15 Principal Pros and Cons of Bottled Water

For many years now, bottled water has been growing in popularity. People seem to favor the taste and convenience that this product can offer. It is water that is purified, is made safe to drink, is put into glass or plastic containers and is sealed. It has been a good choice of beverage for hydration and many other health purposes.

But while water is undeniably great for you, what about the other factors, such as the whole bottled part? Let us take a look at the pros and cons of bottled water to help you decide if it is best for you.

List of Pros of Bottled Water

1. It is a good hydration solution on the go.
Bottled water offers you the option to drink water anywhere. It is highly portable, durable (the bottle it is) and can be sealed. These reasons make it ideal for working out, traveling or doing virtually any activity where you may need to drink water.

2. It spells convenience.
Just connected to the first advantage, bottled water is very convenient to transport or carry, especially in places where drinkable water is not guaranteed, hard to find, found at a great distance or not available at all. This is certainly one of the top benefits of bottled water, where you can just purchase it anytime and anywhere conveniently. Convenience is definitely its main selling point.

3. It can easily be stored.
Due to the fact that it does not expire and can easily be stored, bottled water is ideal for emergency and disaster situations. It is really always a good idea to keep some of this product stored in a safe place at home just in case.

4. It has a great taste.
Most of us would agree that bottled water tastes exponentially better than tap water. This is because of the purification process that it goes through before it is made available for drinking, unlike tap water.

5. It guarantees cleanliness. 
Production of bottled water is strictly regulated and monitored to make sure that it is clean and free of contaminants. This puts the product highly in demand because clean and safe tap water is not always available. After a natural disaster, water lines might be disrupted, leading to contamination of water supplied to households. In situations like this, bottled water can be life-savers because it is clean and safe to drink.

6. It is safer to drink than tap water.
Directly relevant to the previous advantage, bottled water is safe to drink due to the tests for all sorts of chemicals and bacteria it would undergo before being bottled. For tap water, it can easily become contaminated, leading to severe illnesses, especially in developing countries.

7. It is highly available. 
Bottled water is readily available in supermarkets and grocery stores and comes in various sizes and content per bottle, giving consumers more choices depending on their needs.

List of Cons of Bottled Water

1. It is more expensive than tap water.
The costs of purifying, bottling, advertising, transporting and storing bottled water can trickle down to the cost of the water itself. This means the product is significantly more expensive than tap water.

Buying bottled water is even more expensive if you are doing it very often. However, the cost will still depend on its size and brand. Remember that its price usually covers packaging, advertising, shipping and administrative operations. Experts even revealed that it is more costly than milk.

2. It is not a money-saving option.
Though you are drinking bottled water with a water-filtering system, you can still save more money in the end by filling your own water bottles, if you like to drink bottled water every day.

3. It poses health risks due to the chemicals in plastic.
Mostly, bottled water products contain chemicals, such as bisphenol A (BPA), in the plastic container. These compounds can seep into the water, which means you are most probably consuming them. This risk is greatly increased if the content is stored in hot areas, like those where direct sunlight is present.

4. It offers no difference with tap water in many cases.
Truth is, many bottled water products are just filtered tap water. This has been a troubling fact for many of us, but it has been proven time and time again. Most bottled water is produced by the same factories that are making soft drinks, using the same water.

5. Bottled water can have similar (or even worse) quality than tap water.
Considering that you may not even be getting better quality water when you buy bottled water, it can be a plain common sense to fill your own instead. You just need clean water and a good water bottle.

6. It has no fluoride.
Governments supposedly add fluoride to tap water to help protect our teeth from decay and other dental problems. On the other hand, bottled water are produced without the substance.

7. It promotes more use of fossil fuels.
Production of bottled water increases the use of fossil fuels. With this in mind, you will be avoiding this by filling your own water bottles. Also, the manufacture of the plastic for the bottles actually utilizes more water than it takes to fill your own water bottles.

8. It poses many unfavorable environmental hazards. 
The problem can start when empty water bottles are not properly disposed, which contributes greatly to the whole pollution problem. Huge percentage of bottles are ending up in trash cans and landfills, having harmful effects on the environment.

According to a report, Americans buy more than 30 billion liters of water per year, most of which are contained in polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles. This means nearly 900,000 tons of plastic, which also take 17 million barrels of oil to produce. What’s worse, it is found that only 20% of these bottles make it to the recycling bin.

The bottled water trend might be doing more for good health, but it is affecting the environment negatively big time.

In conclusion, bottled water certainly has its place in today’s society. It makes staying hydrated on the go more of a breeze. However, people should start lessening their dependency on it and again become accustomed to the taste and simplicity of tap water.