sneebler

Not all municipal water, to be sure. Probably only a very small subset is suspect--usually communities that are short on money but don't want to admit that they are skimping on water quality. The guy to first call attention to Flint water warned about the potential for this happening in other communities.

But it seemed like every couple of months there was a reporter saying how silly it is to drink bottled or filtered water because you can trust all municipal water, because they all do strict testing required by the government. After Flint, Michigan, you will never hear a reporter (or movie) say this again. That myth has been resoundly busted.
posted by eye of newt at 2:42 PM on October 9, 2016


Precisely bitteschoen. Italy has a wealth of these lovely waters and natural springs. Rome has the nasone with some of the best tasting tap water I've ever had, loaded with calcium that sucks for my water heater but my hair and nails are so much stronger than before I came here. And 30 minutes away, friends of ours bought a house in an area where they have to buy drinking water because the tap water there isn't potable. Which just sends my inner Erin Brockovitch into a boggle. Then there's the constant battle vis-à-vis privatization. I'm not even sure a multi-source FPP would do the subject justice, but I'll end the derail thus confessing: Ferrarrelle has magic fizzy fairy dust added to it and you will pry it out of my cold dead hands. I also use Evian in my Bialetti when visiting stateside because the heavy chlorination now tastes like ass to me.
posted by romakimmy at 2:49 PM on October 9, 2016


Bottled water is an ecological disaster.
posted by Mental Wimp at 4:38 PM on October 9, 2016


While waiting for someone here to do the FPP/Poster eponysterical thing, here's a Previously On MetaFilter about high-end water.
posted by Wordshore at 9:37 AM on October 10, 2016


My fave onion article of all time:
Coke-sponsored rover finds evidence of Dasani on Mars
posted by Galaxor Nebulon at 9:58 AM on October 10, 2016


For those of you who can't find convenient refillable bottles to drink from, pick up some bottles meant for bicycle use. They can be had for cheap (typically under $10/ea, often as low as $1 or $2 on clearance), are available with nifty designs on them, and the good quality ones remain flexible and squeezable (and non-leaking) at icewater temps.

Personally, I find the ones custom printed by Specialized to be the best quality. Many companies agree, and thus most bottles you find for sale are this kind. The upside of getting all the same bottle is that lids are interchangeable as well. (Just look for the stylized S molded into the bottom.) When you're done with the bottle it's recyclable as #4.
posted by c0nsumer at 12:41 PM on October 10, 2016


I occasionally buy bottled water when I'm thirsty, and I also agree it's really frustrating to have bottled water criticized without criticizing soda. I just don't buy that soda is really that different - you could require people to carry their own bottles for that as well. You add just a bit of syrup and gas at the point of purchase - but could use tap water (at least this is what I understood from friends who worked fast-food as a kid).

Also, for years I flew out of Laguardia - you're not allowed to carry water through security and at the time the drinking fountains work about one day a years. It makes no sense that I should be able to buy soda but not water.

On the other hand, I agree that bottled water/soda/cheap beer all are commodifications of water. The shift towards water not being a human right is terrible, and corporations pushing for this are terrible. The Owen's valley has been deprived of water to make beer for decades. This isn't a problem of just bottled water - but a problem of nearly all bottled beverages.
posted by lab.beetle at 12:57 PM on October 10, 2016


Does anyone have recommendations for reusable bottles that are the same type as the bottles in the store? We do buy bottled water and then refill the bottles with tap until they aren't usable anymore but I hate using all that plastic.

They need to change it to Liquid Status for Easily Impressed Young Woman Who Still Associates 47-Year-Old Jennifer Aniston With 20-Something Pluck and Aspiration.

Or sometimes that water is on sale for a dollar and the bottle is twice the size of a normal one.
posted by LizBoBiz at 2:07 PM on October 10, 2016


The reason the market for bottled water grew so rapidly is that in many parts of the world, people started eschewing tap water for bottled, believing it to be of higher quality (and in some areas accurately so). The huge increase in the number of locally discarded plastic bottles coupled with the diversion of funds that could have otherwise been used to clean up local tap water supplies into corporate profits shipped to well-off countries like the US is a shining example of how much damage the "free" market can do.
posted by Mental Wimp at 2:09 PM on October 10, 2016


How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia by Mohsin Hamid is a sharp-edged satirical novel partly about bottled water.
posted by ovvl at 4:32 PM on October 10, 2016 [1 favorite]


Every day in high school, I filled my Nalgene from the water fountain by my first class. Toward the end of my senior year, the district posted a sign on the fountain that school water wasn't potable due to lead contamination. I will never criticize anyone for preferring bottled water.
posted by miyabo at 10:40 AM on October 11, 2016




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