With spring break looming, those students who plan to travel south of the border would be wise to heed the famous warning, “Don’t drink the water.”
Yet even here, far from Montezuma and his revenge, people often turn to bottled water for their suggested eight glasses a day.
Refill Not Landfill, a campaign founded by water bottle maker Nalgene, states that Americans drank 8.3 billion gallons of bottled water in 2006, amounting to 27.5 gallons per person. Eugene does not seem to be immune to this trend, even though the city boasts high-quality tap water.
Local drinking water is obtained from the McKenzie River, and Eugene Water and Electric Board’s 2006 Water Quality Report proclaims that our tap water “is among the best in the nation,” having “met or exceeded all state and federal drinking water health standards.”
Still, people like University students Stacey Myers and Courtney McConnell choose bottled water. Both gave “convenience” as the primary reason for their decision, although taste came close behind; however, Myers recognized the quality of local tap water.
“If I’m at home, I’ll use tap water,” she said, but “any time I’m outside the Willamette Valley, I’ll do bottled water only.”
Drinking bottled water is an expensive habit. Even with gas costing more than $3 per gallon, the equivalent amount of bottled water is at least twice as much: at least $1 per 20-ounce bottle.
Myers estimated that she spends $10 to $12 each week on bottled water. McConnell, meanwhile, has found a way to escape the costs of bottled water.
“I don’t spend money on it,” she said. “I just steal it from my parents when I go home.”
McConnell and Myers agreed that not every bottle of water is created equally. Myers has found that Arrowhead “tastes funny,” and McConnell avoids Coca-Cola’s Dasani.
“It tastes like sand,” she said. “It would kill me to have to drink it.”
Dasani and Pepsi’s Aquafina represent the most controversial sector of the bottled water industry. They lead the country in bottled water sales, yet both obtain their products from municipal water supplies.
They are not alone.
The Earth Policy Institute, an environmental think tank, estimates that 40 percent of all bottled water begins as tap water.
Taste tests have further increased doubts about the benefits of going bottled. University junior Jeff Chandler, who has worked for the Campus Recycling Program, said that the University has staged taste tests between tap water and bottled water, and “people don’t recognize the difference more than half the time.”
Chandler also expressed concern regarding students’ recycling of water bottles. He said that “around the rec center you see a lot more water,” but overall, bottled water “is not the most popular thing that gets recycled.”
This reflects a national trend. Refill Not Landfill estimates that the average person uses 166 plastic water bottles every year, yet only 20 percent of those reach the recycling bin. Suggested alternatives include switching to reusable water bottles and using water filters if tap water is inadequate.
McConnell, majoring in accounting, tries to be a conscientious bottled water consumer.
“I always have a Brita water filter in my fridge,” she said, and when she goes out with a bottle of water, she “always” recycles it.
Myers also limits her waste. After she finishes a bottle of water, she usually refills it with tap water, she said. But when asked whether she recycled her bottles, she paused before conceding, “Sometimes.”