I spent a little time this AM talking with the staff at the Responsible Purchasing Network (www.responsiblepurchasing.org) which is a project of the Center for a New American Dream working to create markets for green products and practices.  They were particularly proud of their upcoming free webinar on bottled water at universities tomorrow October 29^th at 3:00 EST.  During the discussion the issue was raised that some California colleges might not want to switch their students to tap water because of the current water shortage in the Golden State.  What?  It just baffles me how these misperceptions and concerns emerge and take life. 

In the first place per capita water use in California—including industry and agriculture—is about 1000 gallons per day.  I suspect even the most ambitious bottled water chugger uses less than a tenth of a percent of that and probably less.  So the switch to tap water is likely in the below consequential range. And this line of “logic” completely ignores the fact that bottled water uses 3-7 times as much water as the bottle contains in the creation of the bottle and the collection and transport of the finished “product.”

Bottled water is a bad buy and it is time that our places of higher learning learned that.  If you need to get schooled in bottled water, check out the RPN’s free webinar.