According to the ibwa the average cost per gallon of bottled water not counting imported or sparkling waters was 1 21 in 2013.
Tap water vs bottled water cost.
One gallon 3 8 liters of tap water costs roughly 0 005 in the united states while the same amount of bottled water obtained from combining single serving water bottles costs around 9 47.
I hate to burst your utopian fantasies of crisp icy glaciers polar bears and trickling mountain streams but it s mostly just the same stuff.
According to abc news most bottled water is just reprocessed tap water.
That means that priced by the gallon.
Most municipal water costs less than 1 cent per gallon while a bottle of water typically costs over 1 for 20 ounces.
But how about the purity argument.
However bottled water is made from tap water and then sterilized.
Environmental protection agency epa.
That doesn t sound too bad until you look at the cost of tap water which is 2 per every thousand gallons according to the u s.
Ok so we ve made the cost argument.
The bottled water industry grossed a total of 11 8 billion on those 9 7 billion gallons in 2012 making bottled water about 1 22 gallon nationwide and 300x the cost of a gallon of tap water.
The environmental protection agency regulates tap water while the fda regulates bottled water.