Water is Water

How many of you buy bottles of water by the case? How many of you drink water exclusively from bottles? You may think that bottled water is harmless to the environment as long as you recycle it after but it is actually one of the most wasteful uses of our resources. It takes 17 million barrels of oil to produce enough bottles to supply the demand for bottled water in the United States. Bottled water can be seen as “glorified tap water”. Janet Majeski Jemmott from Reader’s Digest writes “evocative names and labels depicting pastoral scenes have convinced us that the liquid is the purest drink around”. We are trained to believe bottled water is our best option, it is convenient, safe, and better tasting. While some bottled waters come from sparkling springs, some come from a municipal supply. The water is bottled and sold to the public “at a thousandfold increase in price”. While the bottles are reusable, fewer than 20 percent are ever used more than once. After the initial use, if the bottles are not properly recycled it takes an estimated one thousand years to decompose. One of the best alternatives to this problem is the use of a water filter. Water filters can be purchased for around $30 from stores like Target, Wal Mart, and Rite Aid. For convenience, to have water when you are outside of your home, carry a stainless steel canteen.

This issue can also be linked to the diffusion of fashion. Diffusion is spreading an idea from one social group to another through “formal communications from the mass media, personal communications among current adopters and potential adopters, the persuasive influence of consumer leaders and other agents, and the degree to which the innovation is communicated and transferred from one social system to another” (Kawamura). For example, increasingly celebrities have become more eco conscious which has influenced me to reevaluate how I do certain things like using tap water rather than bottled water. There are many ways to reduce your carbon footprint which I have learned through various celebrities in the media promoting these methods.

Sources:

"Rethink What You Drink" Janet Majeski Jemmot

"Fashion-ology: An Introduction to Fashion Studies" by Yuniya Kawamura

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Samantha Ng