The Sandspur

Issue date: 9/24/07 Section: Holt News

Few plastic water bottles make it into Mary Wilstorn's curbside recyclable container, the Concord, Calif., resident buys one plastic bottled water a week and simply refi lls it from the tap.

"I don't buy bottled water for the so-called `mountain spring' water," she says. "Tap water is fine by me. And if it came packaged to go, I wouldn't need to use a plastic bottle at all."

It seems like an ideal balance: plastic bottles afford convenience at a time when the
emphasis is on hydrating with water instead of sugary drinks; reusing the bottles helps address environmental concerns over pollution, overfl owing landfills and crude oil use from plastic production.

But is the practice healthy? Some reports suggest reused plastic bottles may break down
and leach chemicals into the water. Tests on reused plastic bottles also have detected nasty bacteria.

The information is confusing, and in some cases, flat-out misleading. And ultimately, striking a balance between convenience, the environment and health hinges on drawing your own conclusions.

Why not just uncap a new plastic water bottle? Isn't bottled water better than tap? Not necessarily.

The Environmental Protection Agency strictly regulates all public water; the Food and Drug Administration oversees the bottled water industry with less stringent regulations.

Until recently, few bottled water manufacturers publicly revealed their water sources. Turns out about 40 percent of bottled water is really filtered tap water.

Plastic also takes a toll on the environment, partly because it is a byproduct of petroleum refining.

The Earth Policy Institute notes that more than 10 million barrels of crude oil are used each year to make the plastic water bottles. And the National Resources Defense Council reports that an estimated 9,700 tons of carbon dioxide are emitted annually to
transport bottled water overseas to California.

The sheer numbers don't stop there. In 2006, 28.3 billion gallons of bottled water were
sold in the United States, according to a report by Beverage Marketing Corp.

About 86 percent of those bottles were thrown away, not recycled, alarming to environmentalists because a buried water bottle takes up to 1,000 years to biodegrade, says the Container Recycling Institute.

Rumors and e-mail warnings have sent up red fl ags about reusing plastic bottles. But are
they true?

Claim: A University of Idaho student's masters thesis found that reused plastic water bottles leach chemicals.

Continued...

Page 1 of 3 next >

Article Tools