Pros And Cons Of Drinking Tap Water

When it comes to drinking water, most people immediately desire a crystal clear, ice cold bottle of water. What they might not know is that bottled water is dangerous; not only is it stored in a carcinogen-releasing container, but it has over 38 other chemicals and pollutants in it. Tap water, on the other hand, is straight from a source that is thoroughly regulated. Consumers should ban the bottle when it comes to drinking water and instead drink tap water. For one, drinking tap water decreases the astronomical amount of waste caused by bottled water. Not only that, but by American consumers purchasing bottled water, they are paying companies to waste money and valuable natural resources, while tap water and it's increased use is creating
For example; oil is a valuable resource that we are spending fortunes to get from foreign countries, yet “24 million gallons of oil are needed to produce a billion plastic bottles.” (Gunzelmann). According to Business Insider, 9 billion water bottles are consumed by Americans each year (Business Insider). The oil saved each year in America alone would add up to over hundreds of billions of dollars. Not only does drinking tap water save money and oil, it saves water itself. While millions of people are suffering from lack of sanitary water we use “...1.39 liters to make one liter of [bottled] water.” (Gustafson) Many people don’t understand that Americans are rich in the fact that we have a source of clean water in almost every home. Millions of people don’t have a source of clean water within five miles of their home. Despite this, Americans still feel the need to take what we have for granted, utilizing resources and money that hundreds of other countries can’t even comprehend, and produce something
For instance, bottled water companies create jobs, including transportation, manufacture, and marketing. Conversely, tap water also creates jobs, without the waste of natural resources and plastic. It has been stated that the sale of water aids the economy and promotes the marketing of other products, even further improving the economy. However, selling what is free is not the way to help the economy. A business cannot flourish by selling products to the employees. In this way, neither can a country flourish through the sale of bottled water within itself. For a truly better economy, the U.S must reach out to other countries. By abandoning bottled water and drinking tap, an overly sufficient amount of money will be saved to help other, less-fortunate countries. The U.S contributing to the rest of the world in such a way would change other countries’ opinions of America for the better, thus improving world trade. In bottled water’s defense, majority of consumers claim that bottled water tastes infinitely better that tap. However, in a blind taste test conducted by Tom Standage, a mere 1 person correctly identified which of the various samples of water was tap. The apparent bad taste people claim tap water has is likely due to perceptual set, or predisposition. Since consumers think they ‘know’ tap water tastes bad, it tastes bad. Therefore, once the knowledge of which cup holds the tap