As summer approaches, we watch and wait with somewhat bated breath for the never-ending string of gas price hikes that will accompany that last day of school. And every year we are not disappointed or surprised as the oil companies, the state and the profiteers take another chunk of our well earned pay …just when we need it all the most.
But, there is a bigger villain out there. A more cunning and well-hidden foe that makes big oil seem downright philanthropic… the bottled water industry.
The images are everywhere, healthy, happy and fit people in nice sports gear clutching that ever-present bottle of water. Generated gently by nature, filtered over millions of years in a subterranean cave, and finally pumped into the most beautiful of receptacles, the plastic bottle.
I can understand (but may not like the fact we still have to use it) that oil is a difficult product to bring to market. First you have to find it, drill for it, transport it, refine it, transport it again …all over the world, and then sell it to the consumer. And they manage to accomplish all that and sting us for a whopping $3-4 a gallon, … and we call them rogues.
But for some of the bottled water peddlers, they don’t have to find it, don’t need to drill for it, in fact they don’t even have to transport it. We deliver it right to their door for less than a penny a gallon, and all they have to do is turn on a tap. Yes, turn on a tap and charge us more than twice the price of gas… $7 a gallon for something that cost a penny. Well done, and …we all have been. I wish I had bought stock in one of these companies when they first started.
A large amount of bottled water is simply filtered tap water and has no more spent a million years in a subterranean cave than I have. Lets not overlook, if it had, …then why once we put it in a plastic bottle does it magically require a use by date.
Lest we forget, the municipal water authorities in the U.S have very stringent rules and regulations as to the quality of tap water. Is it perfect? …No, but what is. We can for a very reasonable price purchase another wonderful invention. In fact it was invented millions of years ago in that same subterranean cave … a water filter. Put it on our tap and presto, clean water. Yes, if you really need to keep hold of milleniums number one security blanket …you can filter it into a bottle (a reusable one would be nice)
The environment will thank you for this one little change, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo may not, but the rest of us and your wallet will.