It’s difficult to pinpoint exactly when it happened, but sometime over the past decade or so, the general population of this country formed a belief that bottled water is better than tap—safer and healthier, too. It is easy to figure out where this idea originated. It was with bottled water suppliers. It was pretty ingenious to convince otherwise normal people to pay between 240 and 10,000 times more to purchase water in a bottle than to get it from the supply we’re already paying for that comes out of the taps in our homes.
Tap Water is Cheaper
These days a 16-ounce bottle of “spring” water goes for about a dollar. That’s $8 a gallon—twice the cost of milk, about on par with soft drinks purchased in the same manner. Home delivery of water in those great big, heavy bottles is less per gallon but still around $40 a month, according to online averages.The average cost of town water for U.S. households typically ranges from $1.50 to $3 per cubic meter. This cost can vary widely depending on the location, local water utility rates and the specific pricing structure of the area. One cubic meter equals 265 gallons, or 4,240 8-ounce glasses of water—enough to last the average person 530 days (consuming eight 8-ounce glasses per day). Another way to price it: Sixty-two 8-ounce glasses of water cost about 4 cents.