There are More Economical Alternatives to Bottled Water

In addition to the environmental and health problems associated with bottled water, the economic benefits of drinking tap water far outweigh those of bottled water. Each year consumers collectively spend hundreds or thousands of dollars more per gallon for water in a plastic bottle than they would for the water flowing from their tap. While bottled water ranges from $0.89 to $8.26 per gallon, most Americans pay about $2 per 1,000 gallons for municipal water service. For consumers who live in communities with tap water that fails to consistently meet federal clean water standards, or simply tastes funny, home filtration is an effective and inexpensive solution.

• Bottled water costs hundreds or thousands of times more than tap water.
• U.S. plastic bottle production requires about 17.6 million barrels of oil, enough to fuel more than one million cars.
• Most Americans pay $0.002 per gallon for tap water.
• Filtering tap water with a counter top unit costs $0.25 per gallon, and filtering tap water with a unit under the sink only costs about $0.10 per gallon.
• Bottled water typically costs more than $1 for eight to 12 ounces, amounting to more than $10 per gallon.
• Manufacturing the 28.6 billion PET water bottles in the United States takes the equivalent of 17.6 million barrels of oil.
  

Read more about the environmental, health, economic, and equity concerns associated with bottled water in our report, Take Back the Tap: Why Choosing Tap Water Over Bottled Water is Better for Your Health, Your Pocketbook, and the Environment.