1. Not a good value. Bottled water costs you, the consumer, about 5 cents an ounce (assuming it’s a 20 ounce bottle that costs $1) compared to the less than 1 cent per gallon of municipal water.
2. Not healthier than tap water. Tap water is much more tightly regulated because municipal water falls under the oversight of the Environmental Protection Agency which regularly tests water quality.
3. Bottled water = waste. Bottled water produces up to 1.5 million tons of plastic waste per year.
4. Bottled water means less attention to public systems. Some affluent people switch to a reliance on bottled water because of defects in their local tap water. This prevents people from taking action and solving the problem to improve their local source.
5. The corporation of water. According to the documentary film Thirst, water is considered the “Blue Gold” of this century. This movie demonstrates “the rapid worldwide privatization of municipal water supplies, and the effect these purchases are having on local economies. Water is one of human’s most precious resources and multinational corporations are interfering with the control and access of it.
Sources:
http://www.sustainablefootprint.org/en/cms/gebruikerscherm.asp?itemId=393
