water from a tap or water from a bottle?

I'm a little confused. I've always been a 'drink from the tap' sorta of fellow. Living in Australia, i always had the luxury of drinking straight from the tap, and i'm grateful for it. It's free ( well almost), although in some states in Australia, they add chlorine and fluoride and probably some other additives to make sure it is in fact safe to drink, it's still very drinkable, and doesnt taste too bad. The off occasions you'll get a bit more chlorine coming through, but thats rare.

On the other hand ive seen a massive rise in bottled water over the last 10-15 years and it confuses me why anyone would pay massive amounts of money for something they can get from a tap. I dont see any advantages from drinking bottled water apart from convenience sometimes. A 600ml bottle of water here is about $2 (about $3.33 per litre). The water supposedly comes from australian springs, so it should be quite cheap. Then when you look at petrol coming out of the middle east, treated and manipulated, handled, shipped, re-handled a few more times before finaly going into our fueltanks, its costing about $1.50 per litre. So natural spring water is more than double petrol prices! it just doesnt make sense!

I couldn't justify drinking bottled water if i can avoid it. not because i couldnt afford it, i just dont think something so natural should be commercialised in such a way that we're taken advantage of. I understand why tap water needs to be charged at a fair and reasonable price, but apart from the conveinece aspect of a bottled water in the car, i dont see the logic

on the other hand, in the state of New South Wales, where i live, most people have great teeth because of the fluoride they put in the water. There's been studies to show the link between healthy teeth and longevity, so im not going to complain about something minimal in my water supply that i cant taste.

what do you think?

water from the tap? or water from the bottle?

 

I'll buy a bottle periodically to get a bottle, then fill it several times from the tap, or cooler.

 

Tap, absolutely.
I think there is a belief out there that bottled is somehow more pure, or filtered, or some other BS. It is not.
I also object to massive amounts of petrochemicals ending up as plastic water bottles and then being wasted. Not to mention all the diesel and gasoline used to truck around water in said bottles.

 

Tap, though like lish I live in a country where the water out of the tap is fine. There are other cities in Oz (Adelaide springs to mind) where supposedly the water out of the tap isn't so nice to drink and I've been to places in Queensland where the water supply is from bore water - this is not drinkable. I did wonder about London water - when you see the scale on the inside of the kettle, you wonder how drinkable it is too.

Unless there is a clear warning not to drink the tap water, I'm definitely a tap guy. Sydney now has some "bottle top up" places that are designed to refill your own bottle and I think this encourages people to bring there own.

 

There's also a rumour that's been going around for years that bottles from bottled water can't be re-used because of some cancer bullshit theory. I think its the water companies going about spreading theories to prevent people from re-filling the bottles and to encourage people to buy more water instead of re-use.

 

I would think the water put into a used bottle would be safer from plastic leach as hasn't been in it for weeks/months/years. If the plastic was dangerous, it would be safer pour out the original water and refill it!

 

Tap, filtered with a Brita pitcher.

I was in Costco earlier this evening. Each time I see people with one of those gargantuan plastic wrapped pile of water bottles in their cart, I cry a little on the inside.

 

Tap, for sure. If I was out on a farm somewhere near where they're fracking, then I'd choose bottled.

 

Mountain well water, run through a Brita filter.

 

I use tap water, filtered through a Brita pitcher. (and I had to "like" everyone's posts who also uses that filter.)

TEAM BRITA!

 

In the areas where I've lived in the past ten years, the amount that of sediment, chlorine, and generally undesired crap in the tap water has made me less willing to drink it. At home, we have an r/o system and I freaking love that water. I have a ton of reusable water bottles.

Where I am now, until September, my cats don't even drink the tap water. It's not safe. We all had massive stomach trouble the first week we were here, until I switched us to generic bottled water. It tastes awful, there is an enormous amount of sediment, and the treatment plants can't handle some of the stuff these nearby petrochemical plants drop off. It's just not worth it to me. Granted, I'd lose a lot of weight if I drank it, but the risks aren't worth it. I like the taste of Smart Water the best, but I can afford Ozarka most often.

 

We have a Brita faucet filter at home, but the filter itself needs to be replaced. At work, we have a water cooler...well, "dispenser" would be more accurate, since it doesn't actually "cool" anything. Anyway, we get three five-gallon bottles a month, which are traded in, washed, and reused when they're empty.

Growing up, I drank well water from the tap, and it was awesome. Kind of iron-y, but I liked the taste. The water out of the tap here tastes funny to me. *shrug*

--- merged: Jan 13, 2014 3:07 PM ---
Oh-- I forgot, I also have a Brita filtered water bottle. Those things are awesome, especially for traveling:

 

I have one of these too. Love mine.

 

Tap water ran through Brita filters. If I'm going to be away from the house for a while, I'll fill up one of the safe reuseable plastic bottles to tkae with me. I avoid buying bottled water because I'm cheap and for environmental reasons--How much water does it take to produce the plastic bottles, & how many of them actually get recycled?

The tap water here isn't too bad now, as long as it's cold/been refridgerated (like cheap beer, you don't want to drink it warm).

When I was a kid we put tap water in the fridge using empty glass milk jugs. After X number of hours in the fridge, a layer of flaky something would be settled in the bottom of the jug (no, it wasn't old milk).
--- merged: Jan 13, 2014 at 5:21 PM ---

The stories I heard/read said not to leave "standard" plastic bottles in a hot car.

 

Tap water gets run through a Brita before it goes into the Keurig. Otherwise, straight tap water for me. I will break down and buy a bottle if I'm on the road and feel thirsty, though.