Del’s Peckham Mineral Water rip-off

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“Where the drinking water is safe, bottled water is simply a superfluous luxury that we should do without,”

For years I have been buying a specific brand of bottled water. I always buy this favoured global brand. They pack their water in 6 x 2l bottle packs down to a single small 350ml bottle. And no matter where I travel to in Europe, USA or Southern Africa I can always buy this brand.

But why do I buy and drink bottled water when I have the luxury of a modern kitchen with running water, both hot and cold?

I also have a modern refrigerator to keep my water cool on those few days when the heat in UK warms the underground watermains pipe to my house causing lukewarm water to be delivered out of the very chique & modern kitchen water taps.

I also know how heavy the six pack of 2l bottles is. Heck, it is heavy. So while surfing the net late Sunday night I stumbled across this article at the Fast Company site, and I had to read it in full. It shocked me into wanting to start drinking tap water.

But why do I drink bottled water?

So imagine if you will, how much 24 million bottles of Poland Spring water per day will weigh? In USA the Poland Spring water factory produces this type of lake that has to be transported out of their premises to their customers. I don’t know about you but the image of a weekly convoy the size of 37,000 18 wheeler trucks lining up outside the factories across America to load up (water weighs too much so they cannot fill the trucks) bottled water and ship the lot across the USA, is mind-blowing!

Yes, America is very thirsty.

“…..it is a lake of Poland Spring water, conveniently celled off in plastic, extending across 6 acres, 8 feet high. A week ago, the lake was still underground; within five days, it will all be gone, to supermarkets and convenience stores across the Northeast, replaced by another lake’s worth of bottles. Fiji Water produces more than a million bottles a day, while more than half the people in Fiji do not have reliable drinking water…..” You can click here to read more from the article at Fast Company

Somewhere along the line, we lost the plot about the bottle and what it costs in terms of oil and our environment. And so why do I drink bottled water?

We also lost the plot about the free or cheaper tap water in our kitchen taps (faucets). Yes, there are areas and towns where the water is not drinkable but in the main, we do have access to cheaper and free and good quality supplies of water from our own kitchen tap. But I still insist on drinking bottled water. Why?

BOTTLED WATER FACTS:

1) 38 billion plastic water bottles a year get chucked into landfill sites

2) This equates to more than $1 billion worth of plastic.

3) 24% of all the bottled water bought in America is tap water nicely repackaged by Coke and Pepsi. Remember that episode of Only Fools n Horses when Del & Rodney sold Peckham Mineral water?!! Classic humour. So are the Coca Cola and Pepsi companies taking the piss out of us consumers?

On average if America paid for their water each househod would add an extra $9,000 to the household budget. Staggering to think that we think bottled water is the way to go when it is in fact just a simple marketing rip-off. Oh and if you drink bottled water just because Madonna drinks Evian, it is high time for you to grow up, wake up and smell the coffee. She gets paid to advertise the product. And she prefers another brand probably while I follow suit and still drink bottled water.

So tell me again, why do I still drink bottled water?

Here is a quiz for you: How well do you know your bottled water?

And below is a video for you to watch!

Dels Peckham Mineral Water rip-off