The tap water vs. bottled water discussion has some very strong opinions. One part believes that tap water is the best choice and is better for the environment and the health of the general population, while the other part of the population claims that bottled water is the best option. Both sides have an opinion and each side has facts, I'm going to find out some facts and present them to you in a very unbiased informative manner. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The facts and opinions about tap water seem to have very valid points regarding the environment and health effects. Did you know that one hundred billion dollars is spent on bottled water every year? Not only does bottled water itself increase unnecessary waste, but it also adds too much money to your wallet—it will cost you about a thousand times more to buy bottled water than to drink tap water. Buying a sixteen ounce bottle of water for about a dollar would equate to about seven to eight dollars a gallon, whereas if you were to drink tap water at home it wouldn't cost that much, probably more or less less than ten cents, but if you drank a bottle of water every single day of the year would equate to around $365 dollars, which is ridiculous to think about when it comes to purchasing water. You could simply purchase a filter for your home faucet if you want the taste of bottled water for only a one-time purchase of $40 dollars. Tap water always tastes different depending on what region you are from due to where the water filter is built, like in Austin where the whole city is built on limestone, so you might partially get a taste of limestone. Tap water can retain the taste of the described experiments taking place in places like New York, Boston and California. When they asked people to drink three unidentified samples of water and which of these tasted good to them, many people chose tap water, as a surprise because not many people would think that tap water would taste similar to bottled water. Tap Water Safety Concerns Water meets EPA standards, but fears about tap water are perfectly reasonable. Only about 10% of all tap water in the United States does not meet the standards of the Safe Drinking Water Act, which establishes the regulatory quantities of containers provided by public water systems in your area. The standards for tap water and bottled water are exactly the same, except that tap water is subject to reporting standards and those who report it must also detail where the water is obtained from. 'water, obviously. Additionally, bottled water does not have to declare or announce the source of the water. The scary thing about bottled water versus tap water is that even if bottled water plants didn't meet federal safety standards they could still sell the water and no one would notice until they had to label the bottle "contains a excess of bacteria." In 1999, the National Defense Council tested 1,000 water bottles from 103 different brands and found that about a third of them, at least one sample, exceeded allowable limits for synthetic organic chemicals, bacteria and waste. In the 2008 Drinking Water Quality Guidelines, “Certain microorganisms that normally have little or no public health significance may grow to higher levels in bottled water.” The water oftap compared to bottled water from an environmental point of view indicates that tap water can reach areas with water scarcity. Bottled water bottles themselves are made from a type of plastic called polyethylene terephthalate, or PET. It releases many chemicals into the air including nickel, ethylbenzene, ethylene oxide and benzene. According to a 2007 study, producing the bottles yourself costs around 17 million barrels of oil. They also create the fossil fuels used to create greenhouse gases. Only 31% of bottles are fully recycled and the rest are left in landfills or burned releasing all those deadly chemicals again. Tap water has stated some facts that are very scary and eye opening when compared to bottled water, but now bottled water has the time to state some facts and defend itself and show why it is on par with the tap water. Bottled water as a whole is more convenient for people. You can have one at the gym, you can have one at work, you can have one at the playground, and you can have one anywhere! The health concerns surrounding bottled water are contrary to what you may hear! Many bottled water facilities use public water sources! Except when they arrive at the bottling plants, several processes must be fulfilled. The process includes reverse osmosis, distillation, microfiltration, carbon filtration, ozonation and ultraviolet lights, then bottled under hygienic conditions and sold to consumers! So it's perfectly safe to drink, so don't worry! There are differences between tap water and bottled water; Public water systems provide quality water for human consumption and other uses! Public water systems are given exclusive rights to supply water to areas within its range, so people don't really have control over this! Bottled water is a packaged food sold in individual, clean, sealed containers. With bottled water you have many choices to choose from and many sizes to choose from and there are many factors that go into choosing which brand of water bottle you want to drink, such as taste, quality and convenience. There have been many improvements in the composition and composition of a water bottle. Bottling companies have started using less PET plastic to produce single-serve water bottles! They also reduced the weight of plastic bottles, meaning 3.3 billion pounds of PET resin have been saved since 2000. Bottling plants have now started using recycled PET to make bottled water containers. This means less energy is used to produce the bottles, which requires less fossil fuel to burn and which also equates to fewer greenhouse gases! The bottles are now completely 100% recyclable and can even be recycled multiple times, so this is a step in the right direction! Bottled water is also very convenient when a natural disaster occurs because when a natural disaster occurs in an area the tap water and natural water may be contaminated and now undrinkable. Bottled water is very useful in retrospect: it can be delivered to countries that need help due to a disaster or simply poverty. Bottled water is trying to be better for the world, but it's a very slow and progressive process, but it works slowly. Unfortunately, bottled water contains some unpleasant information compared to tap water. Even though companies are trying to make bottles recyclable, usually only 1 in 5 is.