Bottled Water Matters' New Activist Message: Stand Up To People Who Want To Take Away Your Rights (VIDEO)

One particularly enjoyable environmental front group to monitor is Bottled Water Matters, which is funded by The International Bottled Water Association, a trade industry group. With a website, YouTube channel, Twitter feed and Facebook page they present themselves as concerned citizens and good, honest bottled water enthusiasts. As Jason Linkins detailed in his post last March, the group has been working hard to battle the their deserved anti-green reputation:

The bottled water industry, fighting back against accusations that they are a significant contributor to environmental degradation, has released this magical video of glorious greenwashing, redolent of the famous video news releases in which Karen Ryan pretended to a journalist while promoting the Bush White House's "No Child Left Behind" Act.

Perhaps the best part of Bottled Water Matters is its hilariously low-life, faux girl reporter YouTube videos. With bad lighting, amateur editing, and overall low production value, you can't help but wonder if this is a well-funded industry's attempt to make these videos look like they spring from grassroots sincerity when, in reality, Big Water is footing the bill. In past videos, Bottled Water Matters Girl has done interviews and seemingly informational shorts about how bottled water is made and why it's important.

In the latest video, Bottled Water Matters Girl takes a decidedly activist stance, urging us to join the movement and fight the people who want to take away our choice to buy bottled water. She uses catchphrases such as bottled water is "part of a healthy lifestyle," and encourages people to "speak up" to their legislators to make sure bottled water is always available.

WATCH:

In case you need a refresher on why bottled water is in no way healthier than tap water, contributes to serious environmental degradation, and is an overall marketing ploy to get people to buy something they can get for free, check out Ashley Braun's article for Grist.org, and watch Annie Leonard's The Story Of Bottled Water below.

WATCH:

Comments

[maxwells]

04:02 PM on 09/14/2010

Bottled water is about as sane as monster trucks.

Here in HuffPo industry spokesman, Tom Lauria, said,

"Our super-thin, light-weight PET plastic bottles are intended only to be recycled, not refilled. The thin plastic walls -- so thin the bottle itself can expand and contract while drinking from it -- can develop tiny cracks and wear marks with use. That wear compromises the extra-thin plastic bottle's ability to be used again, and prevents it from being properly sanitized for re-use."

Lauria seems to think that's good, as he also says,

"Extremely thin-skinned bottles -- reduced in weight by 32% in past 8 years -- are the equivalent of taking one out of three bottles out of the waste stream... the "mimimum safety specs." shift after a single use. No worries! With recycling, that bottle will be made into another bottle or something else."

"If you want to fill your own bottles, please use your own container", he adds.

But this begs the question, are these bottles purposely made too thin to refill safely?

And about "no worries"...

What about the millions of useless plastic bottles floating endlessly with other plastic refuse in East Pacific Ocean gyres, occasionally choking aquatic animals?

Is Lauria going to swim out there and clean up his debris?

Like he suggests, if you need water, use your own bottle. The bottled water industry is a marketing sham that wastes energy and petroleum and pollutes the planet completely unnecessarily.

[SunInMyHands]

07:18 PM on 09/13/2010

I was with this story right up until the Annie Leonard video. That lady doesn't quite have her facts together.

[Kenz300]

06:36 PM on 09/13/2010

Big money...big corporations and Republican billionaires funding fake groups.

There needs to be a law that say's the funding for these groups needs to be
displayed in the ads.

Investigative journalists need to look into the money trail.

[gclafontaine]

05:07 PM on 09/13/2010

Bottled water and private schools are very similar: They are luxuries favored by rich people whose only concern is that they and their family are getting the best. We should be striving for a society in which neither is necessary

[Simon Woodward]

08:09 AM on 09/13/2010

i'm confused - what is this bald water she's talking about? water with no hair in it?

[William Waterway Marks]

07:49 AM on 09/13/2010

Thank you for providing a balanced and well researched article on the subject of bottled water. Yes, bottled water is the marketing miracle of Madison Avenue - brainwashing people to spend a fortune on a product that is overly expensive and destructive to our environment. I was surprised that the award winning film "FLOW" For Love Of Water - was not mentioned. This film has changed the mindset of people all around the world relative to bottled water. When FLOW was screened at Lincoln Center and other venues around the globe - it literally caused some governments, restaurants and communities to ban bottled water.

[Mark Eyre]

05:10 AM on 09/13/2010

Plastic bottles are bad, okay? But the packaging they use to transport and deliver BS is even worse. American's consume way too much BS and it is hurting our environment and poisoning our kids.

[WYHKTai-Tai]

02:10 AM on 09/13/2010

They should include this one to the list to watch:

Water privatization:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4124375589330103131#

[DorianCorso]

10:31 AM on 09/14/2010

Thanks for that video.

[Beth Boyle]

10:18 PM on 09/12/2010

I have a wonderful well on my land and bought a nice Sigg bottle to drag it around with me. I have never been one to want anything prepackaged let alone water.

[tercio]

06:16 PM on 09/12/2010

I'm in! You're a sun, Annie :)

[missouriwatcher]

04:53 PM on 09/12/2010

Bottled water is by and large an expensive and unnecessary hoax perpertrated on the public in order to enrich a few.  Most of the bottled water either comes from municipal supplies, or robs and depletes local aquifers.  In addition, the plastic bottles tend to leach PVCs and other potentially hazardous chemicals into the bottled water--especially the more purified the water is.  One is much better off putting a water softener and purifier system in the home.  If you have not seen it, you should see Flow:  How Did a Handful of Corporations Steal Our Water?  If you have seen this documentary, you could benefit from watching it again.

[macchugsid]

02:36 PM on 09/12/2010

I pay on average $25.00 a month for water in to my home that includes laundry, dishes, cleaning and personal hygiene. I have a filter in my refrigerator and it dispenses water.

At my place of employment we have a filtered water dispenser and a refrigerator. I have refillable water bottle that I keep to reuse in the refrigerator so I always have cold filtered and healthy water.

This is not that difficult to accomplish. Bottled water companies are a fraud and a rip-off. To those of you on this thread with health related issues, I say to get a filter and reusable water bottle. It will meet the needs you say you want.

[santiago sherwood]

09:09 PM on 09/12/2010

I pay 78 dollars a month and I have a warning that it is not advisable to consume in large qualities so i have to buy water that is safe to drink and filters don't take out dioxin, or excess copper or chrome. some do take some lead out but not much.

[way2muchsense]

03:44 PM on 09/13/2010

Oh, and the Whirlpool WHER25 reverse osmosis filter will remove damn near everything that isn't H2O for about $35/year for replacement filters. Initial cost at Lowe's: about $125, plus installation.

[macchugsid]

06:58 PM on 09/13/2010

I am sorry for your poor water quality but bottled water is not your answer. There are filters that will clean your water and the money you invest in filters will pay for itself in both savings to you and our landfills.

$78.00 a month! for excess copper chrome and dioxin! Where are you living?

[TheAlchemist]

10:03 AM on 09/12/2010

>

[TheAlchemist]

10:02 AM on 09/12/2010

>`·.¸¸.·´¯`·...¸>`·...·´¯`..·´¯`>

[Nopinky]

11:30 PM on 09/11/2010

Is it just me or does she (non)enunciate an awful lot like Miss Teen South Carolina?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQdhMSEqhfg