When was the last time you bought water in a plastic bottle?

June 5, 2020 2:14 PM

Millions of people drink mineral water every day that has previously been transported thousands of kilometres around the world. Often in plastic bottles, always at the expense of the environment. But almost everywhere in Europe we have great tap water, of high quality and inexpensive. Which is why we, the Duisburg Public Services, decided to hold up the mirror to the water industry. (SLYT)
posted by growabrain (51 comments total)

I've always wanted to shake the hand of the evil genius who hit upon the idea of bottling ordinary dihydrogen oxide and selling it at an enormous profit...
posted by jim in austin at 2:41 PM on June 5, 2020 [2 favorites]

Maybe I don't know enough about other people's motives, but... I buy bottled water from time to time, and I don't buy it because I think mineral water is better than tap, or because I'm impressed by the container or packaging. I buy it because I'm out, I have run out of my own water, and I'm thirsty. If someone could lend me a glass of tap water I'd happily have that instead. I think most people I know are pretty much the same.

I live in Glasgow and recently they've started installing some plumbed-in topping-up points for water bottles, which is definitely a step in the right direction, and Scottish tap water is pretty good so there's no taste issue or anything. But you do still need the forethought to bring a bottle with you. This is mostly conjecture but I'm inclined to think the whole bottled water thing is more a result of a failure to provide a basic essential service in public places than people thinking bottled water is better in some way.
posted by AllShoesNoSocks at 2:47 PM on June 5, 2020 [34 favorites]

Plastic bottled water tastes terrible. Before I bought a reusable bottle, though, I have used it when I needed to have water with me (long walk, class) because getting dehydrated often means I start feeling terrible.

Now that I have my reusable bottle, the plastic bottles are sometimes helpful because they're lighter and smaller. In past years, I'd just reuse the plastic water bottle when I needed to, but now the plastic bottles are so thin and fragile they can barely stand up on their own, let alone be reused.
posted by amtho at 2:59 PM on June 5, 2020 [1 favorite]

While I agree with the general sentiment (I used to only drink regular tap, but I bought a house with a built-in filter thing so I am on Team Filtered, just not from a bottle) I kind of find it hard to believe that no one could tell the difference between mineral water and municipal tap water. That is, unless rocks practically spill out every time they open the tap.

Although, perhaps it was the "oh shit, I better not disappoint the fancy ass store and the cameras!" effect, which is probably responsible for much of the "You picked the cheap one!! HAHA!" effect that these stunts show.
posted by sideshow at 2:59 PM on June 5, 2020

I buy bottled water from time to time, and I don't buy it because I think mineral water is better than tap, or because I'm impressed by the container or packaging.

Maybe you don't, but lots of people do.
posted by tobascodagama at 3:02 PM on June 5, 2020 [3 favorites]

I've been team reusable hard plastic water bottle for long time, both because the economics are obviously superior and because it reduces waste. I have family that I've tried to get on board and who are *very* penny pinching in other contexts... but for some reason they apparently can't get enough of going to $BOXMART and buying a case of 2-3 dozen water bottles for $3. I don't understand it. Does the plenty feel like a luxury, or maybe the ability to dispose of the bottle without thinking about where or how, or the ability to lose the bottle without losing much? I can kindof relate to those in some contexts -- when I'm traveling, especially by air, that's the time that I sometimes choose something expensive and disposable rather than risk losing a more expensive reusable. I just can't imagine stocking the pantry or fridge with them, as I see some people do.

(I *will* line the pantry with 1/5/10 gallon jugs, though)
posted by wildblueyonder at 3:02 PM on June 5, 2020 [2 favorites]

I believe you're thinking of dihydrogen monoxide

Also, absolutely. If you can't drink the tap water, you can't live there. It's what makes a place 'inhabitable'.
posted by sexyrobot at 3:02 PM on June 5, 2020 [7 favorites]

You know what Evian spelled backwards is, right? It's a bit on the nose.
posted by Fizz at 3:07 PM on June 5, 2020 [12 favorites]

Many years ago, I worked room service at a hotel where Mariah Carey was staying. She was a relatively new star at the time. We had to regularly stock her room with liter glass bottles of Evian because she used it exclusively to wash her hair.
posted by SoberHighland at 3:16 PM on June 5, 2020 [7 favorites]

with liter glass bottles of Evian because she used it exclusively to wash her hair.

I don’t know who I’m supposed to judge more, this person or my family members that are downright despicable in their (oral at least) conspicuous consumption of water bottle water instead of tap water. They both make me want to take my shouting to The Void but I heard it was already full up lately.
posted by RolandOfEld at 3:25 PM on June 5, 2020 [2 favorites]

liter glass bottles of Evian because she used it exclusively to wash her hair

This isn't a crazy thing. Evian will have a reliably similar amount of minerals and dissolved salts in it so that you can use the same styling regime wherever you go. If you're relying on tap then you'll have hard water in some places, soft water in others and whatever comes out of the taps in Winnipeg when you're there.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 3:26 PM on June 5, 2020 [11 favorites]

I understand the Evian vs. tap water. This was in Miami Beach, where the water is aggressively softened. I lived there for five years, and showers felt downright slimy. I got used to it, but when I go back to visit, it almost feels like you can't get clean.

Still... glass bottles of Evian? I'm talking like three cases of liter bottles per day, on top of the water and other stuff they ordered to drink. Carey was a weirdo guest in other ways, too.
posted by SoberHighland at 3:33 PM on June 5, 2020 [6 favorites]

I don’t know about European tap water... Back in the 80’s we were staying with a German couple at their house in NE Bavaria. The woman asked what I wanted to drink and I said water. She opened up the refrigerator and pulled out a bottle of water. I said, no, no, tap water is fine. She gave me this weird look, and said tap water??? I said yeah, tap water. She put the bottle back in the fridge and filled a glass with tap water and handed it to me still with the same weird look. I was made to feel like I as drinking from the toilet....
posted by njohnson23 at 3:55 PM on June 5, 2020 [4 favorites]

The old office I used to work in provided water bottles in boardrooms for Client use and it became an issue when they would regularly run out because staff would drink them instead of just drinking the perfectly acceptable Great Lakes tap water. I also know quite a few people who only buy bottled water and drink it even when at home because... reasons?
posted by vespertinism at 3:56 PM on June 5, 2020 [2 favorites]

SoberHighland: "Many years ago, I worked room service at a hotel where Mariah Carey was staying. She was a relatively new star at the time. We had to regularly stock her room with liter glass bottles of Evian because she used it exclusively to wash her hair."

You know what Mariah spelled backwards is, right? It's a bit on the head.
posted by chavenet at 3:58 PM on June 5, 2020 [7 favorites]

When was the last time you drank drinking water recycled & distilled from your body's waste products? (SLYT) (SLDUNE)
posted by are-coral-made at 3:58 PM on June 5, 2020 [1 favorite]

I also know quite a few people who only buy bottled water and drink it even when at home because... reasons?

Flint Michigan.
(no offence)

but great article.
posted by clavdivs at 4:24 PM on June 5, 2020 [5 favorites]

Dont forget the microplastics.
posted by asra at 4:42 PM on June 5, 2020 [1 favorite]

As a counterpoint, apparently the "Seltzer bubble" (whatever that is) has primed Americans for mineral water...
posted by Ashwagandha at 4:54 PM on June 5, 2020

If you can't drink the tap water, you can't live there.

i have lived in places where you can't drink the tap water. it's like. idk how to tell you this but. it's a lot of the world.

some places have people living there without any taps in their homes at all. in this country. the US. right now, today. they're not white, of course
posted by poffin boffin at 5:08 PM on June 5, 2020 [31 favorites]

But you do still need the forethought to bring a bottle with you.

You can do it! I believe in you.
posted by srboisvert at 5:39 PM on June 5, 2020 [1 favorite]

whatever comes out of the taps in Winnipeg when you're there.

Like Winnipeg has taps!
posted by srboisvert at 5:42 PM on June 5, 2020

I live in Seattle, which regularly crows about the quality of its tap water, and when I turn the tap on to clean my glass coffee pot in the morning, the chlorination is so powerful I often jerk back involuntarily. I can't imagine willingly drinking that stuff except in an emergency.

Filtered, it does taste good, and unless all these 'blind tastings' are conducted with filtered tap water, I can only conclude that the people who prefer the tap water have had their taste buds and the odor receptors in their noses cauterized by a lifetime of exposure to hypochlorite and chloramine — and don't try to give me any of that crap about boiling, which does ok in getting rid of hypochlorite, but is much less effective with the chloramine which has displaced it in most municipal water treatment regimes.
posted by jamjam at 6:00 PM on June 5, 2020 [3 favorites]

By the same token, I'm also in Seattle, and I grew up on well water, and I find Seattle water just fine unfiltered. It might be worth comparing test results for your building vs. the yearly mandated test reports, because that sounds entirely unlike what I've experienced.
posted by CrystalDave at 6:09 PM on June 5, 2020 [4 favorites]

Team reuse a small water bottle snarfed from a free giveaway at a conference or reception. Hard bottles are expensive, easy to loose, and generally the wrong size.

Totally appalled by the water industry (Nestle), would manage just fine buying hard bottles, have several actually, happy to sign an online petition to revoke bottling rights around the world (even with language that everyone will just get along too) but a small reusable bottle is handy.

And have stocked up on bottles when going out on a small sailboat with guests, important to keep everyone hydrated and so much easier to deal with handing an unopened bottle than pouring from a big jug.
posted by sammyo at 6:09 PM on June 5, 2020 [3 favorites]

Sympathetic to people for whom bottled water is the only option. If I lived in one of those places I would die from dehydration because I've never met a bottled water that didn't taste fucking nasty. Maybe I need to buy the fancier kind, but every bottled water I've had, including the stuff in the big bottles for water coolers, has tasted awful. I grew up on well water, so maybe that's the problem.

I carry around a massive reusable water bottle (32oz) because the idea of running out of water and needing to buy bottled water is unacceptable. I don't know how to describe it but it tastes like it's making you thirstier. I'm like, "God, I need a drink of water now."
posted by brook horse at 6:14 PM on June 5, 2020 [2 favorites]

Being able to easily buy water when you unexpectedly find that you are thirsty when away from home definitely beats having soda or coffee as the only easy options*, which is pretty much how things were before people in the US started drinking bottled water. But then again the whole “staying hydrated” thing where people wander around with bottles endlessly sipping from them is very new; if you do that then bringing your won bottle is a no-brainer. European mineral water culture has entirely different origins, even if the two have converged.

I avoid buying bottled water wherever possible: it is wateful and generally expensive, but I appreciate that it is available. Though expense is relative. In late March I had to drive home from New Orleans and prudence sugested that I should have water available for the trip given the Covid lockdown. I went to the supermarket to buy a few bottles and Rouse’s was selling a 24-pack for $2.50. A dime a bottle is many times the cost of tap water, but a tenth of the price I would have paid at a gas station.

I have mixed feelings about bottled water.


*Yes bars, diners & restaurants etc. existed where you could get water, milk, beer or whatever, with asociated costs in money, time, and complexity, and in parks and public buildings there were often fountains/bubblers (not that you can get more than a mouthful out of most of those).
posted by Quinbus Flestrin at 6:17 PM on June 5, 2020 [2 favorites]

I live in a free-standing house, CrystalDave, less than 50 yd. from the open air reservoir which supplies my water.
posted by jamjam at 6:23 PM on June 5, 2020 [1 favorite]

If you can't drink the tap water, you can't live there.
Hows your first world problem?
Statements like this piss me off mightily.
I live in a city of 12 million people where the tap water is contaminated with industrial pollutant and fecal matter. So we drink bottled water and shower in shit.
Ditto this for many S. American, Asian, and African cities.
There are places outside of America but I guess no one lives there.
posted by adamvasco at 6:57 PM on June 5, 2020 [17 favorites]

We have a lot of friends who live in Europe and some of them buy bottled water in their homes and some don’t, and while I am an inveterate reusable water bottle carrier since I bought my first Nalgene back in the 90s, I tend to trust people to know their own plumbing. Some of our friends live in very nice city houses that are still about two hundred years old. Even if the water is good from the municipal source, there’s a lot of travel time in between.

I mean, even my own house up to recently was full of plumbing a person shouldn’t drink out of (not attached to faucets we’d been drinking from, but that was probably a recent innovation). And that’s in a major American city with decent quality water.
posted by padraigin at 7:06 PM on June 5, 2020 [2 favorites]

I miss drinking fountains. There used to be more of them, like mailboxes and phone booths.
posted by Margalo Epps at 7:41 PM on June 5, 2020 [5 favorites]

But then again the whole “staying hydrated” thing where people wander around with bottles endlessly sipping from them is very new;

This. I guess it shows my age, but I find myself wondering, "what the heck did we do back then?" Because now, if I leave the house in the morning and find that I've forgotten my water bottle at home, I fly into a panic about my impending dehydration. It did not used to be this way. When I was in college, and for my early work life, I remember going the whole day with a glass of water before I left the house in the morning, then a beverage with lunch, and maybe a coffee or tea at some point during the day, but then nothing else until dinner time. Maybe a quick stop at the bubbler for a few sips. How did we do this? Why am I so much thirstier?
posted by amusebuche at 7:51 PM on June 5, 2020 [8 favorites]

I miss drinking fountains. There used to be more of them, like mailboxes and phone booths.

Last year I found myself working in a building from the early 1930s lovingly restored to its Art Moderne look in the mid-90s. There are a few contemporary additions (like a broad wheelchair ramp where there used to be three or four wide steps in one entrance) and a couple of new features already dated (the wheelchair ramp is flanked on either side by a long row of pay phones).

When it reopened some 25 years ago, there were numerous water fountains. When I returned last year, these had all been removed.

There is a small snack bar that sells Nestlé bottled water.

Nestlé drains (depending on the news source you look to) somewhere between 4.9 and 7.6 million litres of water a day from our water table here in Ontario.

The previous Liberal government was taken to task over the minimal compensation Nestlé pays the provincial government, when it came to light that it was $3.71 per million litres.

That government tacked a huge surplus onto that, so Nestlé now pay $503.71 per million litres.

And the snack bar sells it back to us for $3.79 per litre.

Last year a customer noticed that I had my own refillable water bottle and he sneered something about my being on an environmental kick. Fortunately, I know that good customer service precludes beating the customer senseless, so our story ends here.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 8:23 PM on June 5, 2020 [8 favorites]

Hows your first world problem?
Statements like this piss me off mightily.
I live in a city of 12 million people where the tap water is contaminated with industrial pollutant and fecal matter. So we drink bottled water and shower in shit.

Yes, it's the Internet Judgement Squad that is the problem in this scenario.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 9:13 PM on June 5, 2020 [2 favorites]

One of the things that I am very proud of my small city doing - installing a LOT of water fountains. And they are the fancy two level ones where there is a dog bowl at ankle height.

The council is installing them where there is high foot traffic and has a deliberate policy that a pedestrian should be about 250m away from a fountain at any time.
posted by Barbara Spitzer at 10:44 PM on June 5, 2020 [3 favorites]

njohnson23: Back in the 80’s we were staying with a German couple at their house in NE Bavaria. The woman asked what I wanted to drink and I said water. She opened up the refrigerator and pulled out a bottle of water. I said, no, no, tap water is fine. She gave me this weird look, and said tap water??? I said yeah, tap water. She put the bottle back in the fridge and filled a glass with tap water and handed it to me still with the same weird look. I was made to feel like I as drinking from the toilet....

Ah, a bit of a cultural difference. The default bottled water in Germany is (or was) sparkling/ carbonated, as in Perrier. In Spain the default is still water, and I also found it difficult to find still water to drink when eating out when I've been in Germany.

But generally speaking, in Europe the expectation is that bottled water should come from a spa town or mountain spring. What Coca-cola does bottling random tap water is seen as a bit absurd.
posted by sukeban at 10:58 PM on June 5, 2020 [3 favorites]

I lived in Poland in the 80s, when I was little. The tapwater was widely known to be contaminated (it seems to be fine now, at least in most areas) and you weren't supposed to drink it, but I secretly did anyway because I liked the metallic taste. I'm obviously still alive; I have no idea what effect this had on my health.

I now live somewhere where the tapwater is excellent and I drink it at home by default. My mother hates it and will only drink it if it's been boiled and cooled down, which I think tastes disgusting.

I drink bottled water if I go to a place where the tapwater tastes awful -- and I always have to figure out which of the locally available bottled water brands taste OK. Some are fine; some taste flat, like boiled water; and some are salty, which is the worst. I can't rely on anyone else's opinion, because apparently some people like flat and salty.

I don't get the constant hydration thing either. If you put a bottle of water in front of me, I will drink the whole thing in about 5 minutes, regardless of the size, and then 10 minutes later be annoyed that I have to find a bathroom, which is a more difficult problem in some public places.
posted by confluency at 2:12 AM on June 6, 2020 [1 favorite]

When Coca-cola bottled tap water in the UK and sold it, it was seen as practically fraud by the buying public. It's not for sale any more over here, although the bottled water industry is pretty big.

There's a big scheme in the UK, Refill (led by a non-profit and supported by tap water companies and others) to encourage people to use refillable water bottles rather than buying bottled water. You can download an app to find places to refill your water bottle. Our tap water quality is very, very good and the refill thing caught on quite a lot more following a highly watched episode of BBC's Blue Planet with David Attenborough, which talked about the problem of plastic in the oceans.

Clean running water and functioning sanitation is one of the markers of modern life in the UK that people often take for granted but without which life would be more dangerous, complicated and expensive. The UK charity WaterAid helps provide both water and toilets in places where they're not yet available and is worthy of support.
posted by plonkee at 2:29 AM on June 6, 2020 [4 favorites]

That is a fun experiment!

When I was young and married a German, I found it strange to see how much bottled water they drank. But it was clearly something about the health properties of those famous springs, rather than distrust of the tap water. At home (in Denmark) we always drank tap water and it was and is good.
Then the bottled water craze started, I suppose people were inspired by their travels to countries where bottled water was either necessary or seen as healthy. A cousin of one of my colleagues profited immensely from bottling their well-water.
Now there is a backlash. Young people realize they are spending too much on water and are buying hard plastic bottles. (You shouldn't reuse the commercial bottles because they cannot be properly cleaned and are very good at harbouring bacteria). Many restaurants serve tap water as the default, and take money for putting it in a bottle and carbonating and/or cooling it, which is legal here.

In Rome, the tap water is some of the best in the world for a metropolis, you could drink from the fountains if people weren't sticking their toes in there, and they have been putting up new drinking fountains with in-built coolers in recent years.
posted by mumimor at 3:09 AM on June 6, 2020 [3 favorites]

The only place in Germany where I was refused tap water was at a brauerei.

It took some time before I learned to ask for leitungswasser; asking for wasser meant I was served a bottle of mineral.
posted by brujita at 3:19 AM on June 6, 2020 [1 favorite]

I remember when there was always a public drinking fountain in every park and on street corners in England.
posted by Burn_IT at 3:47 AM on June 6, 2020

The only place in Germany where I was refused tap water was at a brauerei.

You weren’t in Köln, were you? The Kölsch waiters were known for a certain abruptness, particularly to anyone ordering water. The usual line: Would you also like soap and a towel?
posted by zamboni at 5:50 AM on June 6, 2020 [1 favorite]

She put the bottle back in the fridge and filled a glass with tap water and handed it to me still with the same weird look. I was made to feel like I as drinking from the toilet.

Idiocracy was not supposed to be an instruction manual, ffs.
posted by flabdablet at 6:03 AM on June 6, 2020 [1 favorite]

I guess it shows my age, but I find myself wondering, "what the heck did we do back then?"

I remember:
- drinking out of neighbours’ hoses around the neighbourhood, usually friends’ but not always
- a time when people occasionally knocked at the door to ask to use one’s phone, bathroom, or get a glass of water (we kids were not allowed to answer the door if our parents weren’t home)
- public fountains....these sort of started to vanish around here (Scarborough) but have been making a comeback lately with bottle refill stations
- being really, tear-inducing thirsty, a state which my kids would be pretty shocked at I think because we do spend so much effort packing Contigo containers with us. Up until Covid we were trying not to use single-serve packaging. And we buy bottled water if we need to, which my frugal-minded mother would have died at. (As a grandparent she would but my kids massive frozen drinks so....lol)

As a family we try hard to not use bottled water. I bought a case for a birthday party in January and we still have a couple bottles left.

In Canada in the words of the David Suzuki Foundation, our government has taken “steps not strides” towards meeting its goal of potable water for all communities by 2021. Information about the state of our water resources is available also at Water Today.
posted by warriorqueen at 6:48 AM on June 6, 2020 [1 favorite]

IN LISBON THE BEST SNACKS ARE ACCOMPANIED BY THE BEST WATER

People drink a lot of bottled water here. But I think the tap water is the best I've ever tasted, after Manhattan's (in the 1990s).
posted by chavenet at 9:06 AM on June 6, 2020 [1 favorite]

And we buy bottled water if we need to, which my frugal-minded mother would have died at.

My mom, while a nice enough progressive lady in some regards, still goes through a case of 24 little bottles of water every couple of weeks. At one point we were in a Costco and her list was her regular case of water as well as some cans of compressed air to clean out her computer keyboard.

I asked her if growing up in the fifties she ever imagined her shopping list might someday be AIR and WATER.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 1:06 PM on June 6, 2020 [8 favorites]

@zamboni

no, IIRC it was in wittenberg
posted by brujita at 1:16 AM on June 7, 2020 [1 favorite]

An aside to this is the whole carrying around and drinking litres of water daily thing. If you're peeing every day, you're hydrated.
posted by GallonOfAlan at 1:54 AM on June 7, 2020

Yes the Germans drink bottled water, because it's carbonated. I don't have the hard plastic bottles of water, I just refill the disposable ones and keep them cold. When I have guests over, I don't keep sparkling water around but they would all prefer tap over cold tap water (I have a special pitcher of water for guests). This is not a country that is used to cold drinks being a necessity in the summer and it is very apparent.

I don't know when all yall were in Germany but it is very easy to get non-sparkling water. Never had a problem. Just say "still"or "ohne" as in ohne Kohlensäure (i.e. without gas).

One time I was meeting a friend in the park and I asked her to bring me a bottle of still-water and she brought something called "extra still", so very confused. Like to get still water you just...don't do anything to it. So how can you extra not do something? Turns out it is sparkling, just very mild (yes they love the sparkling water here so much that you can get it in different levels).
posted by LizBoBiz at 8:22 AM on June 8, 2020

Yeah, I was remembering eating lunch at college / workplace cantinas and the only bottled water available being sparkling.
posted by sukeban at 8:52 AM on June 8, 2020

An aside to this is the whole carrying around and drinking litres of water daily thing. If you're peeing every day, you're hydrated.

This is emphatically not true in my case. I can easily go from having a pee in the morning to being on the verge of passing out from low blood pressure induced by dehydration later in the day if I'm not paying attention. Happened to me yesterday.
posted by Mitheral at 7:55 AM on June 17, 2020