Tap Water Vs Bottled Water Cost

Costs vary depending on the state and brand but bottled water can cost 1000 times more than tap water.

Tap water vs bottled water cost.

Environmental protection agency epa. The environmental protection agency regulates tap water while the fda regulates bottled water. 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 the ibwa the average cost per gallon of bottled water not counting imported or sparkling waters was 1 21 in 2013.

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. 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. That means that priced by the gallon.

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. But in most cases tap water is often safe and less expensive in comparison with bottled water. However bottled water is made from tap water and then sterilized. On average bottled water can cost from 0 89 to 8 26 per gallon.