Evian Criminals: The new snob appeal of tap water.

Most of us can drink our water a little more responsibly.

http://www.slate.com/id/2165124/?GT1=10034

This blog post from the Slate discusses restaurants switching from serving bottled waters from Europe to going back to tap water.

Just part of a trend to at least appear, and, in many cases, to actually be "greener" to your customers. Restaurants are more and more finding that the same customers who once savored their San Pelligrino are now thinking that the environtmental impact of having bottled water (often in glass bottles, no less) shipped from Europe or elsewhere is just too great -- that by consuming these products, they are contributing a little more to global warming, green glass bottle by green glass bottle.

This may not be limited to just water. A growing number of people are becoming aware of how far their food travels from field/factory to plate. According to locavores.com, a site for people who attempt to eat foods from within 100 miles of their residences, our food travels an average of 1500 miles before it reaches are dinner tables. Trucks spewing along all those miles of highway adds up to a lot of pollution so we can have food from all corners of the country/world.

If everyone were willing/able to go on a locavore diet, theoretically, the pollution from transporting food would be reduced to one fifteenth of what it is now. Of course, challenges exist that limit this proposition, such as some foods not growing in certain climates (to name only one, and the most obvious). Chances of a wide-scale plan that encompasses this eating habit are slim, but if it were to be adopted across the board (some how) the envirohuman impact could be great.

Back to the water: while transportation of water by truck has a greater negative envirohuman impact than water being piped into one's home, how about the bottles themselves? A very small percentage of the emptied bottles are recycled and of course some argue that it is "just tap water in a bottle." Personally, it seems cleaner to me than regular tap.

The happy medium? Use a Brita or Pur (or other brand) filtration system to protect yourself from potentially harmful pollutants in your tap water, and use a reusable bottle for your water on-the-go needs. Large amounts of oil are used to produce the plastic bottles we use and landfills are filling up, so be sure to recycle your bottles if and when you do indulge on the convenience.