• @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    45
    edit-2
    10 months ago

    They don’t actually produce the bottles. They buy them from another manufacturer and just fill them with water.

    You’re mostly paying for the cost of the bottle plus artificial markups for your water. A Brita filter for tap water is much more cost effective for the consumer assuming their tap water is safe.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      1310 months ago

      A Brita filter for tap water is much more cost effective for the consumer assuming their tap water is safe.

      Here (the Netherlands) tap water is much, much cleaner than bottled water. It’s subject to much stricter regulations than bottled water. If the stuff in bottled water would come out of your tap then the water company would be in big trouble.

    • @Jon_Servo
      link
      English
      310 months ago

      Water landlords smh. Or maybe waterlords?

    • @LifeOfChance
      link
      English
      210 months ago

      The two major companies blue triton and niagra do have their bottles made in house. They use plastic resin in a preform machine that then goes to a blowmolding machine to form the bottles then its filled right after. Blue triton is the investment group that bought out nestle waters north America back in 2021

    • @zik
      link
      English
      210 months ago

      And honestly any plastic bottled drink is just as bad. They just add some sugar and flavouring so it’s even worse for you.

    • @platypus_plumba
      link
      English
      27
      edit-2
      10 months ago

      I really hate these headlines. “100 times more!!! Will somebody think of the children!!!”

      A better headline would express if this is actually concerning or not for our health. 100 times more than an insignificant quantity can still be an insignificant quantity.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        310 months ago

        Let’s put it this way: it’s infinitely more plastic than would be in your body under natural circumstances.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          010 months ago

          They want you to accept your role in a capitalist society. There’s no need for numerous public water fountains if you can pay for water, and since you’re not paying for the premium glass bottles, you should accept some microplastics.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        110 months ago

        Or, society could actually provide a lot of public fountains, but that might mean taxing the richest to the point where they only have enough money for a hundred lifetimes, instead of a thousand lifetimes.

    • @zik
      link
      English
      310 months ago

      I mean bottled water even tastes like plastic so it should be no surprise to anyone.

  • Hazmatastic
    link
    fedilink
    English
    2310 months ago

    I hate water companies as much as the next guy, but processing water can be really expensive and would be disastrous for a company to do poorly. This take is like saying “you know fence companies don’t produce iron, right?” No, but it takes money to make the iron into a fence, just like it takes money to make water potable.

    That said, water companies can still go eat a dick. Idk how ethical smaller companies like liquid death are, but I just refill a reusable bottle when at all possible. I will go thirsty out of spite if the only water available is Nestlé. There is a lot more to complain about than saying they “don’t produce anything.”

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      1510 months ago

      What company that sells bottled water processes it themselves? The two types I know are syphoning it from a spring and those (at least where I’m from) are not allowed to process it and still call it “from spring XYZ”… and those who just fill up tap water somewhere where it can pass as mineral water and then transport it over the globe.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    1710 months ago

    Disposable plastic should be illegal. It’s cheap, but only because of all the externalized costs.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      710 months ago

      In Finland 93% of plastic, glass and aluminium drink containers are returned back to the store and recycled into new ones.

    • @FlordaMan
      link
      English
      510 months ago

      Or they should be made so expensive that they only make sense when there really is no alternative.

  • @Nobody
    link
    English
    17
    edit-2
    10 months ago

    “You know what would make water better? A small container with a shitload of microplastics!“

    Filtration gang for life

      • Otter
        link
        fedilink
        English
        910 months ago

        Eh, people usually filter water when their tap water isn’t clean enough?

        Good quality tap water is also filtered and treated, but it happens earlier down the line

          • @[email protected]
            link
            fedilink
            English
            110 months ago

            In your house, sure, but I’ll bet if you go check the water main coming to your house it’s plastic. If it’s super old then it’s steel but it sure isn’t copper.

            • @AnUnusualRelic
              link
              English
              210 months ago

              It would maybe be cast iron. Not steel. Plastic isn’t typically used here.

              • @[email protected]
                link
                fedilink
                English
                110 months ago

                Yeah may be iron aswell. Those old ferrous pipes looks pretty bad on the inside aswell. I’d be quite surprised if there wasn’t any plastic pipes used but I guess that’s possible.

                • @AnUnusualRelic
                  link
                  English
                  1
                  edit-2
                  10 months ago

                  Interestingly the whole circuit for the building was redone a few weeks ago. There was no plastic used at any point to the mains (except for a temporary link while waiting for one of the trenches to be dug). As I said, it’s just not used here.

                  It is used for parts of the outgoing flow though, but most of it is still cast iron as well. I’m not in the US, so YMMV.

          • @[email protected]
            link
            fedilink
            English
            6
            edit-2
            10 months ago

            My house has copper pipes for the most part but the water main coming to my house is plastic. Older main lines are often steel but as they age and get replaced they’re replaced with plastic and in new houses it’s mostly PEX/composite pipes aswell.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    1010 months ago

    They don’t technically produce the water, but they are probably the ones filtering it and stuff

  • @Coreidan
    link
    English
    910 months ago

    Pretty sure they don’t claim that they “produce water”.

  • @AngryCommieKender
    link
    English
    910 months ago

    It’s worse than that. They consume the bottles, and then resell the bottles filled with something that is supposedly a human right, for profit.

  • @Daft_ish
    link
    English
    7
    edit-2
    10 months ago

    When they first started showing up at gas stations I thought it was so absurd. That day I learned if it exists in a retail store someone will buy it.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    610 months ago

    This is without me looking it up because I don’t really care enough to. But more than likely, the bottled water companies do not make their own bottles. They probably buy from manufacturers of bottles, then do the hard part of filling them up.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      3
      edit-2
      10 months ago

      Majority of the bottlers who are of notable size buy “blanks” which are heated, blown, and formed by equipment as part of the bottling process. Blanks are essentially the lip and cap portion of the bottle, but instead of a bottle below that it’s a vial of plastic about 2 inches long and an inch wide. It’s cheaper to ship blanks and blow them at the destination than it is to ship fully formed bottles. The benefit of this method is that the bottler can have their own bottle design, but buy blanks from any standard producer.

      From blanks to formed bottles filled with water is literally fractions of a second the process happens so fast. It takes longer for the bottle to get a label and end up in packaging than it does to form and fill.

      EDIT: Also, very few bottlers produce their own water. They use tap water from a large municipality and then additionally treat it to match brand specs (taste and flavor). If you drink Dasani or Aquafina you’re essentially drinking tap water.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        110 months ago

        That’s actually super interesting. When I was typing out my first post, my main thought was “man it’d actually be pretty silly to ship around cases of empty bottles”. But having blanks ready to be blown into more custom molds owned by the different manufacturers would certainly be a way around it.

  • @Hikermick
    link
    English
    510 months ago

    Funny how things change. 30 years ago drinking bottled water was considered snobby

    • AwkwardLookMonkeyPuppet
      link
      English
      210 months ago

      I remember when it first started gaining popularity, and there were plenty of naysayers that couldn’t believe people would pay for water. What I really can’t believe is that people pay up to $10 for a bottle of water if the bottle is fancy enough.

    • @LemmyIsFantastic
      link
      English
      -210 months ago

      I lived in lower middle class and saw plenty of bottled water.

  • @Rhoeri
    link
    English
    310 months ago

    Bingo!!!

  • @LemmyIsFantastic
    link
    English
    210 months ago

    I’m not filling up my Stanley in a gas station bathroom.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      710 months ago

      Feels bad man

      I’ve done this multiple times where I live and the water was as great as anywhere else

      • @LemmyIsFantastic
        link
        English
        -510 months ago

        That’s awesome. I’m glad you don’t care that most these bathrooms are cleaned up by minimum wage employees who couldn’t give a fuck. I for one will avoid those sinks and purchase one that I know is sanitary.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          410 months ago

          I feel like letting the water flow for a few seconds, and maybe rubbing round the spout of the tap with a wet finger, is good enough safety-wise. My main problem is almost all public was basins I see have mixer taps with no way make it 100% cold. I’m not keen on drinking water that’s been through the boiler/heating system as those things always look manky inside, it makes sense to me that more (or more dangerous) microbes might be present in the warmth, and it tastes bad anyway.