Bottled water companies want you to think that it’s cleaner than tap water and a healthier choice than soda.

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However, it has Environmental Justice, health, and economoic implications from source to landfil. In NC, let’s kick the habit and protect our affordable, local drinking water sources here at home!

Unsafe?

Top brands like Aquafina and Dasani, labeled “Purified Water,” are usually tap water from big cities put through a special process to just improve taste.

Additionally, high temperatures may cause the plastics to leach toxic and carcinogenic chemicals into the water, putting your health at risk and adding more toxins to our environment!

Expensive

Have you ever calculated how much you spend on bottled water annually? According to the AAA’s Daily Fuel Gauge Report, bottled water can cost nearly 2,400 times the price of tap water and almost three times the price of regular-grade gasoline per gallon – Why pay more?

Wasteful

The industry produces up to 1.5 million tons of plastic waste per year. The process releases chemicals into the environment, uses up petroleum resources, and adds to our waste stream. Only 25% of plastic bottles are recycled! The rest end up somewhere eventually – beaches, oceans, landfills – and stay without breaking down for thousands of years.

Further, bottled water must be transported, which requires using fuel. 1/4 of bottled water is consumed outside its country of origin.

A Threat to Local, Public Water

People who consume a lot of bottled water may not realize the importance of supporting funding for maintenance and improvement of our public water systems. Federal funding for water systems has fallen steeply in the U.S. since the 1970s. And, in many cases, water pumping by bottlers drains the local community’s water system.