Save the Planet: DRINK TAP WATER!!!

One of the best ways to help save our planet is to start drinking tap water.

Forget the bottle. USE THE TAP


By drinking tap water you are saving not only the materials and energy resoursces to bottle the water (PLASTIC!) and prevent all that waste from ending up in our landfills FOREVER. (Don't believe its all being recycled). Plus don't forget all the transportation costs and pollution to get that bottled water to you.


I reuse a beverage bottle I bought nearly six months ago to carry my water to work. (REUSE. comes before recycle in the saying--reduce ,reuse, and recycle). There are many reusable options to tote your water to and fro.


If you really can't tolerate the taste of you tap water, consider tap water filter or even a filter pitcher.


Remember REDUCE -- REUSE --RECYCLE to save the planet for our children.

Step 1 Find a suitable container

The best option is to reuse glass beverage bottles, however if you can't there are multiple options that exist on the market from cheap plastic models to lexan containers and stainless steel bottles.

If your not overly concerned about chemical leaching from plastic bottles, refill used bottled water (or soda or similar) containers over and over again. I can't believe those chemicals aren't leaching out of the many, many plastic containers we constantly are using, anywhere from personal care products to food packaging, etc.

Comments

[teaguen]

Here in UAE, out water is not filtered, at least thats what i heard from my perants, i'm not sure if this is true, but just saying :)

[mocksoup]

Use a good quality filter or you have no idea what you are taking into your body. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/13/us/13waterside.html?_r=1 We buy the reverse osmosis filtered municipal water from our local grocery store (using reusable jugs) because the pipes in our home leach metal into the water. It's 39 cents a gallon. We use an instapure filter for what we cook with.

[YoHurricane]

Not true. In the USA, your water supplier (if you're on public water) is required to send you a "customer confidence report" every year, with details of the water testing and any violations they've had during the year. Plus, all those home water filters? Well, they assume you're getting water that's already potable. Read the certification documentation - they're not capable of making non-potable water potable, nor do they claim to do so (though they might want you to think so).

[guitarmonk15]

Truthfully, my filtered tap water tastes better than the bottles of water from my local supermarket (Wegman's).

[Joe22c]

For those concerned with safety in reusing plastic water bottles, the simple solution is reuse glass water bottles.

For those conerned with traces of heavy metal in tap water, use a water filter.

For those conerned with germs, use an electric water boiler.

Done :)

I've been doing this since my 1st year in university because bottled water is so damn expensive, but tap water on campus is just too sketchy. Also, I'm an environmental nut who would rather reuse something rather than recycle it rather than throw it in the garbage. Hell I was an environmental nut before it was popular/cool to be "green" - hell I was green before it was even called green.

[linuxmom]

Bravo! 
"Green" is a mindset, not a trend or fad. I admit to reusing plastic bottles, but my routine is to take my tea to work in the glass bottle of commercial tea I bought nearly a  year ago and then refill it with water in the afternoon! And that is part of my "green" lifestyle.........

[triciab1212]

me too. I've been using glass juice/tea bottles for years now. It bums me out when my lids rust out :( I use them to tote my coffee to work (slip the bottle in a coozi/bottle carrier) so I don't burn my fingers and it doesn't spill. I just throw it in my bag to go to work and I don't have to worry about it (unlike travel mugs you have to babysit during transport). Works great. I just used a glass bottle to bring water boating yesterday. I want my cookie now....lol

[sumrandom1]

well if you read the bottle it actually states, purified water, and do you know what technically classifies as purified water, TAP WATER, so they bottle tap and resell it to you, evil corporation that coca-cola always ahead of the competition with its crazy marketing ideas, "why not just bottle tap water and charge for it?" BUAHAHAHAHHAHAHA BBUUWWWAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

[tulekah]

no one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the american public.

[a_traceur]

Don't tell them then no one will ever buy my water!

[michelle310]

I really would not recommend drinking tap water because of all the pharmaceuticals contained in it, including fluoride. PLEASE do the research to know what is being put in your tap water before you decide to put it in your body. Here are a few links: http://www.holisticmed.com/fluoride/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_fluoridation#Effects
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-03-10-cities-water_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip]

[BtheBike]

..What you do for water Michelle?. USAtoday and wiki are your sources? hmm.. . Not all tap water is the same . Rather than doing internet conspiracy 'research' ,why not test your water and filter it yourself ? I agree in part that fluoride is over used in the west . I spend 5+ years drinking unfluorinated water in rural AK and my teeth are great . But all water was heavily chlorinated on site for safety . Since chlorine is a gas, I let the drinking water sit out in a pitcher overnight . And guess what ..? No chlorine left . You can also drip collect from the tap . By the time you've collected a gallon of slow drips, the chlorine has off-gassed. We don't have a strong enough gut flora and acid anymore in the west to handle untreated water. I know . I have friends from Burma who can drink it all day but they will warn me not to. Or take a trip to South America . Unless you're climb peaks and fresh collect snows before animals pee in it etc. , you can be Sure there is something in your water ,like it or not. Even rainwater has metals and high acid now. Chlorine is meant to kill those something before they get into You by design . I'm interested to know your 'solution' to pharmaceuticals since they are in the ground water before the tap ,so even if you avoid the tap anything you eat (yes "organic" too) will have trace amounts of what you think you are avoiding . But , yes these things are filterable .

[bwpatton1]

Umm I have been to many water plants and ALL I have seen being put in water pumped fresh out of the ground is chlorine, or small amounts of concentrated bleach for sterilization......

[michelle310]

well, that's reason enough to NOT put that in my body! even though there's no escaping from the contaminants we are all exposed to- I'd do what I can to avoid what i know to be harmful to my body... :) Hope you do the same..

[DELETED_ARealNigga]

(removed by author or community request)

[michelle310]

Yeah- & what about all the pharmaceuticals found in tap water, like drugs for epilepsy and thats not even scratching the surface! check this out: http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/mostread/s_556442.html
VERY informative FACTS! you can't simply filter out these pollutants in our water

[evan_124]

note the comment in the picture "regularly tested" tap water. so it kinda makes me think this person isn't just blindly drinking poison

[CaptainGroovy]

The Only problem with this is you have to have decent tasting water before filter to have something good tasting afterwards. If you are like me the tap water to start with tastes bad. I have spend several thousand dollars on a whole house filter system and while it has removed the smell and improved the taste to the point that I can cook with it and coffee and tea tastes OK, but to drink it straight no chance in hell. So until the basic quality of the water where I live I still drink my water straight up from a bottle. I think it would be better if some of the premium bottle water companies to sell larger bottles say 1 gallon instead of 1 liter

[WallaceTheSane]

I have absolutely no problems with my teeth. I never have. (knock on wood). I only brush my teeth a few times a week (whenever I remember, or they start to feel like they need it.) Aside from the fact that I don't really eat much candy, I have always attributed my good dental health to tap water. I never drink bottled water (it's absurd!). In many areas of the U.S. the tap water is fluoridated. The government does this to save money. It costs something like 97 cents per person to do this, and it saves millions in public health costs.  I drink tap water like a madman.

[walksthewinds]

DO YOU REALLY KNOW THE QUALITY OF YOUR BOTTLED WATER?  YOU MIGHT WANT TO REALLY CHECK AND SEE HOW LAX THE STANDARDS ON BOTTLED WATER ARE COMPARIED TO TAP WATER.  DEPENDING ON WHERE YOU LIVE YOU MIGHT BE IN FOR QUITE A SUPRISE.

[lil jon168]

u need 2 change the name to "save the planet,kill yourself."

[awang8]

But... But... My house is 20 years old! Just look at the pipes and you'll never wish you drunk tap water EVER!!! Also, filters don't do a good job at removing all those nasty germs. Try boiling filtered water.

[Solderguy]

Well my house is typical 50 year old house and it's build like Fort Knox. The 50+ year old pipes work as good as new,and aren't rusty or degraded.

[awang8]

Saw open a pipe. It grows alot of mould and is amazing that the tap water is still clear.

[bwpatton1]

What kind of pipes do you have in your house? We had galvanized then replaced it with PVC, but pipes cannot grow mold unless water sits in there without moving, which the water in pipes is always pressurized, mold cannot grow without air, our pipes had rust in them if thats what you mean

[Solderguy]

Well there was that time the water was yellow. :D It was gross!

[awang8]

Eww... That must have sucked...

[allstarn07]

I saw a Pen and teller special on tap water. The taste is all mental, you have trained your brain to think that tap is impure, so it makes you taste it wrong. Have a friend bring 3 glasses of water, 2 bottled and one tap. Try to find the tap. I cant.

[jeff-o]

Having tasted tap water in a number of different cities, I can tell you for sure that it DOES taste different depending on where you are.

[DELETED_ARealNigga]

(removed by author or community request)

[jeff-o]

It has a flavour, I assume? :P

[TheGoodLife]

I ALWAYS drink tap water. You get my 5 stars!

[linuxmom]

Thanks............And I final did notice the Google ad for Fiji Water!!!!! What IRONY!

[youngarchi]

great post! the ironic thing is that there was an ad for bottled water at the top of the page! ha.

[=SMART=]

There was a panorama program a while back emphasizing the damage caused by the transportation of these things to the environment. there unbelievably bad.

[linuxmom]

Cool. Love it. Where did you find this????

[=SMART=]

just google image search bottled water

[lawizeg]

ONe thing is, I'm like the only green person in my family, and well, everyone else chugs 5 bottled waters while staying in the same place. I understand using the bottle to walk around and go places, but they could use a glasss at least. I always tell them to but being the youngest...and at 12 years...well it doesnt make a difference.

[jillg]

its the same with my family, but im persuading them to the benefits of a green life

[linuxmom]

Keep persuading---every little bit helps!