We've all been there. The last few drops of cool, refreshing water has just trickled down the back of our tongue, and then disappeared down our gullet. It felt so good that we instinctively look at the receptacle that had just delivered such a glorious sensation, only to find two unfortunate truths. The first truth, the most reflexive and instinctive, is that there is no water left to drink. The second truth, that some but not all of us feel, is the artificial, plastic bottle in our cool hand. This second truth is the one all of humans deal with every day as we try and wean ourselves off of the plastic and the waste. We try and try harder with in-home filtration systems and fancy reusable water bottles, but sooner or later we all face the second truth.

So, how do large drinking water brands who deliver their product in a PET ( Polyethylene Terephthalate ) plastic bottle, the kind that are polluting our oceans and waterways, ensure that we are doing our part to recycle and inject sustainability into our supply chains? We'll answer those questions, but first some uncomfortable facts about plastic, recycling and fossil fuels:

• It take about three times the amount of water to product the water that goes into a bottle of water. So, that means a liter of delicious, premium water requires 3 liters to produce. Most people choose to ignore these realities, and point to recycling to justify their consumer choices.
• It requires about 17 million barrels of oil to produce all of the bottle water humans drink in 1 year.
• In the United States, only about 12% of plastic bottles get recycled or repurposed, and the remaining 88% end up in a landfill. These numbers were better before the current trade war with China when the Chinese would buy up recycled plastic and cardboard for their own manufacturing, but not anymore.
• Americans throw away about 35 Billion plastic water bottles every year
• It takes about 2,000 times the amount of energy to produce a bottle of water than it does the same amount of tap water.
• In the United States, 100 humans open a bottle of plastic water every second of every day.

The list of unpleasant truths goes on and one, and you can read more about it here. So, lets try and pivot to some of the things that we can do differently to help ensure sustainability for our environment in the coming decades.

• Stop using plastic bottles. This one sounds easier than it is. Bad habits are hard to break, and none harder than the bottled water habit. But by using reusable steel water containers or installing a home filtration system, you can help to significantly cut down on the use of plastic in bottles.
• Raise awareness about the environmental crisis we've created by our collective plastic water bottle habit. Encourage family, friends and co-workers to stop consuming plastic bottles.

Most agree that a combination of cutting back on PET consumption and finding more environmentally friendly alternatives to PET is the best path forward. For more information about reducing the impact humans are having on the environment, please visit the Environmental Protection Agency website.

Photo by Brian Yurasits on Unsplash

We don't always think about the water we drink. Somehow we just taking healthy hydration for granted, but we all know we shouldn't. It is one of the great flaws us human things have. It is difficult for us to see thing from a different perspective, which is why unless we are affected first hand, we just assume our drinking water is clean, healthy and free of contaminants impurities. But ask anyone living in India, Southeast  Asia, Latin America or any other place where drinking water isn't always the cleanest. 

As a child, my family's vacation home in Southern Vermont was a affected by a ruptured heating oil tank, which leaked oil which eventually leeched down into the water table. Because the house drew its water from a nearly well, the tap water began smelling like heating oil, and at one point the water coming from the tap was flammable. Ever since then I have wondered about how water gets into our homes, and how it gets filtered - either naturally or mechanically -  before humans consume it. For municipal water supplies, groundwater passes through layers or rock and sediment en route to an underground river or aquifer. From there, it is pumped out and fed into infrastructure where chlorine (to kill off any remaining bacteria) and Flouride (for oral health) is added. Other homes off the 'water grid' use wells to draw water from aquifers. But the process for bottled water is different. The drinking water you get in a bottle at the store generally come from one of two places; the tap or the ground. If it comes from a tap, it is 'purified' to remove any bacteria or pathogens before it is bottled. It can from underground aquifers, but it is same basic water municipalities take their water from. The second type of bottled water is spring water, and it bottled 'at the source', which means all of the naturally occurring pH and alkalinity from mineral remains mostly intact before it gets to your lips. This makes a big difference when ti comes to taste, and also when it comes to cost. Marketers and bottled water brand like to emphasize the naturally occurring levels of purity and pH in their water, and you can taste the difference in some brands. Lava rock, for example, is an excellent natural filter for artesian spring water, and because it require less purification, all of the naturally occurring minerals remain, which add to its character.

Water coming from high mountain springs taste great because it:

• It pretty clean to start with and, depending on the mountain, doesn't require chemical purification. It usually starts as snow, and then melts in to water and then seeps into underground creeks and rivers before coming to earth's surface.
• Is filtered naturally, and therefor is potable with the least amount of mechanical or man-made filtration and purification. This is 'bottled at the source' means higher quality.

Camping supply companies have come up with fancy filtration products for mountaineers who are trekking at high altitudes and can't carry a lot of water because of its weight. But the more distance the water travels, the more the need to chemical purification like iodine tablets. So, the water you drink is filtered either mechanically or chemically or both, depending on where you get it. If you are the outdoor type who likes to hike and camp and take water from the ground, it is always a good idea to carry both types of filtration tools and a water testing kit with you so you don't get sick.

Photo by Frans Ruiter on Unsplash

An Artesian well, or Artesian spring, is a source of ground water that is forced to the earth’s surface by of pressure caused by underground layers of rock surrounding the aquifer. It differs from a regular water well in that it doesn't require a pump to get the water to the surface. The only requirement is gravity and the pressure it creates. For this reason, Artesian springs occur at the base of a mountain or hill where the water can flow down into a well.

Why Does it Matter?

Bottled water brands like to use language specific to the manner in which the water comes to the earth’s surface. While the source of ground water may be the same, technically, water is only truly ‘artesian spring water’ if it flows naturally to the surface by pressure from non-permeable rock strata. Water trapped in the way is considered to be under artesian pressure. But gravity is also another important factor in determining what water qualifies as artesian, and how it is forced out through rocks to the earth’s surface. Typically, a mountain or hill gathers rain water which filters down into the aquifer beneath the first later of rock, and then flows underground until it can find a fissure in the rock to force its way out. The top end of the aquifer is called the ‘water table’, which unconfined water and needs to be pumped out to be accessed. Artesian water comes from trapped or confined water.

The word artesian comes from the town of Artois in France, the site of the old Roman city of Artesium, where the world’s most famous free flowing wells were drilled centuries ago during the Middle Ages.

Water brands like to promote the fact that their water is ‘artesian’, and that the natural processes that allow the water to be accessed give it a special taste or health benefit. The truth is, most artesian bottled water is the same, with the exception of the alkalinity or PH in the water. Water with naturally occurring high PH levels generally taste better because they are less acidic and have more minerals, which humans generally like to taste when they drink a nice cold glass of water. Bottled artesian water with a PH over 7.7 is considered to be alkaline water, while normal tap water has a PH of 7.

Photo by Frank Albrecht on Unsplash

Human beings have been innovating new ways to clean their drinking water for centuries. Early man initially thought that if water looked clear, then it was clean, free of toxins, bacteria and other impurities and therefor safe to drink. However, gastronomical illnesses related to drinking clear but not clean water led to new purification techniques, such as passing water through a cloth filter, and boiling it before drinking it. Now, with Billions of thirsty humans to sate, mankind has devised newer and better ways to filter and purify drinking water a scale. They've also conceived a lot of fancy and trendy marketing pitches for consumer who consider taste, provenance and other qualities when they make their water consumption and purchasing decisions. And so, here is a quick guide to making sure you understand what your drinking water options are.

What are the options for clean drinking water?

Consumers generally have two options for getting fresh, clean drinking water to drink at home. First is tap water. Most tap water is safe to drink, but it is generally recommended, no matter where you live, to run your tap water through an in-home filtration process. You can buy a pitcher filter from companies like Brita, Pur and Zerowater and use gravity to filter your water while it stays cold in a pitcher in your fridge, or install a home filtration system under your sink so that the water that comes from your tap has been filtered. Either way works great. Next is bottled water, which comes in many sizes, flavors and service levels, as well costs and levels of purity. Some water from bottled water brands are just filtered and purified tap water in a bottle, and some come from springs and glaciers and are 'bottled at the source'. The latter obviously carrying a heftier price tag. There are too many bottled water brands to list here by name, but they all use clever marketing tricks to convince customers that it is better and healthier for you. Regardless of which option you choose, personal preferences such as taste and alkalinity, will become a factor when you ultimately decide how much you're going to pay for your water. And then there is the 'green factor; which refers to how much you care about the damage that bottling water does to the environment.

Is Tap Water Safe?

Of course, health is the main consideration when it comes to what water you decide to put into your body. Municipalities use chlorine to treat water before it finds its way into your tap at home, and they also add in flouride to help in the prevention of tooth decay. In the United States, tap water enjoyed a pretty decent reputation as a safe source of water until the Flint, Michigan fiasco in 2014 when human neglect led to lead contamination in the local water supply. What we learned from the Flint water crisis is that sometimes mistakes are made, and they can have dire consequences.

What illnesses can unfiltered drinking water cause?

The most common illnesses caused by contaminated water are nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, cholera, dysentery. If untreated, water will contain bacteria, pathogens and other naturally occurring toxins that will make humans sick. Some humans' systems have adjusted to certain water, and so they don't get sick while other do. This is what happens to tourists traveling to foreign countries and getting a bad case of 'Montezuma's Revenge'. But water contaminated by toxic chemicals and other industrial poison can much more serious illnesses and even death. Diarrhea from by unsafe drinking water causes millions of deaths every year, with a concentration of those deaths coming from children in developing nations. And while many improvement have been made over the years, you should still remain vigilant about the contaminants that could be in your faucets, pipes, and local water supply.

What type of water you drink is a trade-off between convenience and price for most of us, but can be one of life and death for others. Just as in everything in life, be aware of how your choices, including your water choices, impact others around the world.