Persuasive Essay On Bottled Water

Approximately 85 million bottles of water are consumed daily in the world. In fact, Americans now drink more bottled water than they do both milk and beer. Twenty years ago, most people would have laughed at the idea if someone had told them that people would pay to buy bottles of water everywhere, when they could get it for free from their tap at home or from public water fountains. Now, however, the bottled water industry is $16 billion a year industry. The need for bottled water in the beginning was based on health reasons. People bought water because they did not have access to clean, safe drinking water. While it seems simple enough to credit (or blame) bottled water’s recent popularity on clever marketing, the industry also has a foundation in a history of “deeply ingrained, cultural reverence for pure water,” according to Dr. Francis H. Chapelle, a hydrologist with USGS and author of the book Wellsprings: A Natural History Of Bottled Spring Waters. In the mid-1800s people often believed that spring water had many health benefits and some even believed it to serve medicinal purposes as well. Others believed spring water to have mystical and spiritual benefits. Bottled water was also a status symbol. It projected an image of wealth to those who bought it. Popularity of bottled water faded in the early part of

tap water does lead you to wonder if bottled water is actually better for you or of higher quality to justify paying such a difference. There have been numerous studies done on the difference. In fact, according to the National Resources Defense Council, as much as 40 percent of bottled water is actually from a tap. http://www.sustainabletable.org/issues/water/ Almost all of the studies performed showed that there is no real health benefit in drinking bottled water over tap water. The exception to this would be if you lived in an area that did not have an available source of clean, safe drinking