In the good old days when there was only tap water available, people used to happily drink tap water without any worries. However, with increased pollution, scarcity of water in some areas, and the arrival of multiple brands of bottled water in numerous stores, there is a lot of confusion between bottled or tap water in the minds of various people.
Bottled water, which was once promoted as safe drinking water for people on the move or those that might be hiking in remote areas has now been launched as a direct attack on tap water. Many manufacturers have now started advertising that their bottled water is better than tap water but there have been several instances where bottled water has proven to be simply tap water filled in bottles. Tap water is filtered by local municipal authorities in different states and countries and then supplied to households. Some countries also add vital chemicals such as fluoride according to the requirements of the local population. Tap water usually requires no additional filtration but many people do fill up bottles at home and keep them in the fridge so as to drink cool drinking water or use different flavors to drink tasty and chilled flavored water.
Bottled water is usually tap water or even spring water, well water or water from other sources that is filtered using several filtration methods before being bottled and dispatched to various wholesalers and then to retailers. There are hardly any benefits other than convenience when people buy bottled water. In fact bottled water has been found to be inferior to tap water in some instances. A healthier alternative for most people would be to use filtering dispensers at home. A dispenser is just like a mini-filtration plant that provides filtered tap water or even uses large gallons of bottled water. There are certain brands such as vitapur that make large and small water dispensers, which provide clear and safe drinking water. This is a better alternative where people might not be entirely comfortable in drinking water straight from the tap. Bottled water that is packed in small bottles poses a huge environmental problem as the bottles use a lot of oil during manufacturing, require a lot of fuel for transportation and pose a gigantic problem during disposal.
Bottles from different manufacturers of bottled water are sold in stores around each corner and although they are convenient whilst traveling or hiking to places where getting pure drinking water is a problem, the price of each bottle does not justify the adverse impact that it has on the environment. People end up paying many times more for water that could just be tap water packed in a bottle. It would be better to just fill up an empty bottle with tap water or use a dispenser to do the same and carry it around rather than buying costly bottled water and pollute the earth with empty bottles.
For people wondering as to whether bottled or tap water is better, the argument definitely tilts towards tap water. Bottled water extracts a huge price in terms of money and also causes damage to the environment in more ways than one. People should stick to tap water and use bottled water only when required.