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thedailywhat:

Ad Campaign of the Day: The tap water crusaders at Tappening have stepped up their anti-bottled water game with the launch of a decidedly controversial new ad campaign called Start a Lie, which aims to knowingly spread fabrications concerning bottled water production.

“If bottled water companies can lie, we can too,” say the folks at Tappening. Abigail Van Buren responds: “People who fight fire with fire usually end up with ashes.”

[via.]

“Look. It’s true that the quality of your bottle water ‘is not necessarily better’ than what’s in your tap. And the quality of some vegetables you just cooked ‘is not necessarily better’ than an Amy’s Organic Burrito. Which is why it’s better to buy good produce than bad produce, and why we have people recommending recipes and so forth. Obviously it’s dumb to buy water that’s worse than tap water (cough—Aquafina—cough) but that shouldn’t cast aspersions on the many fine waters out there.

As for the energy, the salient point is this: Bottled water has a bigger environmental footprint than tap water. But bottled water has a smaller environmental footprint than do all other beverages you’ll find in a bottle or a can. Soda or apple juice or milk has all the energy costs associated with bottling water, but also involve various energy intensive agricultural processes. So if you want to be really monastic about your energy usage then, yes, you should be drinking tap water. But not tap water instead of bottled water, tap water instead of everything. If, as in my case, a delicious bottle of mineral water tempts you away from a soda, then you’re doing the environment a favor.”

-Matthew Yglesias