Bottled Water Is Crazy Expensive
Lee Klein has quite a long story in today's New Times about the whole bottled water controversy .... What struck us is exactly how expensive bottled water is. Here are a few choice quotes from the article:
Jonathan Eismann, chef/owner of Pacific Time, can't fathom why "people are complaining about gas being $4.50 a gallon. Meanwhile they're paying nine bucks a gallon for water."Nine dollars a gallon for something that can be had for pennies is pretty hard to justify. Another example:
"A family of three who rely exclusively on bottled water will, by the time the first child is 18, have already spent the equivalent of that child's college education in a public university on that water."That's an absurd amount of money. And, as the article notes, 40 percent of bottled water actually comes from municipal water supplies — the same places that supply the water the comes out of your kitchen faucet. One more choice quote:
Dasani's Florida stock comes from Broward County, which buys its water from the City of Hollywood Water Treatment Plant, which secures its supply from the Biscayne and Floridan aquifers. It has been estimated that the average bulk cost paid for public water is between one and two cents a gallon. At a Publix supermarket in Miami Beach, a 20-ounce single-serve bottle of Dasani costs, with tax, $1.50 — or $10 to $20 a gallon, about 500 to 1,000 times the price.It really is absolutely brilliant on the part of these corporations. We're being totally duped.
Bottled Water Gets the Boot [Miami New Times]
Photo: Wikimedia
