Many municipalities across the US have poor quality or non drinkable water, and many more do not offer public access to water fountains. Thus, bottled water is a huge market in the US as free facilities are not always available.
I’m Canadian and I legitimately cannot recall the last time I bought bottled or canned water. I bring my two 18.9L jugs to the store to fill them with filtered water for $5 and that’s the extent of my “bottled water” consumption. Elsewhere, I carry a metal water bottle I can get refilled anywhere for free.
Absolutely, I’m not stating that the US’ water is undrinkable, simply that enough municipalities have poor quality or non-drinkable water that it’s easier for companies to market water bottles to people.
Stories like Flint, Mi. go international, and its crisis lasted for a really long time, despite being mostly the exception (see the other commenter’s Wikipedia link). And public access water fountains are not a thing in many cities, leading to an even greater perceived scarcity by consumers.
My point above was that enough municipalities have a drinking water quality problem to drive sales of water bottles across the country, the US’ drinking water is not bad across the world stage, but probably worse than most western European countries.
The solution should be either a water filter, or a filtered water dispenser from a refillable jug. Not disposable water bottles.
I don’t know where you got that idea, but public tap water is federally regulated in the US (at least for now). Bottled water is popular because of marketing, not because tap water is unsafe.
How Flint is doing is irrelevant to what I said, the same as me picking on a polluted city in Canada doesn’t change the fact that Canada generally has safe drinking water.
The comment I responded to made it sound like US tap water is mostly not safe to drink. That’s demonstrably untrue. I’m not defending the horrors of industrial capitalism or condoning environmental destruction, I’m merely pointing out that the US does in fact have standards, regulation, and enforcement for drinking water quality. This does not mean it’s perfect, but it does mean that in general you can drink the water out of the tap, like I do every day.
I hate that we live in a world where only extreme viewpoints are allowed. Either the USA is the greatest country in the world or it’s a complete shithole, anything else is just shouted down. I still make the stupid mistake of caring about what’s real rather than what makes a good soundbite on social media.
“Drinking water quality in the United States is generally safe. In 2016, over 90 percent of the nation’s community water systems were in compliance with all published U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) standards. Over 286 million Americans get their tap water from a community water system. Eight percent of the community water systems—large municipal water systems—provide water to 82 percent of the US population.”
I presume you’re not from the US.
Many municipalities across the US have poor quality or non drinkable water, and many more do not offer public access to water fountains. Thus, bottled water is a huge market in the US as free facilities are not always available.
I’m Canadian and I legitimately cannot recall the last time I bought bottled or canned water. I bring my two 18.9L jugs to the store to fill them with filtered water for $5 and that’s the extent of my “bottled water” consumption. Elsewhere, I carry a metal water bottle I can get refilled anywhere for free.
Have drank tap water across the US for decades. Some municipalities are crappier than others, but a fridge filter tank takes care of those places.
Absolutely, I’m not stating that the US’ water is undrinkable, simply that enough municipalities have poor quality or non-drinkable water that it’s easier for companies to market water bottles to people.
Stories like Flint, Mi. go international, and its crisis lasted for a really long time, despite being mostly the exception (see the other commenter’s Wikipedia link). And public access water fountains are not a thing in many cities, leading to an even greater perceived scarcity by consumers.
My point above was that enough municipalities have a drinking water quality problem to drive sales of water bottles across the country, the US’ drinking water is not bad across the world stage, but probably worse than most western European countries.
The solution should be either a water filter, or a filtered water dispenser from a refillable jug. Not disposable water bottles.
Yes, the US is a mirage of a first-world country.
I don’t know where you got that idea, but public tap water is federally regulated in the US (at least for now). Bottled water is popular because of marketing, not because tap water is unsafe.
hows flint doing again?
How Flint is doing is irrelevant to what I said, the same as me picking on a polluted city in Canada doesn’t change the fact that Canada generally has safe drinking water.
The comment I responded to made it sound like US tap water is mostly not safe to drink. That’s demonstrably untrue. I’m not defending the horrors of industrial capitalism or condoning environmental destruction, I’m merely pointing out that the US does in fact have standards, regulation, and enforcement for drinking water quality. This does not mean it’s perfect, but it does mean that in general you can drink the water out of the tap, like I do every day.
I hate that we live in a world where only extreme viewpoints are allowed. Either the USA is the greatest country in the world or it’s a complete shithole, anything else is just shouted down. I still make the stupid mistake of caring about what’s real rather than what makes a good soundbite on social media.
“Drinking water quality in the United States is generally safe. In 2016, over 90 percent of the nation’s community water systems were in compliance with all published U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) standards. Over 286 million Americans get their tap water from a community water system. Eight percent of the community water systems—large municipal water systems—provide water to 82 percent of the US population.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drinking_water_quality_in_the_United_States