Friday, 4 January 2008
Go for the Tap, Skip the Bottle
« Metro Fare Increase: A Fair Assessment | Main | Surface Transportation Commission Releases Report »In 2006, Americans spent $15 billion on bottled water, making it the second most consumed beverage in the United States after Soda. Whether it’s for taste, health, or convenience we are becoming a nation that prefers our water to come in plastic bottles and cost more than gasoline.
We know, we know – so no need to remind us at ASCE that we gave Drinking Water a D+ grade on the 2005 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure and that our infrastructure is failing and could use a few extra bucks to replace inadequate and poorly maintained facilities. That’s hardly news to us. That being said, I’m going to take this opportunity to stick up for tap water and the people who make it (i.e. civil engineers). It’s not so bad an here’s why:
According to a recent article in Fast Company magazine, of the top four bottled water-consuming countries in the world, the U.S., China, Brazil, and Mexico, only the U.S. has universally reliable and safe drinking water. In Fiji, the home of the popular Fiji brand of water, the bottling plant there produces about a million bottles a day, while only about half of Fiji’s population has safe drinking water. In terms of price, you could fill one 17 oz. Evian bottle once a day for 10 years, 5 months, and 21 days with tap water for the same $1.35 the Evian would cost in a store. The average monthly water bill would be $9000 if we replaced all tap water with bottled. In other words, civil engineers do a really great job at delivering us safe and cheap water, without which, we would literally die.
Beyond the outrageous cost difference, bottled water also has some pretty serious environmental side effects. The actual collection and purification can have detrimental effects on the local environment and the gasoline used to transport the bottles as well as make them, further adds to the harm fossil fuels do to atmosphere and climate. While the same can be said for almost any manufactured product, those environmental costs seem so much higher when the product in question clearly purports to be a “healthy” option.
There is some hope, however, as Americans begin to realize that bottled water might not be a great as we once thought. To combat the effects of bottled water, American cities are leading the charge. In San Francisco earlier this year, Mayor Gavin Newsom issued an executive order banning all city purchases of bottled water. Just this week, Chicago imposed a five cent tax on bottled water as a means of encouraging green behavior. Here at ASCE’s Washington, D.C. office, we’re doing our part and early this fall stopped purchasing bottled water and switched to carafes of clear, cold, delicious tap water to serve at meetings.
So the next time you’re thirsty, think of the environment and your wallet and turn on the tap! And don’t forget who brought you that cheap drink: a civil engineer. A big thanks to all our members!
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