Bottle or tap?

Bottled water is another example of ad dollars at work, convincing consumers to spend their money on something frivolous, and in this case something harmful to the environment and with a negligible health benefit.

"Critics of the [bottled water] industry say advertising by bottled water companies gives consumers the impression the product is safer and healthier than Canadian tap water, even though municipal water is more stringently tested. In Canada, local water supplies are inspected every day, whereas bottled-water plants are inspected at three-year intervals." -- cbc.ca

Bold is mine.

An incredible 80% of plastic water bottles end up being incinerated of sent to landfills (cbc.ca).

Anywhoo, follow the link for additional information. The article reports on a study, Against the flow: Which households drink bottled water? looking at bottled water consumption across Canada, considering factors such as income, education, and age.

If you'd rather not follow the link, then here's a summary:

• Lower income (< $40k) households drink less bottled water than higher income (> $91k) -- makes sense, bottled water isn't free.
• Only 17% of seniors reported drinking mostly bottled water at home.
• In high income (> $91k) households with a high school diploma or less, 44% primarily drank bottled water.
• In high income (> $91k) households with "some post-secondary education", 38% primarily drank bottled water.
• Only 29% of high income (> $91k) households having at least one member with a university degree drank bottled water.

The rest of the article briefly goes though the environmental issues and bottled water consumption stats -- 188.8 billion litres in 2007, worldwide.

Wangos. I need a drink.