5 Gallon Water Jug

5 gallon water jug5 Gallon Water Jug

A 5 gallon water jug is something people take for granted, except when they need to buy one. In some communities, finding one can be a problem. While searching a person soon realizes there are many types. To make matters more confusing, some of the types contain the chemical compound biphenyl A (BPA). In some communities, stores that carry other types of plastic containers refuse to sell BPA vessels, as they are considered toxic. Some retailers just decide not to sell the 5 gallon water jug because it will contain fluids that people drink. For them, it is a liability issue.

BPA Free Water Jugs On the bottom of plastic containers is a small triangle with a number. For the purposes of human use those marked with the number 3 and 6 should not be used to hold human consumable items, especially water. The containers marked with 1, 2, 4 and 5 are considered safe and should be no problem. The traditional narrow neck water jug is marked by the number 1 and usually meets safety concerns.

Plastic containers marked with the number 7, inside the triangle, are in a class that does contain BPA and other chemicals. While guidelines state those marked 7 are safe, consumer protection groups advise they not be used for fluids or food. There is a concern that consumers are being misled by advertising that state 7 marked containers are BPA free. The truth is that BPA free containers have an unknown chemical compound component called Tristan. This has not been tested and except for manufacturers, no one knows what chemicals are really in those plastic container products.

5 Gallon Water Jug: Varieties

Varieties of 5 Gallon Water Jug Once you get past the BPA chemical concern problem, you might run into a problem of nomenclature. There are several different shapes of water jug. The water jug usually associated with a dispenser has no handle and has a narrow neck, which fits into the water dispenser.

There is also another water jug of the same volume, with no handle, but a wide neck. Manufacturers produce the wide neck variety so that a human can get their hands into the container to clean the bottle completely. There are models of both the narrow neck and wide neck that have a spigot valve on the side at the bottom of the container for dispensing liquid for human consumption. In addition to plastic water jugs there are also ceramic and glass water “jugs” that hold the same volume of liquid. These also have the spigot valve on the side at the bottom.

The common water bottle we have for our dispensers at home is not particularly easy to handle. Before that type of bottle was so ubiquitous, a five-gallon container was usually of a much different shape. Most of these are square or rectangular with flat handles moulded into the plastic vessel to make handling much easier.

One shape is the military “jerry can” shape with wide neck opening and grip handle. Now most are made of plastic but original cans were metal. The jerry can 5 gallon water jug was used for both water and fuel.

Bottle Water Facts

Would you be willing to pay $10 per gallon for anything? Well the fact of the matter is that when you drink bottled water, that is roughly what you are paying per gallon. The price of bottled water has gone up to 10,000 times the cost of regular tap water. On a yearly basis, Americans consume roughly 8.6 billion gallons of bottled water.

And globally, we consume roughly 53 billion gallons. Let’s do some quick math by applying the $10 per gallon cost. Not so appealing is it? This equates to roughly $61 billion dollars being consumed on a yearly basis. Approximately 40% of all bottled water is being taken from municipal sources to begin with. For those of you who don’t know what a municipal source is, well let’s just call it “tap water”. Also, roughly 23% of tested bottled water brands contained some sort of chemical contaminant at levels which are above strict state health limits. Getting thirsty?

Some tests that are not done on bottled water are e-coli. Why don’t you do a search and see what e-coli is all about. Also, bottled water companies are not required to provide their water source not produce quality reports. And get this, bottled water can still be distributed when tap water standards are not met.

Roughly 17 million barrels of oil are used in the production of water bottles yearly. This oil is enough to fuel about 1 million cars for just one year. In the production of the bottle itself, it takes 3 times the amount of water to make the bottle as it does to fill it. It isn’t just the cost of producing these water bottles we should worry about, it is lower in quality compared to tap water and then there’s the environmental impact that we need to consider. Even with most major American cities making recycling available, the real shame of it is that only 1 in 5 water bottles are ever recycled. Want to know what happens to the other 4? Well those contribute to the 3 billion pounds of oil based trash destined to live out a thousand year lifespan in a trash dump. In other words, they are buried underneath our earth.

So next time you’re thinking of heading down to your local grocery store, keep in mind of not only the environmental impact you’re having using your vehicle, but also that of the impact the bottled water has on our earth.

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