Why Bottled Water is Bad for Your Family (& Easy Alternatives)

You’re dashing around between ballet class, soccer practice, grocery shopping, and running to the Post Office. In the backseat, your kids complain they’re thirsty. Without hesitation, you reach into the glove compartment box, grab some bottled water, and hand it back to your children.

If this sounds like you, you’re not alone. As most moms know, there are lots of good reasons for drinking bottled water. As Tanya, a New Jersey mom of two, says, “Bottled water is convenient. Time and convenience are valuable.” She also drinks bottled water for health reasons. She’s allergic to fluoride, which rules out tap water. And for her kids? “When given the choice between grabbing a juice box and grabbing bottled water,” Tanya says, “I’d rather grab the water. Water is healthier than sugary kids’ drinks, and bottles can be recycled.”

So bottled water is good for you and your kids…Right?

The environment and plastic water bottles

According to the Container Recycling Institute (CRI), each day Americans drink more than 70 million bottles of water. This might not be a big deal if all those bottles were recycled, but according to Congress, 30,000,000 bottles a year end up in U.S. landfills. It’s hard to know how long it takes those bottles to biodegrade. Modest estimates say it takes 50 to 450 years, depending upon conditions. Other sources claim thousands - even millions - of years.

Most plastic bottles are recyclable, though, so what’s the problem? Many people, like Liberty, a new and busy mom from Kansas, think recycling centers are the problem. “It would be better if more places recycled plastic bottles,” she says. But this might not be the heart of the matter.

According to the State of California, every day about 3 million empty water bottles end up in the garbage, despite the fact that recycling centers accept them and they are worth $26 million in unclaimed California Refund Value (CRV) deposits.

Some bottling companies, like Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, have promised to use recycled bottles to create new ones, but they may have to break those promises. CRI says only 4% of plastic bottles are used to make new bottles - in part because new bottles from recycled ones take more energy to produce than those made from virgin materials.

Another issue with plastic bottles is the amount of oil used to produce them. Pacific Research Institute says it takes 17 million barrels to make water bottles for Americans - plus additional oil to transport them. They say this oil could fuel over a million cars for one year.

Tap Water Alternatives?

So what’s a mom to do? Many Americans turn to tap water, and most experts say this is a good option. Lots of moms filter their tap water, and feel secure in knowing their family is consuming something healthy. But how do you take tap water with you? Niki, an Oregonian mom of three, gives a common answer, “I don’t consume bottled water because it’s a waste of plastic. I use one sports bottle of tap water for working out and refill it each time. I don’t like throwing away unnecessary items when there are perfectly good alternatives.”

Yet experts claim this isn’t a good idea. The Environmental Working Group says tap water in 42 states contains 141 unregulated contaminants that have no safety standards. Many of these contaminants do not get removed with kitchen filters. And who isn’t shocked to learn Erin Brockovich (made famous by the Julia Roberts movie about a spunky woman who fights a big business that’s contaminating local water supplies) is still finding contaminated water in the U.S.?

Reusable bottles can pose risks, too

Some claim plastic bottles pose health risks, too. When you leave plastic bottles in a warm place (like the car or a shipping yard) they may leach chemicals linked to cancer in adults and poor brain function in children and babies. Although the National Toxicology Program (part of the National Institutes of Health) isn’t willing to say this is a major problem, they recently reported “there is some concern” about it. “Note that the possible levels of concern, from lowest to highest, are negligible concern, minimal concern, some concern, concern, and serious concern.”

Keith Christman, director of packaging at American Chemistry Council, also says, “the same goes for exposing an open water bottle to room temperature for too long. You want to treat it as an opened food product container…bacteria can grow in warm conditions.” And unless bottles are thoroughly sanitized between uses, you’re probably exposing your family to undesirable bacteria.

Water in a box

Frustrating, isn’t it? There is another alternative, though. It’s called “water in a box.” The manufacturers of this product claim that for every 5,000 five liter boxes of their “IceBox water” consumed, 25,000 plastic water bottles are replaced, 1,396 pounds of plastic are removed from the manufacturing process, and 474 gallons of oil are not used. The packaging is 100% recyclable cardboard from sustainable forests; it quickly biodegrades into compost that’s good for the soil. It’s even printed with vegetable dyes.

To avoid problems with bacteria, IceBox water has a unique spout made from Polyethylene (the same material used for IV bags). According to the manufacturer, these use “a fraction” of the oil used for plastic water bottles. Too, because of this spout, they claim the water stays fresh indefinitely. The spout’s one-way valve doesn’t allow contamination to enter the box, even after it’s been opened.

One does wonder why nobody thought of this before. It seems to make a lot more sense than using plastic bottles. But the real trick might be finding the product. The manufacturer lists retailers on its website, and some are fairly widely available, but others are not.

Still, this mom thinks it’s worth the effort to seek them out.