this post was submitted on 12 Jan 2024
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[–] [email protected] 46 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (5 children)

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] 13 points 11 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.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Water landlords smh. Or maybe waterlords?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

Is more the distribution costs.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 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

[–] [email protected] 32 points 11 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 30 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

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] 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

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

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 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.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

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

[–] [email protected] 23 points 11 months ago (1 children)

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] 15 points 11 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] 17 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

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

Filtration gang for life

[–] [email protected] 17 points 11 months ago (2 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago

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

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

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

[–] [email protected] 12 points 11 months ago

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

[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 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.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago

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

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 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.

[–] brian 6 points 11 months ago (1 children)

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] 3 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] brian 1 points 11 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.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Who are those horrible orange creatures over there?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

Tell them I hate them!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

The Donald's bastard children my dear

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (3 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

It's still largely considered insane in most parts of the world.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago
[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Feels bad man

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

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

I mean, it's literally in the name