Controversy in a Bottle

Today I'm going to throw in my two cents on the already hotly debated topic of bottled water. If you read the news in any capacity, you'll have seen this issue come up time and time again, with no end in sight. Recently, another institution announced the ban on sales of bottled water - this time a school. The University of Winnipeg has just become the first educational institution in Canada to ban the sale of bottled water at university facilities. This adds U of W to a quickly growing list of municipalities, offices, and homes taking action to reduce the overwhelming waste that comes from using bottled water.

Here are some of my personal concerns with using bottled water as a primary source of drinking water:
1) Waste from empty bottles. If everyone recycled this wouldn't be such a problem. Unfortunately, the reality is that the vast majority of the empty bottles go to garbage and waste sites (not to mention our rivers, lakes and oceans).
2) Safety-quality. More and more tests are being released showing the quality of some bottled waters are perhaps overstated. This isn't a broad brush - there are certainly some top notch brands that provide an excellent quality product in a bottle. There are, however, a number of companies that do not take appropriate steps to ensure the safety of what they are selling to the consumer. And here's the problem: there's no way for the consumer to know the difference. As the labeling requirements are very loosely regulated, the marketing gurus are free to conjure up any image they want to make sales. It's up the consumer to trust one brand over another based solely on the design of the packaging.
3) Efficiency of the process of getting the water from the source to the shelf. Moving water is actually one of, if the not highest, user of energy on this planet. From pumping water through municipal networks, from private lakes or wells, moving waste water, and of course the transportation of trucked and bottled water all over the globe - the amount of energy required to supply this neverending distribution stream is enourmous. Consider how much effort it takes to move a single 5 gallon jug of water. Now consider how much energy is spent to move millions of them.

However, in typical media fashion, the argument generally shown is fairly one sided. There are some excellent points in the support of bottled water which should be illustrated:
1) Emergency relief. Deploying bottled water to emergency zones is a quick and easy solution to provide life-sustaining support to those trapped in areas with no access to safe drinking water (think of those caught in earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, etc.). Without safe drinking water, the real disaster starts days after the event.
2) An alternative to other drink choices. I would rather see children (and adults for that matter!) choose a bottle of water over pop/soda. Though the health/safety issues are cited as a concern, let's keep some perspective - there are far worse choices for the health of our population than water in a bottle. I often choose another drink over tap water myself, but would hear a word or two from my dentist to be chugging diet cokes all day long.

So though the bottled water industry is caught up in a whirlwind of controversy of bad press, I don't think it's all bad news. I do believe though that U of W is just the first of many schools to eliminate the sale of bottled water in this country. We'll just have to wait and see who is next!