The Greening of Gavin

In Defence Of Tap

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I love tap water, in fact that is all I drink. There are none of those trumped up claims attached to tap water except that it is safe and cheap to drink. Even if you don’t think the fluoride that they add to it is any good for you, you can simply filter it out with little effort.

If you are some of the few fortunate humans on the planet to be connected to clean drinking water, then there is no better place to go if you are thirsty. Once you have had tap, you won’t go back!

On the other hand, there is bottled water, which is a product that is usually no cleaner than the water that flows from your tap. The so called demand for this product is purely manufactured by beverage companies trying to make a buck, and sucker us along for the ride.

So what is the real story about bottled water, and that of our tap water? Well, I did some research and found a few videos that explain it all.

Firstly to lay down the foundations, here is The Story of Bottled Water by Annie Leonard.

Next is one of my favourites, Tear Of a Cloud, by Do The Green Thing. When life’s a bitch, grab a Mitch!  This is a parody of manufactured demand.

Then finally, there is another little ditty about Tap (water that is), called Tip, Top, Tap and is a little like a Noel Coward song! Again this video is by Do The Green Thing.

If you are not convinced that bottled water is actually worse for us, the planet, and uses valuable resources that we are quickly running out of, then here are some stats from Green Times who source part of the data from The Australasian Bottled Water Institute Inc which is an industry lobby group:

  • Australians spent $385 million on 250 million litres of bottled water in 2006. 
  • It takes 3.4 megajoules of energy to make a typical one-litre plastic bottle — or 850 million megajoules to bottle 250 million litres of water. 
  • A barrel of oil has 6000 megajoules, so it takes 141,666 barrels of oil to make the PET plastic. 
  • The energy required to bring bottled water to market — converting the PET plastic into bottles, bottling the water, transporting and refrigerating the bottled water — means the amount of oil required equals 20 per cent of the bottle’s volume. 
  • For 250 million litres of water, which equals 50 million litres of oil — 314,465 barrels of oil. 
  • In addition to the water in bottles, twice as much water is also used in the production process. So that every litre sold represents three litres of water. 
  • Drinking water out of a tap uses only 0.2 megajoules according to EPA Victoria.
Tap is clean, tap is ultra cheap, and best of all most homes have a supply of it.  All you need is a glass or cup to put it in which you can reuse, over and over again.
Ahh, so refreshing!

The Truth About Bottled Water

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Just as a follow up post to my ‘Bottled Water is Unnecessary‘ post last week, I found this excellent video by U.S comedians Penn and Teller. Titled “The Truth About Bottled Water”, it busts the myths and misconceptions about tap water and the so called benefits of bottled water through a series of taste tests and research. People have simply been conned by advertising and beverage companies!Have a look and make your own mind up. Note: there is a little bit of swearing in the clip.

Bottled Water Is Unnecessary

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I know, I know. Just about every man and their chook has done a post on bottled water, but the one thing remains and that is that I have not.

Here are a few eye opening facts. In 2006, according to the Department of Environment and Climate Change, Australians drank 250 million litres of bottled water, which took a massive 456,131 barrels of oil to package and created 60,000 tonnes of GHG through its production and transportation. That is a big waste of energy, non-renewable resources, and with the average bottle of water costing about A$2.50 per 600ml, that is approx 416 million bottles at a cost of A$1.04 billion.

Here is the kicker. I figured out that if all that bottled water was replaced with tap water instead (@ 88.335 cents for a thousand litres), which is perfectly drinkable in all Australian cities, then it would only have cost $220,837. Compared to $1.04 billion, that is quite a saving. So that means that 600ml of tap water would cost you $0.00053 plus the glass to drink it from. Now that is a deal and a half.

So next time when you are out at a restaurant, and ask for water, ask for tap instead. It probably won’t cost you a cent and you will be saving resources to boot. Instead of lining the pockets of a massive corporation, who are ripping you off to the max, you can help keep your city’s water infrastructure intact for the future.

Now for some cool movies: The first video quotes global figures and make you think.

This video just shows how rediculous drinking bottled water can be, and how some peoples perception of it is. It is titled “Tears of a Cloud” and made by dothegreenthing.com

Enjoy!