Tap is better than bottled water for many reasons.

First, bottled water costs a lot when a glass of water from the sink or drinking fountain is free. People in the United States buy more than half a billion water bottles every week, which is expensive. “Bottled water costs from $0.89 per gallon to $8.26 per gallon, compared to fractions of a penny for water from your tap,” according to Food and Water Watch.

Next, making the water bottles takes a lot of oil and energy. In 2016, 4 billion pounds of plastic was used in U.S. bottled water production, requiring an estimated energy input equivalent of about 64 million barrels of oil, according to Food and Water Watch. Transporting the bottles and keeping them cool also burns fossil fuels, which creates greenhouse gases. Eighty percent of water bottles end up in landfills and sit for hundreds of years or end up being burned, which creates pollution, according to “The Story of Bottled Water,” part of the Story of Stuff Project.

Consumers often leave their water bottles in the heat, and when the plastic is heated, it releases chemicals that are unsafe. In addition, reusing the bottle is unhealthy because the water leaches chemicals from the bottles.

According to National Geographic, a study at the Columbia Water Center at Columbia University’s Earth Institute shows that the public drinks 21 gallons of bottled water per capita per year average.

Groundwater pumping by bottled-water companies draws a lot on underground aquifers and harms watersheds, according to the Sierra Club.

Bottled water also has untested chemicals and may not be cleaner than tap. People think bottled water comes from spring water, but it could actually come from a source that is less than desirable. Bottled water can simply be filtered tap water.

In Santa Fe, tap water is largely safe to drink and use for everyone, according to Paul Weideman writing in The Santa Fe New Mexican. Santa Fe tap water is constantly being checked and cleaned for parasites and chemicals, so there should be no worry whether it’s safe or not.