Free as in Water, Not Free as in Beer
31 Aug 2011
Many years ago, I spent a significant amount of money - almost ten thousand dollars - to add a water filtration system to our company's main water supply. This system, though fairly large, filters the already-very-palatable city water supply into the equivalent of Brita filtered water (a benchtop or jug filtration system).
Apparently, the system I purchased had the equivalent activated carbon surface area of 16 football fields (according to the sales person). In fact, the water coming out of our taps today is significantly more pure than the water in any bottled waters available for purchase at any local store.
The end result is that we flush our toilets with water which is more pure than water you buy at a restaurant in a stylish bottle.
Now I did this as the water filtration sales person convinced me that doing this would have a positive effect on the environment. Primarily, the number of chemicals needed to clean the plumbing on the property would be significantly less, as there would be no hard water deposits. We would additionally save from not needing to have water coolers nor replacing filters in our Britas and ice-maker. We would also save an extraordinary amount of environmental waste in water bottles, whose plastic can harm the environment even further.
Turn on the tap, and you have perfectly clean water.
Now the irony is that as a Canadian, our water is already perfectly clean water. You can happily drink water from the tap, without expensive purification. Just turn on the tap and drink. Drink in the shower. Drink from the garden hose. Drink from the toilet (though I wouldn't recommend it).
Yet yesterday I walked into my boardroom to see everyone drinking bottled water. I went downstairs - more bottles. I look in the recycling bin - full of bottles. We have a line item in our budget for bottled water.
What's going on here? Why did I put a mechanism in place to improve water that now isn't being used?
http://www4.agr.gc.ca/AAFC-AAC/display-afficher.do?id=1171644581795 (sorry for the old stat - my Google foo is slipping)
How is it possible that we are drinking more and more bottled water per capita, yet we can get effectively free water from the tap?
I asked some individuals why they were drinking from a bottle, and here were the top ten answers answers;
Top Ten Reasons to Drink Bottled Water
- It is more convenient to carry a bottle than a glass - it closes simply and can be carried in bulk easily.
- You can stop and start a bottle of water over a few days, a glass of water you only drink from once.
- The water from the tap might be fine, but the glass you put it in could be contaminated.
- There is more environmental harm in washing a glass than in an eco-friendly bottle.
- It is safer to carry bottles than open water
- You can get a cold bottle of water faster than a cold glass of water.
- You are less likely to get wet with a bottle of water than a glass of water.
- There are some place you can't drink water
- Some people just prefer drinking from a bottle.
- It's hard to ride a bike with a glass in your hand.
So despite the cost of tap water, people go out of their way to buy bottled water because it solves a series of problems for them and is more convenient. More and more bottles of water are being sold, every day.
This may be a revelation for you, it was for me, when yesterday someone asked me, "How can you possibly charge for Lasso when PHP is free?", while sipping from his bottle of water. Well how can you possibly justify drinking bottled water - with all of the harm on the environment and the unnecessary additional expense?!
The benefits out weigh the costs.
Save yourself from the untenable dangers of "free".
Don't get soaked, get Lasso.
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