Customer Reviews

Tapped

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

An award-winning documentary on DVD from the producers of "Who Killed the Electric Car?", Tapped explores the dark side of the bottled water industry. Human beings need clean drinking water to live. It is legal in some states for gigantic bottled water companies to suck public tap water sources dry (even when shortages force residents to ration water) then repackage and resell it at a gigantic markup - with infinitely less regulatory oversight than there is for tap water (and bottled water sold in the same state as it is pumped is virtually unregulated) - but is it ethical? Is the plastic used to create the water bottles truly safe for humans to put in their mouths? Perhaps worst of all is America's catastrophic overall failure to recycle plastic water bottles, resulting in an avalanche of non-biodegradable waste being pitched into landfills, or even straight into the ocean, where plastic bottles form a large part of a floating ocean garbage mound hundreds of square miles large. The bottle deposit laws of some states have been a proven, highly effective method to promote recycling - but because it incurs a minor expense the enormously profitable bottled water industry (an expense otherwise borne by everyone who has to cope with improperly disposed plastic bottle), corporations fight such legislative measures tooth and nail. Corporate control over public water supply, and corporate refusal to help shoulder the burden of recycling the mounds of plastic trash that are the byproducts of its profit, can only be combated by political activism - ordinary citizens getting involved and laying claim to their water rights, as well as their rights to a clean environment. A must-see, highly recommended documentary guaranteed to make viewers think twice before paying through the nose for what is essentially bottled (and smartly advertised) tap water. 75 and 54 minute versions of Tapped are available on the same DVD.

Watch this movie and make some very easy changes if you care about your children's future and the future of the planet as we know it. I am an ordinary mom who sees these things as common sense.

The information about the chemicals from the plastic bottles leaching into the bottled water has caused me to look further into what other food and drinks are packaged in plastics and what type of independent testing is done or not done to protect consumers. In addition, the "plastic soup" floating in the Pacific and Atlantic the size of Texas is alarmingly killing fish and plankton essential for life on our planet. Yikes. One more thing, I need to research for myself, but in the movie, members of Congress were questioning the FDA and EPA regarding the outdated procedures used to get products approved for the public. Like I said I need to verify this, but they said that no independent testing of products is required for approval and that the FDA and EPA rely on reports generated by the companies themselves stating that their products are safe. That just seems insane so I need to do some more research to see if that is true.

Well- I just went to the FDA.gov site

[...]

And found the following quote
FDA reviews the results of laboratory, animal and human clinical testing done by companies to determine if the product they want to put on the market is safe and effective. FDA does not develop or test products itself. The Agency does this pre-market review for new human drugs and biologics (such as vaccines, blood products, biotechnology products and gene therapy), complex medical devices, food and color additives, infant formulas, and animal drugs.


Something NEEDS to change.

Vote with your dollars by choosing products that are safe.

Write your political leaders and demand common sense regulation.

These current laws obviously care more about profits than the citizens of the U.S.A.

There were always some lingering questions about the quality of the water in the bottles and any thinking person has to wonder about all those plastic bottles going into the eco-system, but this is the first time I was exposed to an organized, detailed look at the entire industry.

This documentary explores how bottled water comes about as well as the packaging and the impact on the environment. Let me tell you, if half of this is true (and I suspect all of it is) there is absolutely nothing positive about bottled water. It's as though that industry gets something for free, gets it onto the market at an unbelievably low cost and sells it back to you at an unbelievably high profit. Then they screw you on the back end by fouling up the environment. Essentially, they are charging you big money (more than you're paying for gasoline) for an inferior grade of a product you can get for nearly free. Not to mention the added health risks involved from drinking from those plastic bottles.

There are a few scenes where industry people are questioned on various matters and it even had me squirming. This is a horrible, horrible market in every aspect, and it is almost entirely unnecessary.

I'm tapping out now. I'm going to get myself a stainless steel personal water bottle and grab my water from home. It's safer to drink, costs less and won't screw up the environment.

This film needs to spread in a fast and viral way in order for a change to occur!! I was astounded at so many huge nuggets of information contained here - not only the price of bottled water being more expensive than the cost of gasoline - but what major bottling companies are doing around our country to small rural towns by depleting their water supply. Taking free water from the ground or the tap, bottling it in toxic plastic products that have proven records of containing cancer inducing agents and charging more for this than gasoline - just blows me away.
Water is FREE people - it is our gift from the planet as a natural resource. Let's not harm ourselves, our kids, our neighbors or our planet any longer. Share this film with everyone you know - I just saw it in the tiny town I live in and really am inspired to help it become more widely available so we can clean up our oceans, landfills and save money in our pockets moving forward.

Saw this at a film festival and immediately bought it. It changed my life. I have not purchased or drunk out of a plastic water bottle since.The movie covers the subject more thoroughly than others--from who is stealing our water to the quality and safety of the water we are BUYING in plastic bottles, and the pollution. I showed it to the local high school and they removed their water bottle vending machines. I have ordered 2 more to pass around to friends. Well worth a watch.

1 Disc Widescreen, released August 10, 2010

"Tapped" is a documentary that discusses the question of whether clean drinking water is a basic human right or a commodity that can be bought and sold like any other. Stephanie Soechtig gives a behind-the-scenes approach to the bottled water industry that tries to control and profit off of this precious natural resource and the wastefulness of what happens to the P.E.T. bottles.

75% of the planet is covered in water, but only 1% is drinkable. America's largest bottled water corporations are bottling our natural waters everyday and selling it back at 1900% of the cost of tap water. Some states like Maine, California, and Michigan are fighting back and are in trials with Nestle, the bottler of Poland Springs water for the rights to their community water.

When so many documentaries focus on our dwindling natural resources, the loss of water would be much more frightening than oil. The truth that these companies like Nestle, Coca Cola, and Pepsi don't want you to realize is that bottled water is not cleaner, purer, or more healthy than tap water. They do not come from magical natural springs but from the same public sources as tap water. It is a completely unnecessary cost to the consumer budget that creates more waste and hurts communities that live around the refineries from pollution.

The question left to be asked is how much of these facts are scare tactics and how much is a valid threat that needs to be acted upon immediately? Concern about waste, the environment, and the health of people in our community is certainly very important, but it would be very difficult to convince our country that more attention needs to be paid to water when it is so focused on oil. It is sad, but true! I encourage you to check out this documentary which I fear might not get as much attention as it deserves without grassroots word-of-mouth behavor.

It is AMAZING how many people purchase bottled water when a filter on their faucet would work just as well and be cheaper in the long run. Bottled water is a luxury item, there are water fountains everywhere you go and it is much more environmentally sound to buy one reusable bottle and take it wherever you go.

This DVD comes in an environmentally friendly slim case much like its predecessor, "An Inconvenient Truth" among others. It has won awards at several international film festivals including Honolulu in 2010, Anchorage in 2009, Eugene in 2009, and Charleston in 2009 as well as the Best of Fest award at the Colorado Environmental Film Festival in 2009.

Bonus Features:

It is AMAZING how many people purchase bottled water when a filter on their faucet would work just as well and be cheaper in the long run. Bottled water is a luxury item, there are water fountains everywhere you go and it is much more environmentally sound to buy one reusable bottle and take it wherever you go.

There are extra bonuses on Central Valley and Agriculture, Chemicals in the Water, Sewer Water Treatment, Oil and Water, Privatization, and World Water Crisis. This just goes to show the abundance of information that Stephanie Soechtig and her team dug up on anything and everything related to the water before channeling the focus of the film to keep her audience on track. These are all interesting subjects on their own, but they do veer off the path of the most direct message she was aiming for and makes a lot of sense that these were edited out.

I moved to the Cleveland area back in 1995. I've been drinking bottled water since for the following reasons. One: i've heard that human waste (or human waste by-products) are regularly dumped into Lake Erie, not too far from our main water intake source! Two: most public water tap supplies are flouridated, and flouride is a poison with negative health ramifications (Google Dr. Mercola's articles on the subject). I thought all along that 'bottled spring water' does not contain flouride. And three: lead is a concern in tapwater, because many pipes used to transport the water to one's home are old and leeching this carcinogen. Now, after watching this excellent film, I find out that (I always had a hunch) plastic bottles leech many dangerous carcinogens, on top of the environmental pollution issue! In all seriousness, WHAT IS A CONCERNED AND EDUCATED PERSON TO DO WHEN IT COMES TO THEIR DAILY DRINKING WATER SUPPLY???!!! Clearly, in my case, there is huge concern about our Lake Erie supply, AND our bottled water supply. Any suggestions please?!

I thought I knew everything they were going to tell me when I started this movie, and it turns out I couldn't have been more wrong. AMAZING, a must-see for all... it really shows how detrimental our little habits are, I am going to make an effort to switch to reusable bottles. Thanks!

Liked the movie, good documentary. Reminded me of "super size me". I'm not drinking bottled water anymore! However the movie ran very glitchy... like it was in slowmo the whole time. Audio was fine. Amazon made things right so I'm happy.

Tap water is safe in most places in the US. Much bottled water is just filtered tap water (Aquafina & Desani) - easy enough to add a filter to your tap - and cheaper, too. Tap is also regulated by the EPA daily. Bottled water, unless it crosses state lines is only regulated by the FDA (and few resources available to actually do the regulating). If nothing else, the environmental impact of bottled water is tremendous. Certainly there are times when bottled water may be necessary, but don't be fooled into thinking bottled water is actually healthier than most tap sources.