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Could I have a glass of Boston water?

Email|Link|Comments (2) Posted by Sheryl Julian December 3, 2008 12:16 PM

If you're one of the people who say no to bottled water, you'll be pleased to learn that Toronto has actually banned it in many public places. Polaris Institute worked on this ban for years. “Toronto’s decision to ban the bottle and turn on the tap sends a clear message that bottled water’s 15 minutes are up, the marketing scam is exposed, and it is time to go back to the tap,” says Joe Cressy of Polaris. Nestle, Coke, and Pepsi all lobbied for their various brands.

Here's what Pepsi is doing to counter this: Aquafina, says the company, is really just purified tap water. This report says that the US bottled water business is about $15 billion, of which $2.7 billion was spent on Aquafina. Of course Pepsi and the other corporations don't want to lose their prominent place on supermarket shelves and in vending machines.

I've always thought that Aquafina tastes like tap water. Get a Brita Water Filter (some pitchers are less than $20) and make your own.

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2 comments so far...

I have to say, though, I recall Boston (well, mostly Cambridge) having some terrible tasting water...

I've never before or since drank much bottled water, but when I lived there, I regularly bought many gallon jugs of water from Costco for drinking. I suppose it might have been my particular area or even the pipes in my particular house, but yeah, I really couldn't stand it.

Posted by Frank December 3, 08 01:54 PM

Yes, Cambridge water is heavily chlorinated, and Brookline water tastes better but still not nice. However, Boston water is entirely palatable on its own. In fact, after years of using a filter pitcher and later an on-tap Brita filter, I recently went cold turkey and have rediscovered that Boston water is just fine and doesn't need to be filtered at all to be drinkable.

Posted by Allstonian December 3, 08 04:54 PM