What is the biggest con/most useless retail commodity sold in the Western World?

[WelshGas]

My No 1 is bottled water. It costs to produce the plastic for the bottle, someone else has to pay for the disposal/destruction of the plastic after use. The bottle is filled with water that is no better than what comes out of the tap in any mainline country. We fill the bottle in one place/country transport it hundreds of miles, drink it and then p** it out in another place/country.
The reason we do it - the Advertising Industry told us!!!!!!!!!!!

Nothing against filling a bottle from the tap and taking it with you if you so desire, but commercial bottled water is such a waste of resources and has such a damaging environmental impact it should be banned or heavily taxed.

http://www.pri.org/stories/2016-02-...e-cities-considering-plastic-water-bottle-ban

I wonder how long this will run for?

 

[calikev]

The thing that puzzles me is if the spring water has filtered through volcanic rock
For thousands of years why do they put a best before date on it?

 

[sidepod]

You mean after Broadband?

 

[snowy55]

Sky tv at £50 a month for the rest your life-no thank you!

 

[kave]

Nespresso is pretty meaningless and produces lots of waste.

 

[jts46]

We have a spring near us in France, and their are always people filling containers of the lovely tasting water.
Also agree with @Calikev
In Spain recently 5 litres of bottled water cost 0.79€

 

[Hotel California]

We have a spring near us in France, and their are always people filling containers of the lovely tasting water.
Also agree with @Calikev
In Spain recently 5 litres of bottled water cost 0.79€

In fact in about 3 km from my door there's a water producer .
The brand is called "Ordal" as it is not the biggest in Belgium bit still pretty popular.
It is not even spring water ....they just pump it up out the ground!!!

The wife buys it all the time and then i say to her : if i p**s in the garden they will pump it up to put it in the botlle....

I got a waterkaraf with a filter(Britta) , fill it under the tap just for me , she insist bottles...

But in fact i don't drink that much water , i'm adicted to Coca Cola and only Coca Cola no remakes!
At work we got those waterdispensers from the tap ( not the ones with big plastic botlles)

Must admit don't drink tapwater in other countries , why ..? Don't know!

 

[Rich20]

A cup of coffee for £3.20 then 50p for a splash of flavoured syrup.

 

[GrannyJen]

I am not a chemist but one of the big drawbacks of reusing mineral water bottles is that they are usually made from cheap plastics which over time could degrade and leach chemicals such as BPA into the water.

I carry my drinking water separately and please, it has nothing whatsoever to do with microbiology, purity or anything else that people seem to bang on about when questioning what other people do with their lives.

I use reusable water bottles from here.... not cheap, but safer plastics, convenient shape and longer lasting.

 

[WelshGas]

I am not a chemist but one of the big drawbacks of reusing mineral water bottles is that they are usually made from cheap plastics which over time could degrade and leach chemicals such as BPA into the water.

I carry my drinking water separately and please, it has nothing whatsoever to do with microbiology, purity or anything else that people seem to bang on about when questioning what other people do with their lives.

I use reusable water bottles from here.... not cheap, but safer plastics, convenient shape and longer lasting.

I understand what you are saying GJ, but no one has advocated re-using mineral water bottles, just the fact that we are happy to buy bottled water with ALL the additional environmental impact each bottle of water has, and cost to us, when we could just as easily fill a glass/bottle or whatever if we want a drink.
The Advertising people have done an excellent job in conning the general population.

 

[Trailertrash]

I understand what you are saying GJ, but no one has advocated re-using mineral water bottles, just the fact that we are happy to buy bottled water with ALL the additional environmental impact each bottle of water has, and cost to us, when we could just as easily fill a glass/bottle or whatever if we want a drink.
The Advertising people have done an excellent job in conning the general population.

 

[GrannyJen]

I am not too sure why bottled water has assumed the prominence in our lives that it has.

My first memories of it's widespread use was in Italy many moons ago when it was widely drunk for good reason, the potability of much of the water piped to rural and remote regions was of doubtful quality if not dreadfully polluted.

I suspect it started with the growth of package holidays in the 70's when remote regions and isolated coastal villages became tourist boom towns overnight and it was cool to then drink from a bottle. sophisticated ..."I've been abroad"... signals to go with the all over mediterranean tan and candles stuffed into the neck of chianti flask-bottles.

For me, I have survived doubtful irrigation in Chadian refugee camps, highly suspect water in remote latin-american hill villages, drunk out of chemically polluted indo-chinese boreholes and went down with dysentery followed by severe acute pancreatitis in the mid-west united states

 

[sidepod]

I can't live without sparkling water

 

[WelshGas]

I can't live without sparkling water

I'll give you that as it doesn't come out of a tap.

 

[Velma's Dad]

Our dog just enjoyed several days on bottled water out on the road, after I grabbed one of the big 5-litre bottles from Tesco (£1.10). But I did eventually refill it out of a campsite tap, honest. Now waiting for a proper 5L drinking water jerrican from Amazon but suspect neither Mrs VD nor the dog will accept the plastic taste so I'm not throwing out the Tesco bottle.

Worst case of waterborne infection I ever had was actually from drinking out of a mountain stream in...Germany of all places. I was actually delirious at one point. You don't want to know the rest.

 

[Ethel's dad]

QUOTE="GrannyJen, post: 165327, member: 5790"]I am not too sure why bottled water has assumed the prominence in our lives that it has.

My first memories of it's widespread use was in Italy many moons ago when it was widely drunk for good reason, the potability of much of the water piped to rural and remote regions was of doubtful quality if not dreadfully polluted.

I suspect it started with the growth of package holidays in the 70's when remote regions and isolated coastal villages became tourist boom towns overnight and it was cool to then drink from a bottle. sophisticated ..."I've been abroad"... signals to go with the all over mediterranean tan and candles stuffed into the neck of chianti flask-bottles.

For me, I have survived doubtful irrigation in Chadian refugee camps, highly suspect water in remote latin-american hill villages, drunk out of chemically polluted indo-chinese boreholes and went down with dysentery followed by severe acute pancreatitis in the mid-west united states [/QUOTE]
Living the dream

 

[barry]

I can't live without sparkling water

+1 but it's got to be fridge cold (which must make it even more resource hungry ).

 

[Ethel's dad]

QUOTE="GrannyJen, post: 165327, member: 5790"]I am not too sure why bottled water has assumed the prominence in our lives that it has.

My first memories of it's widespread use was in Italy many moons ago when it was widely drunk for good reason, the potability of much of the water piped to rural and remote regions was of doubtful quality if not dreadfully polluted.

I suspect it started with the growth of package holidays in the 70's when remote regions and isolated coastal villages became tourist boom towns overnight and it was cool to then drink from a bottle. sophisticated ..."I've been abroad"... signals to go with the all over mediterranean tan and candles stuffed into the neck of chianti flask-bottles.

For me, I have survived doubtful irrigation in Chadian refugee camps, highly suspect water in remote latin-american hill villages, drunk out of chemically polluted indo-chinese boreholes and went down with dysentery followed by severe acute pancreatitis in the mid-west united states

Living the dream[/QUOTE]
sorry, seemed to have cocked something up ....bloody luddite.....

 

[Stoneybroke]

Bags of air that fill the space in the massive boxes Amazon send me...

 

[GrannyJen]

I can't live without sparkling water

You could try a carbonator such as sodastream but be careful of the Palestinian lobby.

I almost got lynched in Dunelm when exchanging my gas cartridge by what looked to be a professional protestor ranting on about it being an Israeli company and should be boycotted.

I did ask him if he faithfully used Zaytoun olive oil but he declined to answer....

 

[Stoneybroke]

If we are talking bottled water - how pointless is Coca-Cola's Smart Water: -
"glaceau smartwater is made from British spring water which is vapour-distilled before electrolytes are added. It has a distinctive, crisp, clean taste and is produced and bottled in Morpeth, Northumberland.

To make glaceau smartwater, we evaporate spring water, condense the vapour and then add just the right amount of electrolytes before bottling." (coca-cola website)

So they take water (that might taste OK) boil it, and collect the water that collects on a cold surface that the steam passes over (condensate - vapour distilling is the only way to distil - but add some bu!!s**t to the advert to give is a pseudo-scientific kudos) then, because distilled water is pure H2O and has no taste, they add some 'Electrolytes' to give it some taste. But using the word electrolytes makes it sound healthy and scientifically sound - but all it means is a few salts and minerals that can conduct electricity (distilled water is very stable and cannot conduct electricity - it needs to be contaminated with electrolytes to be conductive).
The electrolytes added -
Calcium Chloride
Magnesium Chloride
Potassium Bicarbonate

For doing that, they then charge you about £1.00 a litre...

 

[sidepod]

VW take builders vans, chuck in a kitchen unit, chop the roof out and replace it with a tent, then charge us north of £50k.

Whose the muppet?

 

[Digger]

A VW kombi with add ons can match the price of a California Ocean. Maybe expensive but worth it in my humble opinion.

 

[motacyclist]

Just picked up a shed load of Peckham Spring Water from a bloke in a 3 wheeler ..... dead cheap too

 

[calikev]

Just picked up a shed load of Peckham Spring Water from a bloke in a 3 wheeler ..... dead cheap too

You could use it as a camping lantern it glows in the dark lol