OK, I'm sure there are counter-examples to just about ever rule. However I think it's accurate to say that the vast majority of the population buy bottled water for the water, not the bottles. My point stands.
Yes - and I think that the number of people who buy bottled water exclusively for home drinking are vastly outnumbered by all of us who buy it when we're out because it's convenient and not full of HFCS/sugar/evil.
I think it's strange to not make that comparison. We accept the utility of bottled soda but not bottled water? What kind of fucked up consumerist world do you live in?
I buy bottled water as a drink on the go. I'm perfectly happy drinking tap water that's been bottled. If I've got the choice between a fizzy drink or water, I usually prefer water, thanks.
When I was a kid in the 80s there used to be public water fountains, now there aren't. I think we're all a little more germ paranoid these days too, so i doubt people would even use them if given a choice to buy a bottle of water for a £1 or use a fountain for free.
I mean the guy argues against himself:
Compared with the water needs of agriculture and energy production, the bottled water business is barely responsible for a trickle; in Michigan, it accounts for less than 1 percent of total water usage
The only thing I wish was better was that it wasn't plastic bottles, but I always recycle them if I can.
This isn't true in my experience. I've witnessed plenty of people in wealthy US suburbs that stock bottled water at home and even stock up on vacation.
People don't buy bottled water for the bottles, otherwise they'd throw away the water, and keep the bottles. Instead they keep/use the water and throw away the bottles. The water is what they pay money for, you can get that for free at home.
OK, bottled water of any sort is a different issue. I don't use it much myself but could it just be a generational thing? Old people carried their own water bottle so they don't see the point. Young people may be accustomed to the convenience.
What argument are we having? If people would drink the water out of the tap, or drink it out of a Nestle bottle, they're drinking the same amount of water. Bottled water may be inefficient of other resources, may cause pollution, but it doesn't waste water.
Great video. While I do buy bottled water occasionally (i.e. I'm in a place where I don't have convenient access to tap water) it's very very rare. I am constantly amazed how many people actually pay for water.
In college (now about 10 years ago) I did a blind taste test study for a statistics class project and my results agreed with what they said in the video. Most people, including my roommate who was the biggest bottled water drinker I knew preferred the tap water to bottled, and yet after he saw even his own results it changed nothing. I just don't get it.
The people making the bulk of the money have the greater role in taking responsibility. It's always been like this. And by all comparisons and contrasts, buying water in plastic bottles is a losing proposition. 99% of consumers lose money by buying water this way.
Opinion pieces like this one generally frame the choice as “bottled water” vs “water from tap.” For me, these don’t compete. I buy a bottle of water when I’m on the go and want a portable drink. There isn’t a faucet in my car, or in a park, or on the street. Indeed I know the bottle of water probably came from a faucet.
If there weren’t bottled water I wouldn’t drink from the tap instead. I would buy a bottle of something less healthy, like Coke.
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