Contrary to popular belief, most of the time drinking bottled water is not a healthier or smarter alternative to drinking tap water in a reusable bottle.
You may be unaware of this, but if you live in Australia the water that comes out of your tap is likely to be better than the quality of bottled water that you pay $2.00 or more for from a shop.
The purity and cost are only two of many reasons why utilizing tap water in a reusable bottle is more beneficial than buying bottled water.
A recent study conducted by the PLOS One Journal has discovered dangerous chemicals that could have adverse health effects can reside in plastic drink bottles.
Speculation has surrounded the safety of drinking water packaged in plastic drink bottles for some time, and the public has been encouraged to buy new plastic bottles regularly and not to reuse plastic bottles to avoid increasing the risk of consuming harmful chemicals. This creates a vicious cycle of bottle repurchasing and waste that is fueled by fear for one’s personal health. This circumstance should be distressing to all Australians, bar, perhaps, the marketing teams of bottled water companies.
Looking at the facts the message is clear, we should all be drinking water from our reusable Clean Oceans water bottles.
The findings suggest that “anti-estrogens” and “anti-androgens” that can potentially disrupt hormone production and affect the reproductive system exist in the majority of plastic water bottle products tested. *For an in-depth look into this subject, you might want to watch ‘The Disappearing Male’ documentary.
If you don’t want to risk your health, it may be best to consider keeping plastic bottle use to a minimum, and only buying water in circumstances that cannot be avoided. However, best practice is to carry a stainless steel drink bottle with you at all times. These are completely reusable and do not contain plastics that may be harmful to you or your family’s health.
In addition, stainless steel drink bottles have the advantage of being refillable, which could save you hundreds of dollars that may have been otherwise spent on bottled water. In fact, Clean Up Australia suggests that 90% of the price you pay for a plastic bottle of water is for the lid, bottle and label.
Purchasing a stainless steel drink bottle and reusing it will also dramatically reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill in the form of plastic bottles by Australians each year.
Reducing landfill is known to impact the environment positively, by decreasing the amount of greenhouse gases emitted by disposable plastics. It can also lower risk of animals ingesting plastic and getting hurt or killed by it, which currently occurs all too often.
The effects of using reusable stainless steel water bottles are much less grim. Consider these facts:
- 1 person using 1 reusable water bottle will prevent approximately 1800 500ml plastic water bottles from entering the waste cycle per year, this may not sound like a big number but if you multiply that by the population of Sydney Australia that equals 143,206,20000 500ml plastic water bottles. Now that is a big number!
- 50 billion water bottles are used annually in the US, using 17 million barrels of crude oil.
- Most bottled water does not come from mountain springs and has not necessarily been filtered or even tested for contaminants! Remember the benzene scare in Perrier water?
- Plastic bottles of water have a massive markup of over thousand % so it is in their best interest to say tap water is bad for you. In some countries this is true, but in most it is not, especially in Australia where we have a very high quality of tap water.
- Plastic isn’t just bad for the planet, it’s bad for your bloodstream. Many studies have proven that polycarbonate plastic, a type of plastic used in many household and food products, gradually leaks a chemical (BPA) into the food and liquid that is stored in containers that are made from this.The chemicals released by these plastics can alter hormones and have many other side effects.
- The World Health Organization did a study and found that over 90% of bottle water tested positive for microplastics.
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About Clean Oceans
Clean Oceans is a nonprofit organisation, founded by three passionate ocean conservationists, dedicated to a vision to ban all single use plastics on Australian beaches by 2020. Clean Oceans focuses efforts on education and infrastructure to encourage behaviour change. Starting with the kids and adults who attend the 317 Surf Lifesaving Clubs around Australia. The Surf Clubs not only save lives, they are also the custodians of the beach and ocean culture. Get in touch if you’d like to get involved.