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Imagine there are two brands of the same product that are almost identical in quality, but
one costs 3,000 times more than the other… which do you buy?
Not exactly a brain-buster, I know, but millions of Americans fail this test every day.
What is this exotic product with the power to warp people’s financial sense beyond
recognition?
Water.
According to the EPA, the average price of tap water in America is approximately $2 per
1,000 gallons.
Which means that a 16 oz. glass of water will run you about 3 hundredths of a cent--and
it’s delivered right into your house, on demand, 24 hours a day.
So how did it become reasonable--fashionable, even--to buy the same product at prices higher
than milk or gasoline?
Since the early 20th century, when advances in engineering and chemistry enabled cities
to process and distribute safe, clean drinking water to millions of residents, bottled water
has been seen primarily as an indulgence of wealthy elites.
However, in the last couple decades, bottled water has had a remarkable resurgence, thanks
largely to rising concerns over the health risks of sugary drinks.
As sales of Coke and Pepsi have declined, these companies are trying to make up the
difference by encouraging consumers to buy bottled water as a healthy alternative.
And it’s working.
In 1975, the average American only drank about a gallon and a half of bottled water a year.
Today, that figure is around 30 gallons!
In 2016, sales of bottled water surpassed even soda, but tap water remains bottled water’s
biggest competitor, with a price advantage that seems hard to beat.
So bottlers’ marketing strategy is to present their product as safer, tastier, and more
convenient.
But is it?
Municipal systems typically draw their water from sources like wells, rivers, lakes, and
reservoirs.
Chemicals are added that bond with dirt and particles which settle at the bottom of the
tank.
The water is then filtered through sand, gravel and charcoal, and one last round of chemicals
is added--like chlorine to kill any remaining parasites, and fluoride to prevent tooth decay.
Most systems are quality tested dozens of times a day in accordance with the Safe Drinking
Water Act, and notwithstanding some recent tragic contaminations, it’s considered to
be overwhelmingly safe.
So, where does bottled water come from?
Well, about a third of it comes from the same place!
Many companies just fill their bottles from municipal taps after a quick extra filtration.
After all, 90% of the treatment has already been done by the city, and they’re selling
it for less than a penny a gallon!
The rest of bottled water comes from natural sources like springs and groundwater, which
can be even cheaper, depending on local regulations.
In California, Nestlé pays the Forest Service about $525 annually to extract over 30 million
gallons--which they will eventually sell for 192,000 times more!
While there are health and safety regulations placed on the bottled water industry, they
are actually less stringent than municipal ones.
Bottled water companies are typically allowed to do most of their own testing, and unlike
municipal water systems, when they do find contaminates, they’re often not forced to
do recalls or even alert the public.
If bottled water isn’t necessarily safer than tap, what about the taste?
Well, this may depend on where you live.
Tap water in some cities, like Los Angeles, tends to get poor scores on taste surveys,
even though tests show it to be as clean--or cleaner--than bottled water.
New York’s tap water, on the other hand, routinely beats the pants off bottled water
in blind taste tests.
The difference has less to do with quality and more where it comes from and how it’s
treated.
Convenience outside of the house may be the only contest that bottled water’s got locked up.
12 ounces of ice cold H2O prepackaged in a lightweight container you can toss in a trash
can is definitely easier than hunting around for a public water fountain.
But that convenience comes at a pretty steep social cost.
About 3.8 million tons of plastic are used to make water bottles every year, and only
a fraction of that gets recycled.
Manufacturing them uses the equivalent of 17 million barrels of oil and 3 times as much
water as actually goes into them.
All in all, it’s estimated that bottled water takes about 2000 times more energy to
produce and distribute than tap water.
Now, there are some (rare) situations where bottled water makes sense.
For instance, anytime a natural disaster compromises municipal supplies, residents have no choice
but to rely on bottled water.
Besides, we drink way too much La Croix to make any judgements.
Is it Croy?
I thought it was Cwah.
Cwah.
Croy.
La Croix.
Croix.
Not Croy.
Not Rue de la Croy.
Croix.
And if you’ve ever been told by your city to boil your water before drinking, you know
that city water systems do sometimes fail safety standards.
This can be caused by pollutants seeping into the groundwater, or storms washing waste into
reservoirs, but the primary culprit is crumbling infrastructure.
Most of the municipal water systems in the U.S. were built about a hundred years ago,
and designed to last about a hundred years, so today America has literally millions of
miles of water pipes that need fixing or replacing.
And with federal funding for infrastructure at historically low levels, cities are scrambling
to find the money to do it.
That’s essentially what happened in Flint, Michigan in 2014.
City officials tried to save money by switching to a new water source, and then tried to save
more money by not using corrosion inhibitors in the aging lead pipes.
Neurotoxic heavy metals seeped into the drinking water, affecting hundreds of thousands of
residents.
Other cities are trying to avoid Flint’s fate by raising rates to generate maintenance
funds, leading to an overall increase of 30% in the average American water bill over the
last decade.
That’s a faster increase over inflation than gasoline or groceries!
But even if you live in a place like Austin, where water bills have skyrocketed over 150%
in recent years, it’s still much, much, much cheaper than bottled water.
If you’re still worried about the safety or flavor of your town’s water, you can
request a Water Quality Report from your water company to find out where it comes from and
how its treated.
Or buy a simple water filter for your home and a reusable bottle to carry with you, effectively
manufacturing the same product yourself that sells in stores for thousands of times the
price.
The problem of how to deliver clean drinking water to millions of consumers was effectively
solved a hundred years ago.
When you buy a bottle of water, you’re only solving Coke’s problem of how to make up
for lagging soda sales.
And that’s our two cents!
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