The slippery slope is if bottled water is a con, aren’t all bottled and canned drinks a con?
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.
The town I grew up in had plenty of public faucets, in the town centre and in parks. This was a solved problem. Then the taps got removed and now we’ve all lost that choice.
The city I live in now has plenty of public water fountains in malls though, so we’re moving back in the right direction.
Regardless, my family avoided our w well water back up in NY since is reeked of sulfur and no fix ever worked.
This need for bottled water is relatively new. Some of us on HN lived at a time when the concept was absurd, others have grown up with bottled water.
Meeting rooms used to serve a carafe of water and glasses. Now everybody gets a bottle. So obviously they are competing.
No, obviously not, because orange juice and sodas aren't don't come out of your tap. None of them are, as the article says, a "public resource [turned] into a private commodity.” Also, everyone knows you don't need juices but that you do need water, which is why one is a utility and the other is a luxury. The way that bottled water is a con is that it's packaging something you already have and don't need more of and in a not so environmentally-friendly way.
I do agree that a lot of municipal water sources taste really off.
People who say tap water is exactly the same aren’t being entirely honest. They do the same thing and a lot of people don’t care about how it tastes but plenty do and aren’t always hurting the environment.
I use an RO (reverse osmosis) and run that through alkaline filter and that is the gold standard for me I have not tasted better water, even evian or those expensive Zip systems.
I don’t recall how good Brita is but I imagine similar to Zip in that it will get rid of most of that chlorine taste and filter out a lot of particles which is a big improvement. If I were renting I would consider Brita for the convenience of nothing to install and no ugly unit.
I wouldn’t buy bottled water for home unless very low on choices! Because it seems wasteful.
The point is that many people are convinced that tap water is unsafe, or at least that bottled water is safer. In most regions of most developed countries, that is untrue. Buying water as a gourmet experience is something different.
> The slippery slope is if bottled water is a con, aren’t all bottled and canned drinks a con?
To a degree, yes. There was a time when people used to carry around a thermos of coffee, much as people carry around their reusable water bottles today. People can buy significantly less expensive bulk packaged drinks or concentrates, then transfer it to reusable portable bottles.
I'm usually reluctant about the products that contain a lot of water. Mostly because I have cheap water at home already. Why would I buy and haul more water?
So why would I buy a detergent gel if I can buy powder? Liquid soap if I can buy a bar?