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Taylor Farro
Professor W. Brown
Rhetoric and Composition
24 April 2013
Tap Water Vs. Bottled Water
Introduction:

From an early age I was programmed to grab a Poland Spring water bottle and head out

the door. It was second nature for my family and many others to take a disposable water bottle
with them as they leave their house. It was convenient, relatively inexpensive and when you
were done you could easily dispose of the empty bottle. My family was always busy running
from sporting event to sporting event that we even kept a case of water in our trunk. We became
so accustomed to drinking fresh, natural spring water that the thought of tap water was
disgusting. My dad even bought Fiji water and raved that it tasted so much better than other
water, it got so bad that we started to cook with filtered water. Why not use tap water? We
convinced ourselves that it tasted better, had less chemicals and was cleaner. However tap water
is less expensive, better for the environment, has less chemicals and overall the better choice.

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Evidence/Background:
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Running water has been around for many years, indoor plumbing was first noted around

the turn of the 20th century. Bottled water dates back to the 1700s but only recently have

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companies bottled and disturbed the water. Poland Spring the largest bottled water company was
established in 1987. Poland Springs idea behind creating bottled water was that it was
convenient and during a time where Americans started to work out more. Reusable water bottle
companies like CamelBak have been around since the 80s and was designed to provide water
bottles to extreme athletes. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was established in 1970
and was created to protect the environment. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was
established in 1930 and regulates and enforces laws to protect us what we put in our bodies.

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Opposition:
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One often hears people say that tap water does not taste as good as bottled water. Blind

taste test have been done to refute this point and show it is all in your head. I did a blind taste
test of my own to one hundred random people who were willing to take the test. I decided to
have three samples, Poland Spring bottled water, tap water and water from Richard Stockton
College purified water refill stations. Forty-four people chose water from the refill station,
twenty-nine choose tap water and only twenty-seven chose bottled water. My results proved that
people assume they like bottled water but when they take a blind taste test they are honest with
there decision. In addition, people believe that because tap water comes from the ground it is
polluted but it is regulated and tested more frequently than bottled water. Finally, people say
bottles of water are more convenient, but you can easily fill reusable water bottles and have them
ready to go which will also save you money.

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Argument

Drinking tap water is less expensive than bottled water and better economically. The

consumer could save you a significant amount of money, estimated thousands of dollars
annually. Investing in a reusable water bottle and or a water filter system is also less expensive
over time then having to buy cases of water. In my interview with professor Tait he states It is
possible for bottled water to be upwards of two thousand times more expensive than tap water,
there have been a lot of studies (Chirenje 1). Tait is a professor at Richard Stockton College and
concentrates in water chemistry, he is passionate about water conservation and has worked with
many groups researching this topic. Switching tap water can be beneficial, why waste your
money on bottles of water when you have perfectly good water available to you in seconds and is
also better for you economically. By drinking bottles of water you are basically throwing hard
earned money away. Investing in a reusable water bottle and using tap water saves you time and
money and is just as convenient as plastic water bottles.
Choosing to drink tap water instead of bottled water is an environmentally friendly
choice and could make an impact in our planets global condition. Plastic water bottles are one of
the biggest polluters on our planet. Only about twenty percent of our nations water bottles are
actually recycled and the other eighty percent end up in landfills or incinerated. Even after the
plastic bottles are incinerated they take over one thousand years to biodegrade, and the
incineration process is harmful to our air quality. In addition, the process of creating the water
bottle uses a lot of energy which is wasteful and not a necessity. Plastic water bottles are not
needed and there are alternative options that are not as wasteful. It is estimated that it takes about
three liters of water to actually produce only one bottle of water. Between production and

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transportation you are wasting and hurting our environment when you can instead just use tap
water. According to the organization Ban The Bottle Making bottles to meet Americas demand
for bottled water uses more than 17 million barrels of oil annually, enough to fuel 1.3 million
cars for a year. And thats not even including the oil used for transportation.(Bottlewaterfacts).
If we use the energy we waste making plastic water bottles we could power tens of thousands of
homes for people in need. As you can see plastic water bottles are wasteful and all of the time,
energy and resources could be put to better use.
Many people are under the impression that bottled water has less chemicals than tap
water however this is false. Bottled water is regulated by the Food and Drug
Administration(FDA) while tap water is regulated by the Environmental Protection
Agency(EPA). These two organizations have different requirements which determines what
levels of a particular chemical are acceptable. FDA is not as strict and allow certain chemicals
that the EPA does not allow. If a bottled water company fails a test the only have put a warning
on the label but can still be sold. For example fluoride is allowed by the FDA to be put into
bottled water but the EPA is more strict and does not allow it to be added.
Bottle water companies also use false advertising to fool the consumer into thinking that
their water is better and cleaner. They will often put a pretty landscape on the label to fool you
into thinking thats where it is coming from and not just a faucet. Bottled water is sometimes just
glorified tap water and the natural springs can be just tap water. In Bottled Water: Better Than
Tap? by E Blaurock-Busch he states Some bottled water comes from municipal sources-in
other words- tap water. According to government and industry estimates, about one fourth of
bottled water is bottled tap water (and by some accounts, as much as 40 percent is derived from

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tap water)(Bottledwaterbetterthantap Blaurock). This shows how the public is mislead into
believing that bottled water is better even when it is just part tap water. Furthermore, city water is
often cleaner than suburban water because it is tested more often. New York City has the cleanest
tap water, but many people assume that city water is bad. Also the claim that bottled water taste
better is not valid because after blind taste tests it is proven that tap water wins more often.
Overall water bottle companies will try to fool the consumer but tap water is better than bottled
water.
Solution
As a consumer one should become aware of these issues and take action to get the word
out about the truths of bottled and tap water. By voicing your opinion and extending the message
and facts that tap water is better economically, environmentally and has less chemicals you are
making an impact. So many Americans are unaware of this issue and need to be informed so they
can make an informed decision about what they want to put into their bodies.
Conclusion
In conclusion, tap water is better than bottled water because it is less expensive, takes less
energy to produce and has less chemicals. Tap water is just as convenient as bottled water
especially now with access to reusable water bottles and at home filtration systems. Bottled
water is also very wasteful and takes a lot of energy to produce and deliver just one bottle to your
house. Along with the chemicals in bottled water and the fact that it is part tap water consumers
should switch to solely tap water.

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Works Cited Page
1. Busch, Blaurock E. "Bottled Water: Better Than Tap?" The Original Internist 16.2 (2009)
69+. Academic Search Complete. Web. 2 Apr. 2014.
2. Bottle Vs. Tap Water." Interview by Tait Chirenje. N.d. In Person.

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3. Bottled Water Facts." Ban the Bottle RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Apr. 2014.
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4. Raj, Sean D. "Bottled Water: How Safe Is It?" Water Environment Research. 7th ed. Vol. 77.
N.p.: Water Environment Federation, 2005. 3013-018. JSTOR. Web. 2 Apr. 2014.

5. National Research Council. "Small Water Supply Systems: An Unsolved Problem." Safe Water
From Every Tap. Washington D.C: National Academy, 1997. 12-20. Web. 2 Apr.
2014.

6. US Environmental Protection Agency." EPA. Environmental Protection Agency, n.d. Web. 09

Apr. 2014.

7. U.S. Food and Drug Administration." U S Food and Drug Administration Home Page. N.p.,
n.d. Web. 09 Apr. 2014.

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