Anonymous wrote:Immigrants from countries where water quality is suspect often continue to buy bottled water even once they are in the U.S.

Yes I can confirm all my in laws do this. From a South American country.

My parents had a second home in New Orleans and the tap water there tasted like rancid chemicals. It was undrinkable even filtered with a Britta. We ended up having one of those 5 gallon water coolers delivered monthly.

Anonymous wrote:Even if you insist on buying water -- why not get the big 5 gallon dispensers? Or even 1 gallon jugs?

I can't stand seeing trash cans full of 12 ounce plastic.

We just recently switched to the 5 gallon Costco water delivery. Didn't really know about it before or would have done it long ago.

Poor planet, that’s a lot of plastic.

Even if you insist on buying water -- why not get the big 5 gallon dispensers? Or even 1 gallon jugs?

I can't stand seeing trash cans full of 12 ounce plastic.

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Anonymous wrote:Mostly hispanic people in my neighborhood of North Alexandria. Are there water quality issues or is this a cultural thing?

They are probably working jobs where they must provide their own drinks for the whole day and probably doing manual labor jobs where they work up a sweat and thirst. I know the lawn service guys at my apartment complex are all Hispanic and each has their own cooler full of beverages. I'll often see them each with frozen gallon jugs of spring water during the summer months.

I don’t think the lawn guys are paying for bottled water for every drink. They are refilling huge of water from the tap so they don’t burn through their pay buying something that is free. They are almost certainly buying for resale (like the people who sell outside nats stadium or a food truck or restaurant) or they are in charge of purchasing for an employer (eg my office used to have the office support person get Costco water bottles for the kitchen but stopped doing that because the younger workers complained about the environmental impact).

We buy it because we have well water and are about a mile from the I66 landfill. Not sure why they never ran city water into our neighborhood.

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Anonymous wrote:A lot of people think the public tap water is dirty yet it's cleaner and more regulated than bottle water is so it doesn't make sense. I think it's sheer ignorance. Even using a brita or pur water filter with tap water is better than buying water it's cheaper and doesn't waste a bunch of plastic.

Tap certainly is not cleaner than bottled water since bottled water is just filtered tap water.

Tap is cleaner. Tap also doesn’t have millions of particles of micro plastics like bottled water. Look it up. You think all that bottled water that’s probably been sitting in the hot sun, breaking down the plastic, is a good thing? Also, read about nylon tea bags. Like Ito En ones from Costco. These plastic particles can break the blood brain barrier as well. I only drink filtered tap now and loose leaf tea.

Like many things: It depends. There’s the water as it comes from the source; there are the local and neighborhood pipes; there are the pipes and fixtures in the house or fridge water dispenser. No one, without very specific, detailed information, can possibly know that “Tap is cleaner.”

Fun story: I love NYC tap water. I would rank it right up there with some of the best bottled water from glaciers that I’ve ever tasted. I’ve also worked in schools where the water fountains were unusable — and covered with yellow emergency tape — because of lead pipes.
So, again, you can’t make a blanket statement like “Tap is cleaner”. Well, you can, but you’d be wrong.

Anonymous wrote:Mostly hispanic people in my neighborhood of North Alexandria. Are there water quality issues or is this a cultural thing?

They are probably working jobs where they must provide their own drinks for the whole day and probably doing manual labor jobs where they work up a sweat and thirst. I know the lawn service guys at my apartment complex are all Hispanic and each has their own cooler full of beverages. I'll often see them each with frozen gallon jugs of spring water during the summer months.

The water in most of the DC area tastes awful but it's safe. Cheaper and less wasteful to filter it than buy bottled.

I really hope people buying numerous flat of bottled water at Costco are running a business or doing a once a year stock of hurricane supplies.

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Anonymous wrote:My (white, solidly middle class) ILs do this. They live somewhere with perfectly clean water. And they usually look for the cheapest option for everything - store brand everything, unlicensed contractor, budget airlines - yet the buy cases upon cases of Poland Spring and make snide remarks when I use their tap to refill my reusable water bottle. I don't understand it.

Maybe they know more than you do about their water source.

Their water source is fine.

80% of USD drinking water contains PFAS "forever chemicals"

https://www.ehn.org/drinking-water-pollution-2655521279.html

https://www.science.org/content/article/millions-americans-drink-potentially-unsafe-tap-water-how-does-your-county-stack

Are you serious?

https://www.consumerreports.org/bottled-water/pfas-in-bottled-water-new-study-finds-a1111233122/

Tap is better.

My takeaway from your source is that you should get reverse osmosis filtered water. Okay?

Is that your take? the overwhelming majority of people don’t even need that. We don’t live in Mogadishu. You pay water bills for a reason.

More on PFAS in bottled water. https://www.vox.com/platform/amp/2022/8/25/23318667/pfas-forever-chemicals-safety-drinking-water

I can’t believe you’d think that water that sits in thin plastic, is exposed to sun and cold (which breaks down plastic), costs 1000% more than tap, is somehow better.

Tap water is fine. It really is. 99% of people don’t live in super fund sites or are exposed to the PPM of pollutants that seems to spur your unfounded anxiety. If you’re so paranoid, better yet use a metal water bottle and find one those fking Elkay machines. Less plastic than a plastic water bottle and cheaper. Seriously go to a thrift store and buy a $99 water bottle and just use tap or Brita filtered tap. Stop wasting money on stupid pallets of water from Costco that have tons of micro plastic and stop spreading bs and misinformation on this thread.

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Anonymous wrote:My (white, solidly middle class) ILs do this. They live somewhere with perfectly clean water. And they usually look for the cheapest option for everything - store brand everything, unlicensed contractor, budget airlines - yet the buy cases upon cases of Poland Spring and make snide remarks when I use their tap to refill my reusable water bottle. I don't understand it.

Maybe they know more than you do about their water source.

Their water source is fine.

80% of USD drinking water contains PFAS "forever chemicals"

https://www.ehn.org/drinking-water-pollution-2655521279.html

https://www.science.org/content/article/millions-americans-drink-potentially-unsafe-tap-water-how-does-your-county-stack

Are you serious?

https://www.consumerreports.org/bottled-water/pfas-in-bottled-water-new-study-finds-a1111233122/

Tap is better.

My takeaway from your source is that you should get reverse osmosis filtered water. Okay?

I drink bottled water because I always cycle through my earthquake supply, not in Dc obviously. I keep 20 cases at a time in my storage and go through it.

Anonymous wrote:Mostly hispanic people in my neighborhood of North Alexandria. Are there water quality issues or is this a cultural thing?

I noticed this too! Except not for a certain demographic. My neighbors bring in flats of water bottles into their garage. We drink from the filtered water coming out of the refridgerator.