Whereas I agree, in principle, with what is said, my agreement is only
up to a point. Anyone who drinks tap water here, or in Washington DC or
many other places, will have their taste buds destroyed by the excess
chlorination. Then, anyone who drinks tap water in many places, notably
in Latin America, Asia or Africa, even in large cities, is at risk from
Delhi belly or many worse diseases. Therefore bottled water is a must in
many places.

What I'm against is the transfrontier commerce of bottled water. In this
country, we have a choice of  local (expensive - why?), Greek (cheap)
and numerous very expensive brands from France, Switzerland, UK, Italy,
Germany etc. The fact that the latter sell is pure snobbery, as there is
no logical reason why they should sell at $1 - 3/l.

Of course, the writer of the article also is obviously an extremist and,
like all such, falls into the trap of error, such as chlorine in empty
bottles. AFAIK, and I have travelled and drunk water widely in 4
continents, all water bottles are made of PET (polyethylene
terephthalate), a thermoplastic polyester which contains no chlorine.
And I would rather that used PET bottles were transported to China than
burnt or landfilled, if they were thus used to satisfy the Chinese
demand for clothing, carpets or ropes. The alternative would be to make
the fibres from virgin polymers, which would require more petroleum and
be more costly than transporting thousands of bales of crushed bottles.
In fact, I believe that W. Europe recycles about 75% of PET bottles.
Even on this small island, that has no means of recycling, it is
economical to export them to mainland Europe. Like aluminium, there is a
world market for used drinks containers for recycling.

Best regards,

Brian
Joe Fjelstad wrote:

>Bottled water one of the things that really amazes me, especially in places
>where tap water is of excellent quality.
>
>I have observed that clouds ship fresh water around the world for free... ;-)
>
>Joe
>
>
>
<snip>