Running Head: BOTTLED WATER 1

Don't Buy Bottled Water, It's Stolen Water

Eva Ana Mendoza

Reedley Community College, Reedley

A persuasion in reducing the consumption of bottled water that was taken from our land and

processed with excessive minerals.

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My purpose is to persuade the audience to reduce or completely halt altogether the

consumption of bottled water, as it is groundwater that was extracted by corporations that are

selling it back to us with undesirable levels of minerals. I will utilize the "problem solution"

speech pattern.

[Start with two glasses of water: One with tap water and one with Great Value Bottled

Water on table. One bottle of Mio water flavor that has been emptied out and filled with PH

testing fluid.]

There are two glasses of water and one mio flavoring liquid. Let's take a look of what's

behind this water "enhancing" fluid.

[Pour drop into each glass, each should be a different color]

Well that's a little weird, unless you realize that this is PH testing fluid and not mio water

"enhancer". As it turns out, this glass is tap water and this glass is Great Value bottled Water.

The bottled water is acidic, while the tap water is balanced. I will be covering the shortcomings

of bottled water and why one should reduce consumption or avoid altogether the consumption of

bottled water. We will be covering the main corruption of bottled water not seen in the water

itself, which is actually our groundwater taken by corporations and sold back to us, with

sometimes the water just being packaged tap water. The other caveat to bottled water is the

plastic bottles that tend to pollute our environment and disrupt our ecosystem. Finally, we will be
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learning about a few more desirable alternatives to bottled water that are not too difficult or

extraneous to incorporate into our lives.

II.)

1) Quite possibly below us is groundwater that could be used for irrigation purposes or as

drinking water, yet we are buying bottled water from companies that dare take that water from

literally beneath our feet and profit from it.

According to Anne Christiansen Bullers, Americans drank 5 billion gallons worth of

bottled water in 2001. That must have been a lot of money spent on bottled water that could have

been saved by drinking tap water. According to Matthew Boesler, $11.8 billion was spent on

bottled water in America in 2012. That's our money that's lining the pockets of big corporations

who sold us the water that belongs to us.

According to David Dayen, Nestlé has been siphoning water from Strawberry Creek, CA

since 1992. I'm sure you are all familiar with the draught that California is currently

experiencing, yet we turn our backs to companies like Nestlé taking our water for profit while

they only pay $524 a year to access said water (Dayen). We can stop corporate greed one bottle

of water at a time and dry up the deep wells that are the pockets of corrupt businesses.

2) While the water itself that is present in bottled form is tainted with greed, the bottles

that hold the actual water are tainting our environment. Our reduction of the consumption of

bottled water can help reduce pollution and the need for recycling of plastic.

According to Richard J. Dolesh, more than 85 percent of the plastic that makes up plastic

water bottles is dumped in landfills or burnt up, which releases toxins into our air. That adds up
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to be around 3 million tons of plastic that is polluting our water, land, roads, and daily lives

(Dolesh) because we choose to drink bottled water.

A lot of energy, and water funny enough, goes into producing bottled water. According to

Julia Whitty, roughly a quarter of a plastic bottle of oil goes into manufacturing that same plastic

bottle. According to the Pacific Institute, two bottles worth of water go into producing a single

water bottle. We are wasting water for the sake of having water in a bottled form. Consuming

water is natural, yet we have turned it into an otherworldly beast that seeks to wreak havoc upon

our suffering planet by excessive consumption of bottled water.

3) Reducing or abstaining from bottled water can seem like a daunting task, but there are

some good alternatives that are rather easy to implement into one's daily life. Some of the bottled

water alternatives include tap water filters, pitcher filters, and gallon refilling stations.

According to Brita's website, the annual cost of a Brita pitcher water filter is $89.64,

while bottled water holds an average cost of $1034.20 per year. According to Costhelper, a tap

water filter averages from $15 to $50. Now while these are good filtration methods, they are

absolutely not necessary if your tap water happens to be safe to drink as it is. According to

Amazon.com, a water testing kit costs about $18 to test your water for levels of lead, chlorine,

etc.

There are stations to refill one’s water too for those who still rather not drink from the

tap. Personally my family and I use those to get our drinking water. According to Lizzie

Johnson, San Francisco has installed 69 water refill stations throughout the city to encourage

people and families to obtain their drinking water there as opposed to tap water or unhealthy soft

drinks. According to Hannah ellsbury, similar water stations are also being fitted at the

University of San Diego. According to Dana Budzaj,42 water bottle refill stations were installed
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at the University of Michigan. According to Andrew Theen, more than 90 schools across the

United States have outright banned or restricted the sale of bottled water on campus. These refill

stations are often fitted with filters like those that we can purchase for our homes, making them

more reliable than tap water. Also important is the fact that these stations encourage us to use

refillable containers rather than single use plastic bottles.

So we learned about the corruption behind bottled water and how we need to start

refuting the greed by big corporations looking to profit on something we as humans have a right

to for free. I have also discussed with you how we have basically taken natural water from this

Earth and turned it into a form of pollution via the plastic bottles that require water, oil, and

energy to be manufactured and later littered in our ecosystems and on our roads. Finally, we

looked at alternatives to bottled water and how those alternatives can provide benefits to us and

our environment. Remember, stay away from bottled water, get yourself a water filter, save the

environment, and stay away from Mio because that shit is nasty!
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References

Amazon. (2016). In Amazon.com: Online Shopping For Electronics, Apparels,

Computers, Books, DVDs & More.. Retrieved October 6, 2016, from Amazon.com

Boesler, M. (2013, July 12). Bottled Water Costs 2000 Times As Much As Tap Water.

In Bottled Water Costs 2000x More Than Tap - Business Insider. Retrieved from

http://www.businessinsider.com/bottled-water-costs-2000x-more-than-tap-2013-7

Bottled Water and Energy Fact Sheet - Pacific Institute. (2007, February). Retrieved

November 08, 2016, from http://pacinst.org/publication/bottled-water-and-energy-a-fact-sheet/

Brita: Water Filters & Water Filtration Systems. Retrieved November 08, 2016, from

https://www.brita.com/

Budzaj, D. (2012, August 31). U Installs Water Refill Stations, Supports Use of Reusable

Water Bottles. Retrieved November 08, 2016, from http://sustainability.umich.edu/news/u-

installs-water-refill-stations-supports-use-reusable-water-bottles

Bullers, A. C. (2002). Bottled Water: Better Than the Tap?. FDA Consumer, 36(4), 14.

Dayen, D. (2016). Battled Water (August 2016 ed.). Los Angeles, CA: Los Angeles

Magazine.

Dolesh, R. J. (2014). The Problem With Bottled Water (May 2014 ed., pp. 36-38). N.p.:

Parks & Recreations.

Ellsbury, H. (2014, October 7). Water Refill Stations Help Students Stay Hydrated

During San Diego Drought. Retrieved November 08, 2016, from

https://www.banthebottle.net/articles/water-refill-stations-help-students-stay-hydrated-during-

san-diego-drought/
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Theen, A. (2012, March 11). Top colleges shunning bottled water. Pittsburgh Post-

Gazette Retrieved November 08, 2016, from http://sks.sirs.com

Whitty, J., Weinstein, P. B., & Ginsky, J. (2009, February 27). Your Water Bottle Is One-

Quarter Oil. Retrieved November 08, 2016, from http://www.motherjones.com/blue-

marble/2009/02/your-water-bottle-one-quarter-full-oil