The Bottle That Changed Everything

Spring Water Vs. Tap Water

The real game changer came in 1990 with the introduction of the PET bottle. PET is short for polyethylene terephthalate, which is a plastic that you probably know by its street name: polyester. Mold it into just the right shape and you have a water bottle that’s cheaper than glass and clearer than the plastic bottles that preceded it.Today, more than 95% of water bottles are made of PET, which is not surprising when you consider its merits. It’s regarded as the safest plastic for food storage, does not contain carcinogenic phthalates, and has a low risk of chemicals seeping into the water, as long as the bottles are not heated up.While most bottles haven’t been left out in the hot sun, it’s nearly impossible to know where each one you buy has been. After all, water is a big business and every bottle must be sourced, purified, packaged, transported, and stored before it can be sold. And since water brands like to allure us with visions of snowcapped mountains and babbling brooks, we have to ask: Where is the water actually from? More than half of all bottled water (55% to be exact) comes from spring water . If it’s advertised as “spring water,” the FDA requires it to come from a spring — or at least from a hole drilled near a spring. And since a major aspect of branding is the origin of the water, it's filtered as little as possible and often bottled near its source. Then it's shipped — potentially around the world — to retailers. It can take