Bottled water feels convenient and clean, but it is one of the most expensive ways to buy something that comes nearly free from your kitchen tap. Beyond the price, every bottle is a piece of single-use plastic, and most are not recycled. Looking at the real cost, in dollars and in waste, makes the case for switching almost by itself.
The Price Markup Is Staggering
Tap water costs a fraction of a penny per gallon. Bottled water can cost hundreds or even thousands of times more for the same amount. A household that buys cases of bottled water can easily spend hundreds of dollars a year on something that flows from the faucet for almost nothing. Often the bottled product is just filtered tap water anyway.
The Plastic Problem
Americans go through tens of billions of plastic water bottles a year, and a large share end up in landfills, incinerators, or the environment rather than recycled. Producing and shipping all that plastic burns energy and oil before the bottle is even filled.
Make Tap Water Appealing
If you reach for bottled water out of taste or worry, a few cheap fixes solve it.
- A filter pitcher or faucet filter improves taste and removes common contaminants for pennies per gallon.
- A good reusable bottle kept full and cold makes grabbing water as easy as grabbing a plastic one.
- A splash of citrus or some sliced fruit makes plain water more interesting if that is the hang-up.
Know Your Water
If you genuinely worry about your tap water, your utility publishes an annual quality report, and home test kits are inexpensive. In most American cities the tap water is held to strict standards, often tighter than those for bottled water.
Keep a few bottles around for emergencies if you like, but for everyday drinking, a filter and a reusable bottle pay for themselves fast and spare a stream of plastic from the trash.