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June 21, 2007
New Slant on the Bottled Water Issue
Earlier this month, Chris Baskind, the editor of LighterFootstep.com, wrote a thought provoking blog posting, "5 Reasons not to Drink Bottled Water," which, while sounding like I wrote it myself, offered a new reason I had never considered before.
He explained how bottled water was not a good value, cleverly comparing it to gasoline. Chris goes on to explain, "Take, for instance, Pepsi's Aquafina or Coca-Cola's Dasani bottled water. Both are sold in 20 ounce sizes and can be purchased from vending machines alongside soft drinks -- and at the same price. Assuming you can find a $1 machine, that works out to 5 cents an ounce. These two brands are essentially filtered tap water, bottled close to their distribution point. Most municipal water costs less than one cent per gallon."
"Now consider another widely-sold liquid: gasoline. It has to be pumped out of the ground in the form of crude oil, shipped to a refinery (often halfway across the world), and shipped again to your local filling station."
"In the U.S., the average price per gallon is hovering around $3. There are 128 ounces in a gallon, which puts the current price of gasoline at fraction over 2 cents an ounce."
Chris concludes saying, "And that's why there's no shortage of companies which want to get into the business. In terms of price versus production cost, bottled water puts Big Oil to shame."
His other four reasons I am very familiar with: "No healthier than tap water"; "Bottled water means less attention to public systems"; and, "The corporatization of water," as reported by Chris Baskind, and published by LighterFootstep.com.
Posted by Stephen Betheil at June 21, 2007 09:27 PM
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