Bottled Water. A Waste of Money. Bad for the Enviroment

ABOUT 4000 NSW public servants have been told to stop drinking bottled water - because it is bad for the environment. The Department of Environment and Climate Change (DECC) has sent a memo to staff saying bottled water will no longer be provided at its 120 offices - and encouraging staff to avoid buying their own. "Staff are asked to consider refilling water bottles from the tap. All major centres in NSW have a clean, reliable water supply," a DECC spokesman said. "Staff can buy their own bottled water but we would hope they consider the environment." The decision to scrap bottled water was made on environmental grounds and extends to communal chilled water dispensers. "The environmental costs of bottled water, producing, transporting, refrigerating and disposing of the bottles, have led DECC to eliminate all non-essential bottled water purchases from the department," a small number of the bottles will still be bought for occupational health and safety reasons, like fire-fighting operations or for field work. The department's decision could trigger a domino effect and hurt Australia's bottled water market - $385 million last year for 250 million litres, A Sydney north shore Council will next month vote on a mayoral motion to eradicate all bottled water from council buildings and functions. Its Mayor is teaming up with environmental campaigner Jon Dee to write to every council in Australia encouraging them to do the same - in line with a similar move by San Francisco earlier this year. The aim of the campaign is to reduce bottled water usage by 25 per cent across the country in two years. It's an environmentally disastrous product, quite frankly, because we've got very good tap water, the consumption of bottled water is apparently increasing by about 10 per cent per annum." The Local Government Association last month passed a motion supporting the launch of a campaign to alert people to the environmental impact of water bottles. Then there is the impact on the hip pocket. According to the most recent research, tap water costs about $1.20 per tonne, while one tonne of the pre-bottled variety costs as much as $3000. DECC estimated about 200ml of oil is used to produce each litre bottle of water, including in the plastic, transportation and refrigeration. Australians' bottled water use last year was responsible for more than 60,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions - the same amount 13,000 cars generate in 12 months. Global consumption of bottled water is now estimated at around 180 billion litres a year.
The water within our household comes from the town water supply through taps (faucets)
for bathing/showers, WC, laundry and kitchen use. The same water is filtered then boiled and refrigerated for personal drinking, it is rarely stored for more than a week, this filtered water is also used for hot drinks, cooking and a final rinse for washed vegetables and I might add it tastes much better than expensive bottled water you buy.
Cost wise; our filtration system when used wisely runs up a bill of about $8.00 per Sixty liters or 15.9 US and 12.7 Brit Imp gallons. My personal consumption is a minimum two liters per day costing 25 cents apposed to $2.00 for dodgy bottled water, it also assists in flushing the toxins from ones body due to eating indulgences and consuming more alcohol than is necessary.
So if you are suffering from sluggishness - body wise that is, try a large glass of pure water on rising from your slumbers, drink it slowly, later complete your day having consumed a minimum of two liters of this elixir of life, you will already begin to feel the benefits, your libido increases and so will your mean expectation of life.... Vest.