What is your bottled vs. tap water consumption?

[eeyore]

Poll question: What is your bottled vs. tap water consumption?

Lately I've been hearing and seeing reports that environmental groups are concerned with the bottled water consumption in the US. The issue mainly surround the plastic bottles that water comes in, and the notion that most people don't recycle those bottles. Another issue that seems to be popping up is that many researchers believe that bottled water is no safer, and perhaps less safe than tap water.

So, what is your consumption level of bottled water?

If you drink mostly bottled water, is it out of convenience or out of concern for your health?

Finally, where do you stand on the debate of bottled vs. tap water?

Thanks!

[madeline_con]

1. My kid's last Science project found that e. coli grows faster in...

bottled water.

[OhioChick]

4. Wouldn't you think that

there would be nothing for it to host off of?

On edit to add: Might I ask how you obtained this e. coli for the science project?

[eeyore]

5. I recently discovered that Dasani brand water is made by Coca Cola.

:tinfoilhat:

[REP]

15. Yup; Just Filtered Tap Water

Nothing "special" about it and it doesn't taste that good, either.

[Warpy]

30. Same here

Water comes out of the tap smelling like Clorox and is full of minerals. The filter seems to get rid of most of it and my tea tastes fine. Unfiltered tap water is weird.

Bottled water is a waste of money, although I did use it on Cape Cod, where the military was contaminating all the town wells.

[Neil Lisst]

29. tell him the bottle goes in at the OTHER end!!

[Catherine Vincent]

2. mostly tap water through a filter

[CornField]

3. Yup, same here

[5X]

6. I bottle my tap water and then drink it.

Seriously, I reuse bottled water bottles to hold tap water.

[eeyore]

9. I sometimes do that too.

:toast:

[TalkingDog]

27. Yup, me too. I have a well and the water is pretty tasty. n/t

[ProdigalJunkMail]

50. we do the same thing...

but our well-water was incredibly good...deep well...about a thousand feet...mmmmmmm

sP

[toddaa]

7. Bottled water is about privatization of a natural resource

Kinda adds weight to the old "property is theft" argument, doesn't it?

[shanti]

43. i never thought of it that way

:think: that's exactly what it is.

[MazeRat7]

8. Other:I use a filtration system at the house and carry water out with me.

edit: Unless I am camping... then I use a filter pump, or boil, or iodine tabs... depending on the source (sometimes all three) but that is a whole different topic *grin

[mduffy31]

10. I live on Lake Superior

We have the worlds largest source of fresh water, and our city does a fantastic job with our city water.

[REP]

11. I'm a Kidney Patient with Immune Problems

I've been advised by my doctors to drink bottled water because my immune system is pretty wrecked. I live in an area where there is MBTE in the water supply, and the permissable bacteria load may be too much for me, so it's sterile water for me.

[GoneOffShore]

12. Mostly tap

but we've got two Brita filter pitchers. Not so much for health as for taking the odor out. Philly tap water is pretty good.

[silverweb]

13. Inadequate choices.

Not all of us who drink "bottled" water buy it in disposable, individual bottles. I have stackable, reusable, 3-gallon jugs that I take to "The Water Lady," who has a sophisticated purification system for city tap water.

It costs me 35 cents/gallon and the taste alone is more than worth it. And no disposable plastic bottles littering the place.

[eeyore]

16. The issue I'm hearing debated is specifically about bottled water.

You fall into the filtered water brigade, and have thus evolved beyond the issue.

Drink up! :toast:

[silverweb]

45. I like the sound of that....

"...evolved beyond." :D

Maybe there's still hope....

:toast:

[Initech]

14. I'll never, ever pay money for a bottle of water.

[DemGa]

17. Tap water through a filter

Too bad it doesn't filter out fluoride; neither PUR nor Brita can do so.

[onehandle]

18. All bottled water. All bottles recycled.

We get giant spring water bottles delivered to our kitchen door, twice a month.

Also drink a fair amount of Avian and Pellegrino. All bottles recycled.

[KyuzoGator]

19. Tap water in Orlando is undrinkable.

Tastes like chlorinated pool water. You have to run it through a filter just to make it taste neutral.

[Jane Austin]

20. Ditto on the filtered water.

We have a reverse osmosis gizmo under our sink.

I don't want all that chlorine (nor do I want our dogs to have it) and anyway, since we moved out of town, we're on a well and I just don't trust it.

When we lived in Central Austin, a couple of times a year the lake turned over and our tap water smelled and tasted like dead fish for a week or so. Ick.

I'm kind of hyper-sensitive to taste, and the tastes in most tap water tends to make me gag.

[nonconformist]

21. Mostly unfiltered tap

Thinking about getting a filtration device.

[Benhurst]

24. I drink mostly tap water; but I love Gerolsteiner from Germany.

If it didn't cost $1.75 a bottle, I'd probably drink more than I do.

[MuseRider]

22. Bottled, our water sucks.

I use the same bottle over and over and fill it up from a big plastic container of filtered water.

[longship]

23. Reverse Osmosis filter.

Bottled water is worse than tap water. At least I know where my tap water comes from.

[conflictgirl]

33. That's what I do too

I have a reverse osmosis faucet-mount filter in my kitchen. I refill a glass jug and keep it in my fridge so that I always have cold water.

Dow Chemical HQ is in my local area and so I don't trust the water supply (based on research, not just knee-jerk reaction). Also, the tap water is very heavily chlorinated and I don't like the feeling like I'm drinking out of a swimming pool. I also distrust a lot of the bottled water companies. If I must buy bottled water when I'm out, I try to buy one that comes from a spring (Fiji water is my favorite, and I reuse the bottles) rather than the ones that are just municipal water supplies run through a filter (Aquafina, Dasani, etc).

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

25. Depending On The Township, Tap Water Should Be Just Fine.

I drink bottled water rarely, and usually it's only because I ran out of coke and the only thing left in the fridge is been around for a while poland spring mini bottles from some get together or another.

As far as the debate goes, the plastic part of the debate is meaningless to me overall. But the quality aspect has sound science behind it. Many bottled waters are equal to or worse than standard tap water.

In the end of it all though, bottled, tap, seltzer, I don't give a rats ass at the end of the day what someone drinks. When it comes down to it, my ass is drinkin my coke anyway :)

[donco6]

26. There's no reason to drink bottled water in Denver.

When I'm out at a fast food joint, I might order a bottle. Or 7-11 and I'm thirsty. But that's about it.

[Neil Lisst]

28. I drink only Diet Coke. Water? I get it in my Diet Coke!

I think it's the aspartame and the aluminum that give it that addictive taste!

[politicat]

31. Mountain spring water.... direct from the tap.

Well, not quite. It goes through two filters after it leaves the city's pipes (a house filter to catch any particulates and some of the mineral content before they bung up the household pipes, and a filter on the fridge to grab the chlorine) before I drink it, but for the most part, it's pretty much the way it came down from the mountains.

It's nice living at the top of the water stack - there's not much above us that pollutes our water sources, and the city doesn't screw with it so much that it tastes funny. It's mostly just hard, so we filter to preserve the water heater and the piping, and because I really don't like the chlorine taste.

We happily keep the fluoride, however. I've seen the dental results of living without fluoride, and I would really rather not have dentures in the next ten years.

We occasionally drink a bubbly bottled water (Perrier, San Pelligrino, Arrowhead or similar) and we keep ten 1 gallon bottles of Crystal Spring (or some such) around for emergencies.

When we need bottled water (for the car, or because we won't be at home and our digestion is easily upset) we buy a brand that donates the profits back to NGOs that work to provide safe water for those who don't have it (and I'm drawing a blank at the moment on the name.)

Mostly, we have cups and bottles that are washable and re-usable. I don't like the little disposable bottles because they're noisy and ugly and made of plastic. Our reusables are metal, glass and lexan, which are pretty non-reactive.

[pnorman]

32. Tap water, but I use a Brita purification pitcher for beverage use.

Downtown Seattle tap water used to be GOOD --- about 20 years ago. Not now, but it tastes pretty good from that pitcher. I buy fairly expensive coffee beans (including Blue Mountain), and going that extra step makes sense. Several years ago, I used to buy gallon jugs of bottled water, that tasted the same as my Brita tap water. I'm probably saving a few bucks a month now, but mainly it's a lot more convenient.

pnorman

[iamthebandfanman]

34. im weird

i tend to drink water from bottles but cook with tap water.
dunno y i do both.
talk about a waste of money.

guess its the convenience of the bottle. *Shrugs*

[Cleita]

35. I have well water that I don't trust.

So I drink bottled water, wash in the tap water. I also use the tap water for cooking after I boil it for awhile.

[Mountainman]

36. I have a well and a purification system. I pump my own water and store it

in a big tank on the hill. I get good water pressure from gravity. My only costs are the filters and electricity to pump the water a few hours a week. The filtered water tastes as good as bottled water. I have had it tested and it is really pure and safe to drink.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

37. My tap is fine for me

I do filter it but other than that I'm OK with it.

I also use nice reusable bottles that I fill and take traveling with me.

[Yollam]

38. For my health - I drink filtered tap water.

It helps that San Francisco has some of the best municipal water in the US, but I don't like bottled water because it's unregulated and not necessarily clean.

[Blue_In_AK]

39. Anchorage has great tap water...

better than anything I've ever tasted bottled.

[muse]

40. 90% bottled. Recyle the bottles. nt

[Devlzown]

41. mostly tap water

I hardly ever drink water, but if I do it's usually tap water.

[LaPera]

42. Only filtered water from my well and bottled water frequently in my truck...

and I take it into restaurants with me!

[in_cog_ni_to]

44. I can't remember the last time I drank tap water.

The thought of it makes me ill. I hate the taste and G-d only knows what's in it. Godley water? Tritium? Those people had NO IDEA they were drinking radiation contaminated water. I refuse to drink tap water. I don't trust corporations and the environmental regulation or lack thereof.

[eeyore]

46. Kick for more data...

n/t

[gollygee]

47. I have one of those ceramic crocks that you use refillable bottles for

I fill the bottles at a water treatment place.

[AlCzervik]

48. i have a filter in my fridge for the water and ice maker, thats what i

drink, i only buy bottled if i'm out somewhere and i'm really thirsty.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

49. mostly tap...with a caveat

We have always used filters for our water...you know, the under-sink kind...makes for a decent drink...and yes, check the label on some of that bottled water..."Product of the Atlanta Municipal Water System" or something similar on a lot of them...

sP

[Nabia2004]

51. I drink only tap water.- but carry it in a plastic bottle - nt

[bigwillq]

52. Mostly bottled.

The tap water up where I live does not taste so good.

[MadHound]

53. While I filter my water through a Brita filter

I still and all drink very little bottled water. I filter my water because there is enough chlorine in it to give a smell and taste, which I don't like. Also, there are times when they're working on the water system somewhere, and we seem to wind up with lots of rust in the water for a short period of time.

About the only time I drink bottled water is when I'm at an event where no tap water is available, or when I'm traveling.

[Samurai_Writer]

54. I drink mostly vitaminwater by Glaceau

I live way up in the mountains and we are on well water. It tastes HORRIBLE. Although I use filtered pitchers, I still don't like to drink much of it. I use it in cooking and give the filtered tap water to my cats as well. But the vitaminwaters have well, vitamins and stuff. And they have fruit flavors too. I hate the taste of plain water, always have.

[rpgamerd00d]

55. FLAWED POLL: You need: "I drink filtered Tap Water"

Brita Water Pitchers rule.

:D

[warrens]

56. Most bottled water is BS

You can do the same at home with a coffee filter, and better with advanced filters. It's probably necessary in some parts of the country (when I lived in Florida, you had to have bottled water; tap water was undrinkable and could make kids sick in most of Tampa) but in most places, it's no worse than bottled water, at 1/100th the cost.

[Hosnon]

57. I drink tap for the flouride:) nt

[NaturalHigh]

58. We drink tap water, but...

we have a water cooler with a filter. I just fill it up, and we have hot or cold filtered tap water.

[Ufomammut]

59. Tap is good enough for me...

"And so say all of us, Tap into America!" :)

[northzax]

60. i drink beer and coffee

water is for suckers.

as the old song goes...

water is alright in tay,
for fish and things that swim in rivers.

[JitterbugPerfume]

61. neither

I have a reverse osmosis filter