
Liquid assets: how the business of bottled water went mad - thoughtfox
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/oct/06/liquid-assets-how--business-bottled-water-went-mad
======
teslabox
The World Health Organization has a report titled "Health risks from drinking
demineralised water". The main problem is that water without minerals upsets
the osmotic balance and leads to lysing (rupture) of the cells lining the
stomach.

The WHO has moved stuff on their site, but I think this document is one
source:

[http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/dwq/nutrientschap...](http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/dwq/nutrientschap12.pdf)

Coffee grounds are a good filter for removing heavy metal contaminants from
water:

[http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/24/science/coffee-grounds-
fil...](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/24/science/coffee-grounds-filter-heavy-
metals-water.html)

~~~
50CNT
It just gets more and more complex, doesn't it. Now we have to worry about
remineralizing RO water.

    
    
        [Tap Water] 
             |
             V
        [Water Softener]------------+ 
             |                      |
             V                      V
        [Reverse Osmosis System]  [Showering & Washing] 
             |
             V
        [Remineralizer] 
             |
             V
        [RO storage tank]
             |
             V
        [Drinking]

~~~
seanp2k2
Yeah, I always wondered why there isn't simply one line running to the
bathrooms + laundry room with softened water, and a separate line which goes
through RO for everything else. Putting a RO + tank under the sink but the
softener in the garage / basement seems backwards to me; I know nothing about
plumbing but it would seem to make more sense to have a small softener under
the bathroom sink just for the shower.

~~~
gh02t
You put the softener at the inlet to the house because you don't want to have
hard water flowing through the pipes in your house. Hard water precipitates
minerals that ruin the piping, hence you put the softener at the main inlet.

------
ars
> He liked the can, too – more environmentally friendly than a plastic bottle

Say what? Plastic bottles are much more environmentally friendly.

Sigh, if people can't even agree on what is and isn't good for the environment
there is zero chance of actually improving it. (Or maybe we've reached the max
and the only things left to argue about is little irrelevant things.)

~~~
gh02t
Yeah, I'm kind of wondering where that comes from... I guess because PET is a
petroleum product? There's so much more to it than that though, it's silly to
simplify things that far.

~~~
tedunangst
Literally made from carbon!

------
Aloha
I on average drink 120-150 oz of water a day (sometimes a portion of this is
unsweet iced tea, or diet soda), since I started doing this, I've lost weight
and generally feel healthier. So several years ago, I got in the habit of
lugging around a large beverage container
([http://www.whirleydrinkworks.com/productinfo.php?prod-
code=X...](http://www.whirleydrinkworks.com/productinfo.php?prod-
code=XM-64&cat=cw&sub=i)) 9 times out of 10 its just tap water I put in the
thing. I only drink bottled water when I'm in a position where I can't get
access to fill my beverage container from the tap - or when due to security or
other factors I'm unable to bring my large beverage cup, but bottled water is
allowed.

Bottled water (usually purchased in a 1.5l, 2l or 1gal container) is something
I purchase only for convenience when I simply don't have access to any tap
water at all.

~~~
dawnerd
Pretty much same as you, although sadly a lot more of my fluid intake is in
the form of coke zero which I'm trying to break. I only keep bottled water
around in case of emergency. I've found that after I bought a large Nalgene
bottle I drink a lot more water.

~~~
the_economist
Try switching to green tea + l-theanine. I went from coke -> coffee -> tea
without a problem. The main addiction is to the caffeine.

~~~
duncanawoods
> The main addiction is to the caffeine.

I'm not so sure. I think there is something else about it that makes it habit
forming. When dieting I sometimes get into a 10 can a day habit with fairly
strong cravings despite a high caffeine intake from coffee.

The cravings are not too hard to overcome - a few days of abstinence and they
go away. I don't notice health/well-being differences with or without it. The
main motivation to quit is because lugging crates of the stuff home is a damn
nuisance!

~~~
dawnerd
For me I think it's the carbonation which makes me wonder how carbonated tea
would fare.

------
samstave
I stayed at a hotel that offered complimentary bottle of water in the room, I
think this was in Dallas. I read the label and they stated that the water
source was the municipal water supply - so it was the same as tap water...

~~~
Symbiote
Coca Cola's brand "Dasani" is bottled tap water.

I'm from Britain, where the product was withdrawn after terrible publicity,
and following that it was never launched in the rest of Europe. I hadn't
realised it still existed in the USA:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dasani](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dasani)

("Can't live without spunk" is unbelievably bad advertising too. Spunk is
slang for semen...)

~~~
foobarian
Time to point out what Evian spells when read backwards...

~~~
strictnein
Time to point out that Evian is a place in France where the company originated

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89vian-les-
Bains](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89vian-les-Bains)

------
golemotron
Capitalism metastasized when bottled water replaced public drinking fountains
in the 90s and 00s.

------
samstave
My family owns a water company in Lake Tahoe, I've been wanting to bottle it
for years, but there is a law that won't allow us to do so.

I live in alameda, and I drink the tap water - I love it. I have kleen canteen
I keep with me almost always with water in it, and I try to avoid bottled
water as much as possible mostly because I don't like the plastic waste

------
nfriedly
I live in the countryside in Ohio. We have a well and a water softener. But my
kitchen sink has a second faucet that goes directly to the well, bypassing the
softener - I always drink from that one because it tastes better.

I fill up my Nalgene before I leave and only buy bottled water on rare
occasions.

I used to live in San Mateo, they had pretty good tap water to.

~~~
schwap
Interesting -- most water softener setups I have seen are only plumbed into
the hot water, I've been told that this is because drinking softened water is
not recommended.

~~~
nfriedly
Hum. This is the first house I've ever owned, and this is the 3rd or 4th thing
I've been told wasn't "normal" about it. The previous owner also ran a
construction company, and I'm pretty sure he did a lot of work on this house
himself, so it wouldn't surprise me if this is another instance of that.

For the most part, though, everything works well enough. So I'm happy overall.

------
draw_down
What I don't get: why is a bottle of Coca-Cola better than a bottle of water?

And, well... what else are you supposed to do if you aren't going to be near a
faucet for a while?

~~~
Sharlin
Uh. You fill a purpose-made reusable container with water and take it with
you. What do you think people did before bottled water became a thing?

~~~
wtbob
Or, y'know, just wait, also like people used to do. One won't die without
frequent sips of water.

I remember once seeing a women in a church service with her mandatory stylish
bottle of water. Now, it's certainly possible that she had an actual medical
issue requiring frequent hydration, and it's certainly possible that she was
also of a social class such that the stylish water bottle was the reasonable
way to address her medical issue — but Ockham's Razor suggests not.

Water's great. Honestly, I like the idea of a water sommelier: having the
opportunity to taste different waters sounds cool. I _love_ the idea of
drinking water thousands of years old (although I wonder how trustworthy the
supplier are: it'd be a lot cheaper just to distil tapwater than to net chunks
of iceberg). But the social signalling aspect is just _weird_.

We pay millions of dollars for good, clean drinking water. And it is — outside
of hellholes like Flint, MI — pretty damned good stuff. Why buy it as a matter
of course?

------
tomjen3
Tap water is awesome when you are home and it doesn't taste like crap. Bottled
water is awesome when I am at the gym, or out and about.

I really don't get why the left hate water bottles so fucking much, it has
become quite tiresome.

~~~
collyw
Because they are an environmental disaster with no need for them. Get a
refillable water bottle and take that to the gym.

~~~
seanp2k2
Why does the US continue to let plastic bottles of water (or anything) be
sold? I agree that it's terrible for the environment. I'm guessing that the
reason is "lobbyists" :(

~~~
tedunangst
Is the US somehow unique in selling plastic bottles? Why don't those
environmentally conscious countries ban plastic?

------
Theodores
I think part of this is to do with the 'hydrate' word. Years ago, before water
was advertised on television there was this word 'thirsty'. Sometimes, on a
hot day or after some strenuous activity you might be 'thirsty' and need to
have a drink of tea or maybe just plain water for instant refreshment. The
water came from the tap, where else?

But then times changed. Nowadays people don't listen to their bodies and drink
accordingly. The advertisers have told people that they need to buy water and
drink it to avoid getting dehydrated - 'mustn't get dehydrated'... Tapwater is
inconceivable to this demographic, it has to be the stuff in plastic bottles
(water cooler included).

I also like the way old-fashioned drinks are a slightly sociable thing. If I
make tea I do it for everyone, we take turns. Meanwhile the 'hydrationists'
sort their own bottled water arrangements out, it is not a shared thing.

I also like the way that tap water gets to your door. There are pumping
stations, pipes and this thing called gravity!!! Meanwhile, the
'hydrationists' need little men driving big lorries full of water across
continents, more little people in shops stacking shelves with this stuff, time
out of their day to go to the shops to buy this stuff and the money to pay for
it. I don't see myself as that special, tap water is more me (60% or so...),
you are what you drink.

~~~
hueving
Many people don't drink from the tap because they are convinced it's bad water
(which is true in corner cases at least in the US). Everyone I know who drinks
bottled does it because of this and it has nothing to do with this 'hydration'
ritual you are theorizing.

~~~
david-given
I live in Zürich.

The water company here says that it's unfair to compare the tap water with
bottled mineral water; the tap water is substantially better.

(I had a tour of the plant. They are a serious group of overachievers. The
source of the water is mostly the local lake, and is purified by, two grades
of sand filter, activated charcoal, ozone purification, and a bacterial bed.
They actively manage the biofilms in the water pipes; the water itself is so
clean that chlorination is unnecessary. They also actively manage the local
aquifers so that the underground water flow near any industrial site flows
away from their collection wells. There are two separate distribution
networks, one for emergencies, plus a warehouse full of bagged water ready for
distribution. And, best of all, it tastes great.)

~~~
wlievens
Well it's just plain unfair to compare German efficiency and thoroughness
with... anywhere else in the world.

~~~
lukeqsee
Zürich is in Switzerland.

I wouldn't recommend calling them German. :)

~~~
smallnamespace
Culturally/linguistically German/Germanic?

'The official language of Zürich is (the Swiss variety of Standard) German...'
[1]

Northern Switzerland was founded by Germanic tribes, after all.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z%C3%BCrich](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z%C3%BCrich)

[2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_Switzerland#Germa...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_Switzerland#German)

~~~
JumpCrisscross
We have multiple official languages, including an Italian derivative and
French. Our history is as independently rich, tracing to the Holy Roman
Empire, as that of the Germanic tribes.

~~~
smallnamespace
Yes, but 'German' or 'Germanic' is still the accepted English word to refer to
the shared culture and history of all German-speaking areas, of which northern
Switzerland and Zurich are definitely part.

The term is not restricted to only refer to modern Germany (which didn't even
exist as a unified state until the late 19th century).

