Have you ever cracked open a cold bottle of water after a tough workout only to ponder where that particular serving happened to come from? In other words, companies get to profit from something that’s absolutely vital to human life by packaging it in plastic, so the water in your bottle must be from a fresh rain or a crystal spring or melting glacier as the labels suggest, right?But, it turns out that a majority of bottled water is taken straight from the tap. This makes drinking tap water the greener option.

The results of a new study released by the International Bottled Water Association show that, at peak efficiency, the industry uses an average of 1.39 liters of water for every one liter of bottled water. Oddly enough, the IBWA is celebrating this statistic as a victory, but as TheDailyGreen.com points out, “That means more than one bottle's worth of water is wasted for every three produced. Imagine dumping one glass of water for every three you pour from the tap. Does that sound like efficient use of resources? (Wasting one in four bottle's worth of water is the rate for producing individual-sized servings of bottled water; for the bigger home and office-sized water bottles, the waste is worse, with about two-thirds of a bottle wasted for every one produced.)”

So, U.S. tap water is just as safe as most bottled waters and far more efficient. Plus, any one of the filtering products on the market will take care of those taste and chlorination issues. This is one excellent way for the general public to contribute to sustainability. And, if you’re lucky enough to rely on a private well for your drinking water, get is tested regularly for contamination. So, happy drinking and save the bottled stuff for your emergency/disaster supply.

Source: http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/bottled-water-waste-1310