Buying bottled water...

[B2kCyclops]

-snip-

We have (afaik) the highes standart for tap water in the world, while the bottled/carbonated water has WAY lower restrictions for potentially hazardous substances like caesium, led, copper, sulfur, etc...
-snip-

I call bullshit.
Iceland has the highest quality of tap water you can get, it has no minerals, it's ice,ice cold and it has no minerals in it.
NONE.

Same goes for any alpine/polar region like the Alpes, Scandinavia, Rocky Mountains, Himalayas, etc...
They have no need for processed tap water -> no need for a standart.
But standart means the legal restrictions/constraints.
Just to clarify.

Oh, and another thing:
Every liter of natural water in any state(gas/liqud/solid) contains minerals and/or organic compounds.
Steril water on earth exists only by human production...
-.-

 

[Nopraptor]

here in israel the tap water is fine so I just drink that. besides bottled water is expensive as hell here (think in the 1 pound area. yeah)
besides the stuff they put in tap water is good for you, flourine is good for your teeth and chlorine is good (in moderation) to keep the water relatively germ-free

 

[Caligulove]

Bottled water is fashionable, in some ways. But it's ridiculously overpriced and without even any regulations about the quality of the water, or really anything about the water. In high school I worked at a coffee shop in a convention center where bottled water was $3- and people still paid for that shit! We made sure to keep it supplied though, since the profit on the bottled drinks was far higher than anything else that we sold, not to mention that there was virtually no labor involved. The catering company I worked for basically set out to raise the price as high as they could- and where people would still pay for it, and everyone at every big convention did.

Even then, I know people who still primarily drink bottled water in their own houses!
What would our ancestors think? I mean, here I have a conduit to all the water I would ever need (a LUXURY for most humans throughout all history) paying nearly nothing for it- oh and did I mention that it's cleanliness and purification is mandated by the government? That's a great fucking deal. Why would you ever drink bottled water at home?

 

[AngloDoom]

Evian = Naive backwards.

Jus' sayin'.

 

[Wicky_42]

Honestly, I prefer my city's tap water to bottled - it just tastes so much better. Filtering it makes almost no difference. In fact, since I basically live off water (none of this tea and coffee or soft drink malarkey), I've become very attached to the taste of the local water... always catches me off guard when I visit a country with lax water quality regulation - got a stomach bug from a glass of water in Malta; turns out they don't bother treating their sewage when they pump it into the sea, and that their tap water is basically filtered sea water. Go figure...

 

[C95J]

I don't drink much water on its own, but when I do I much prefer bottled water. I just don't like the taste of tap water that much.

 

[The Stonker]

-snip-

We have (afaik) the highes standart for tap water in the world, while the bottled/carbonated water has WAY lower restrictions for potentially hazardous substances like caesium, led, copper, sulfur, etc...
-snip-

I call bullshit.
Iceland has the highest quality of tap water you can get, it has no minerals, it's ice,ice cold and it has no minerals in it.
NONE.

Same goes for any alpine/polar region like the Alpes, Scandinavia, Rocky Mountains, Himalayas, etc...
They have no need for processed tap water -> no need for a standart.
But standart means the legal restrictions/constraints.
Just to clarify.

Oh, and another thing:
Every liter of natural water in any state(gas/liqud/solid) contains minerals and/or organic compounds.
Steril water on earth exists only by human production...
-.-

I said minerals, and I've tasted tapped water from all over the world and Icelandic is best.
Yes, I understand that you guys need a standard and British water is shiiiitttt.

 

[Ham_authority95]

Wow. Compared to most of the responses here, I probably have the best fucking water on the planet.

Because of the decency of my water, buying it bottled is fucking pointless, and even then I can just buy a filter.

 

[Ham_authority95]

I think I'm officially a cranky old man,because I think Lewis Black says it best:

I know, man! I flipped out the first time my piss didn't have color!

 

[HeySeansOnline]

My apartment's pipes suck, the second we move to a nicer place I'm switching to a filter and a nice thermos. As for now I buy packs of water, usually based on what's on sale, that way I can bring them to school. I don't get buying expensive crap like evian, or especially Fila, paying that much for water is insane to me.

 

[Vrach]

I'm not one to judge people for the contents of their shopping trolleys, but I really wonder at the wisdom of those who buy bottled water. Not those 500ml bottles that you buy either more for the bottle or just on the fly because you're thirsty and its cheaper than anything else. I mean those two litre bottles that are about 50p each.

A part of me wonders: I have a tap with running water... I have a kettle... I have a jug to let the water cool down (UK has some very hard water, so I boil it)... so why would I want to lug however many litres of water back from Sainsbury's?

Or am I missing something here?

*shrug*

Some areas have very shitty tap water. I mean that for both the quality of the water (some of it is neigh undrinkable) and the taste. Fortunately for me, the water in Belgrade is relatively good in both (slightly hard but eh) so I stick to tap water unless as you said out, about and thirsty.

Mind you, if you have trouble with kidneys (sand/stone), you'd do really well to drink bottled water. Not to mention some of those have really good mineral supplements that might work well with some people's system (see a nutritionist about that) so that's another reason there too.

Also in your case, some people wanna drink water and not have to spend time cooling it off from boiling it. Frankly if I had to do that to drink tap water and I wasn't short on cash, I'd rather buy the damn things as well

 

[DanielDeFig]

I am currently living in Kenya, so the tap water is not safe to drink, and constantly boiling it is time-consuming.

But when i go back to Sweden or Canada, I either just drink from the tap or use a distiller for the tap water.

 

[DustyDrB]

I drink out of the tap. Filtered or not filtered. Hell, I'll drink from the spigot outside while doing yard work during the summer (charleston gets really hot and humid). I never buy bottled water, as I have an insane amount of high quality Nalgene and camelbak bottles that hold more water and are insulated to keep the water cooler longer.

 

[teqrevisited]

My tap water is fine so I drink that. To be honest if people buy it for reasons other than to drink it while out & about or if their tap water is unsafe it slightly lowers my opinion of them.

 

[pezwitch]

I buy bottled water because I prefer my water with CO2, but for regular non gas water I just take it from the tap (only in the US though, when I'm in Poland never because the water is pretty bad).

I got used to drinking water with CO2 when I lived in Germany and it carried over when I moved back to the States.

I don't drink the tap water here because it has so many minerals in it that every local man I know has had kidney stones. Also, my vet told me not to let my cat drink tap water because it could harm his kidneys. So, my cat gets bottled distilled water and I drink bubbly water.

 

[Davey Woo]

I barely understand people who buy mineral water.
So it's been filtered through "thousands of years of rocks and earth minerals" it's just water...

 

[GeorgW]

I buy bottled water for the CO[sub]2[/sub]. But I buy a lot of them, and it's starting to get to me.

 

[Brutal Peanut]

I only buy bottled water if we are on a trip in the car for a couple hours, or going somewhere, where there will not be a tap handy. Such as going to a secluded spot at the lake, etc, etc. We just put a Brita filter on our kitchen tap, and that's where I get my water. I do understand what people mean by the 'tap taste'. The Filter does a pretty good job in removing most of it. Or so I think anyway.

But that was before we found out about the exceeding levels of Perchlorate in the water. We had a sort of mass hysteria here in Barstow, CA (The boil on the butt of CA) over the Perchlorate levels. Now everyone and their Mother (and her dog) buys out the entire water section at the grocery stores, or wherever sells water.

 

[jawakiller]

In the US the FDA heavily monitors tap water but you could literally fill a water bottle in a stream in your backyard (and then sell it for a dollar).