The quote in the title comes from a great documentary made this year called “Tapped”.

I heard about the new movie “Tapped” in the summer time, but I never got around to checking it out. When I came across the movie trailer recently, it instantly grabbed my attention. It is a powerful documentary that should be watched by anyone who drinks bottled water. You can watch the “trailer” for the movie at the end of this article.

There are 29 billion plastic drinking water bottles made in America each year. When I think about how few of those bottles make in to recycling plants, it makes me sick to my stomach. But the landfill problem is only the beginning. When you take into consideration the amount of petrochemicals consumed in making the bottles and transporting the water, the environmental toll is staggering. Finally, when you learn that most of the bottled water we drink is filtered tap water, you just have to shake your head because of all the resources and money wasted on products that we don’t need.

According to an advertisement on one of the website of one water ionizer company, the average American family spends $400 per year on bottled water. Bottled water generally tastes better than most tap water, but if you left your tap water exposed to air for a few minutes, it would taste much like your bottled water because the chloring gas would have a chance to escape into the air.

Bottled water is not better for you than tap water. In fact, bottled water is an unregulated industry while municipalities must adhere to the Clean Water Act in the USA and in Canada. While the Clean Water Acts in both countries are obsolete, and inadequate, they do set basic guidelines that place it far ahead of the bottled water industry.

If you can afford a filter system, you should purchase one and hook it up to the tap in your kitchen, or wherever you get your drinking water. Don’t listen to what your governments is telling you about the safety of the water that they are supplying to you. Your municipality is obligated to remove about 60 contaminants from your drinking water. Unfortunately, there are about 60,000 known contaminants in the source waters in our countries. Instead of wasting $400 per year on tap water that you buy in bottles, why not consider investing in a proper filter.

Solutions:

You can buy a basic water filter such as a Brita for about $20, which is really inexpensive. Brita wins on the replacement filters that should be changed every few weeks and the annual cost of replacement filters is about $100. The primary function of the Brita filter is to remove the taste and odor from chlorine.

What Brita and other filter companies don’t want you to know is that the taste and odor from chlorine will evaporate out of your tap water if you leave the water in a pitcher on the counter or in your refrigerator for a few minutes. The nasty taste and odor cause by the chlorine that is introduced into your water supply by your municipality to kill bacteria and maker your water “safe”, can’t evaporate when it is in the water mains and pipes that feed your house, but as soon as your water is exposed to air, nature will take care of the problem. Try it yourself and you will see.

You can also install a basic under counter or even above counter charcoal water filter canister filter for about $70 from your local hardware supply store. The annual cost or replacing a single canister charcoal filter should not be more than $20 per year.

I think every household should have a minimum of a 3 canister under sink (or above counter for those who rent and are not allowed to drill a hole in their counter top) pre-filter system. The systems can be customized to be effective in removing specific contaminants such as fluoride and chloramines and other substances found in your source water. The systems can be purchased for about $250 including the filters. The annual replacement cost of the filters should be about $120. Many websites advertise more expensive filter systems, but for most situations, they are unnecessary.

The new Antioxidant Filter systems at a cost of $400 provide better filtration than the three canister pre-filter systems. The annual replacement cost of the filters is about $100. However, the really cool thing about the Antioxidant Filters is that they are much more than a filter system, because they also deliver the same health benefits of as good water ionizers that cost $1,500 to $4,000. That means that you are effectively paying an additional $150 for an effective producer of alkaline ionized water. It seems to me that the decision to buy one of these systems is a ” no brainer” if you care about the quality of the water that you drink and your health.

If you can spare five minutes, the “Tapped” movie trailer below is worth watching:

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author.