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What does the full analysis of what goes into bottled water look like? Because it seems to me like, at this point, the "bottle" part of bottled water could be t
by bunderbunder 8y ago
What does the full analysis of what goes into bottled water look like? Because it seems to me like, at this point, the "bottle" part of bottled water could be the least worrisome bit. Even if you get rid of the bottle, what does it take just to physically ship all this water around?
It's pretty heavy stuff. I'd assume its probably much more economical to transport in pipes than in trucks. Sort of like we do with things like oil and gas, when it's feasible to do so.
- 3chelon 8y agoThe "bottle" part is pretty bad. I heard somewhere a water bottle will last 400 years. I don't know for certain that that's true, but if it is, I can only wonder just who thought it would make an ideal container for someone to use for a few minutes and then throw away?
- bunderbunder 8y agoThere are so many ways to frame pollution. Taking 400 years to biodegrade is a big problem if you're worried about litter, or microplastics. On other hand, if you're more worried about things like climate change or smog, then turning it into something you bury and forget about might actually be the least harmful thing we could be doing with all this oil we've been pumping out of the ground lately. If it biodegrades, then it becomes a source of atmospheric CO2 just about as efficiently as if you were instead to burn it to make cars go.
- baroffoos 8y agoI can't believe I have never read this point before. This seems absolutely critical to the discussion.
- 3chelon 8y agoYes, I agree, and I'd go so far as to saying burning it is in one way better than it ending up in the sea, but clearly very bad in another sense. Just another example of how different facets of the "environmental" argument can be in conflict with one another. Nuclear power vs coal/oil power is similar dilemma.
- njarboe 8y agoIf the average failure rate is 400 years and the failure rate is close to Gaussian, how many coke bottles can you store in your warehouse for a month and expect not to have one leak? Not having a bottle leak is the whole point of a bottle. It might not matter to you if every once in a while a bottle you are handling leaks, but if you are shipping millions of them around in harsh conditions it would be nice not to have your truck covered in sticky corn syrup when you get to the store to off load.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- bunderbunder 8y agoWell, it depends. Is the standard deviation on that distribution ~400 years, or ~400 microseconds?
- njarboe 8y agoTrue, but I imagine that at the start they kept changing the bottles so they were made with as little plastic as practical while still not bursting very often while shipping and in storage. One burst per million over 3 months? Wonder what kind of mean time to burst that would give the group?
- CogitoCogito 8y agoYour post describes things in kind of an odd hypothetical fashion considering we already ship water around in pipes and aqueducts. That's been done for a couple thousand years. It's way more efficient than any other method.
- bunderbunder 8y agoYeah, I read something about that the other day. I've heard that, these days, you can even get the pipes to run all the way into your house!
- benj111 8y agoHave you got a reference for that?
- reaperducer 8y agoIn the United States, most bottled water isn't shipped very far. For example, the Nestle water sitting in front of me says the source is Denver's municipal water system. The Safeway bottled water I buy when I'm in California says it comes from Sacramento's municipal water system. Unless you buy something exotic like Fiji or NYC2O water, chances are it comes from a nearby city.
- emilecantin 8y agoYou could even extend these pipelines into customers' homes, completely eliminating the need for truck / car transport and packaging up to the last mile. Oh wait.
- baroffoos 8y agoDo people actually buy bottled water for use at home? My understanding was you either have a water filter tap or you buy those big boxes of water. Bottled water only makes sense to me if you are outside and didn't take a bottle with you.
- kalleboo 8y agoYes, people do
- swimfar 8y agoWhen I lived in Germany almost all my German friends bought large bottles of water to drink at home and never/rarely drank tap water. It's also uncommon for people to order tap water in restaurants. It would be interesting to know how this became common practice. They do often use reusable bottles, though.