by Rebecca Adele Scarlett

Created on: August 14, 2010   Last Updated: August 16, 2010

The dangers of bottled water to the environment far exceed the dangers of the plastic in the bottles.  Most people understand that plastic is, in itself, a substance that should be used sparingly and recycled when possible, but the entire bottled water industry can have terrible effects on the environment, especially since most of the water you spend all that money on comes from the same places tap water does, and is treated the same way.

Plastic

Obviously the plastic in the water bottles is an environmental concern.  Plastic is an oil product. All the harmful effects of extracting and processing oil are made worse by the thousands of plastic bottles produced to hold bottled water.  The faster we deplete oil reserves, the faster oil companies turn to alternatives like ruining the environment of Alaska or putting ocean life in danger in order to drill. Plastic, thousands of years from now, will still be taking up space in landfills because it is not biodegradable, but the some of the chemicals used to form the plastic bottles do leach out into the soil, poisoning nearby plant life and groundwater.

Extraction

Private companies, in many cases, extract water from the exact same sources that municipalities do, which means the extraction process is duplicated. Twice as much heavy, noisy machinery disrupting wildlife, twice as much fuel and electricity needed to run the machinery, and for what? So you can pay 200, 300, or 400% the amount you would pay if you drank the very same water (from the same sources, treated the same way) from the tap? There are a few companies who actually do get water from special sources, but think about it: the image of an isolated spring in the mountains or a crystal-clear glacially-fed lake may make you think of purity and cleanliness, but in order to get the water the companies have to transport heavy machinery thousands of miles and disrupt and pollute those pristine landscapes!

Transportation

Municipal systems have pipelines in place to deliver water to your kitchen sink. Private companies ship the water hundreds or thousands of miles, burning fossil fuels and releasing toxins into the air in the process. The more oil consumed to produce gasoline and diesel fuel, the more oil wells run dry, and the more oil companies turn to alternatives...like the deep-sea drilling that resulted in the BP oil spill contaminating a huge expanse of ocean. Car exhaust, as many people know, contributes to respiratory problems in humans

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