Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Say NO to bottled water

I watched a documentary today. "Tapped" exposed some of the unknown side effects of the bottled water industry. It was a very well done documentary. It looked at many effects of the bottled water industry: the sources of the water, the health concerns of the plastic used to bottle them, the quality of water and the lack of regulation and testing, the environmental concerns of the plastic not being recycled, and the refusal of the industry to allow even a fractionally small tax on the product to help pay for the costs of recycling all those bottles.

I won't be able to do the movie justice, so I urge all of you to watch it. It's on Netflix streaming for free and runs about an hour and 15 minutes.

Below is a trailer from Youtube for the film. (Make sure to pause the music player on the right.)



I myself, who try to avoid plastic bottles whenever possible, have vowed to not buy or use these bottled waters and have decided to cut back all support of the parent companies of these companies as well, Coca-Cola (Dasani), Pepsi (Aquafina), and Nestle (Pure Life, Perrier, Poland Spring, Arrowhead, Deer Park, Ozarka, Ice Mountain, S. Pellegrino). 

This won't be easy, as people that know me, know I have had an addiction to Pepsi since I was a kid. Well, it's over. If I just have to have an unhealthy beverage, I'll have a Dr. Pepper can. I understand that not everyone is going to take this the same way. I do believe that if people cut way back on their unneccesary consumption of bottled water, it could become a responsible business for emergency and natural disasters where it can be very beneficial if regulated and tested properly to ensure quality.

This is short, I know, but I may add content later. I just needed to get something out while it was fresh in my head.