During the Friday afternoon meetings in the Greenbelt community, we discuss ways we can live a more sustainable lifestyle, fun facts we learned during the past week, or simply what comes to mind about our environment and other aspects of our lives. One of the most interesting tidbits of information we discussed was when we were talking about the differences between bottled water and tap water.
People buy bottled water because they want quality controlled, clean water. However, people are much more likely to get infected drinking bottled water than tap water. Companies that put out bottled waters fall under the regulations of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration; the policies regarding quality control and testing are the same as for any other food. On the other hand, tap water and the water reservoirs are under the city’s regulations and are tested multiple times a day; this results in a much cleaner source of water than bottled. While this was already an interesting fact, we also learned that according to the American Water Works Association, Greenville, SC, has the cleanest tap water in the nation. I found this to be the most fascinating fact of Greenville and of drinking water in general. Since then, whenever I see someone buying water, I throw some facts at them and tell them how much better tap water is.
On top of being better for us, it is also much better for our environment. You can get one water bottle and be set for life, instead of wasting multiple plastic bottles a day.
So I encourage all of you to go out and buy a water bottle and start drinking tap water!
-Adel Takacs