A story sent to me by KYW Newsradio in Philadelphia says the fate of bottled water may be in the hands of Congress, as Washington looks at the safety of the plastics used in the bottling industry and decides whether or not it should be regulated, much like our tap water. Well, duh.

Some plastics carry carcinogens that don’t affect us in the short term and recycling some of these plastics make them even more harmful. Of course, the bottled water industry has responded with all kinds of solutions — bottles that contain less plastic being tops on the list. I guess what irks me is that the obvious reason for us to stop drinking bottled water is that it’s a horrible choice for the environment, not just our health. Tons of waste is produced, not to mention the costs involved in shipping all those bottles around the world.

One way to help is to stop ordering bottled water at restaurants. Many restaurants are implementing the use of filtration systems for tap water to entice customers to order tap water instead of bottled (which doesn’t work in the kind of drought conditions we had last summer). So it’s a bit of a conundrum. All About Water has more.

Do you order water at a restaurant? If so, do you order tap water or bottled?