This blog was originally posted at TheSocioCapitalist.
My dad has always wondered about bottled water. He jokes that if he went to a bottled water factory, he'd probably find a guy out back filling thousands of bottles of water with a garden hose. It's funny 'cause its true.
According to Corporate Accountability International, 40% of bottled water comes from the same sources at tap water. So when you are shelling out a couple bucks for a bottle of Coke's Dasani, Pepsi's Aquafina, or Nestle's Pure Life, you might as well be drinking from my dad's garden hose.
If you're like me, you buy bottled water, not because you think it is better than tap water, but because of the convenience of having a bottle of water AND getting to throw it away (hopefully in a recycle bin) when you are done. You probably even know it is not a good thing to do, but what choice do you have? It's a pain to go to the drinking fountain, again and again, if there is even one around.
The truth is, environmental and social problems you are contributing to when you buy a bottle of water are something we all should be ashamed of. It may be convenient, but the costs are unbelievable. The reason the system I am about to describe exists is because of us. If you don't like this, stop supporting it.
Water is essential to life. We need to drink it every day, and without it, we cannot produce any food to eat. Access to water is a human right, yet the production of bottled water is draining wells and depleting stores of groundwater in places like India, were the people who rely on their wells have no feasible alternative to get clean water. Because bottled water manufacturers are not required to disclose the source of their water, there is no way to hold them accountable for the impact they have on communities whose water they are taking. Not cool.
Plastic bottles are an environmental disaster. This is no surprise, but if you haven't heard it before, the vast majority of trash in the ocean is plastic. To quote Wikipedia,
"Unlike debris, which biodegrades, the photodegraded plastic disintegrates into ever-smaller pieces . . . This process continues down to the molecular level."At some point, the plastic is small enough to be ingested by fish and other critters and enters the food chain. Not cool.
Bottled water is big money. About $15 Billion per year is spent on bottled water in the US, and about $110 Billion globally. It is no wonder that people make bottled water. It is making them rich. That will be the case, including the nasty human rights and environmental impacts, as long as people still buy it. According to Corporate Accountability International, spending that same amount annually, on ensuring that all people had access to clean water, would achieve that goal by 2025.
Meanwhile, in the U.S., three out of four of us drink bottled water, and one out of five drink it exclusively.
Okay, Okay, but what about when you're flying or forgot to bring your metal water bottle? You can bring those bottles through airport security empty, and fill them up at a drinking fountain near your gate. That way you don't have to wait for the flight attendants to get to you with the cart either. As for when you just forgot your bottle, think about who needs a drink more: you, or the kid in India whose well you could be taking it from. Seriously.
Follow Nathan Havey on Twitter: www.twitter.com/nhavey
Have you actually reserached the ocean gyres issue? New studies indicate the vast majority of the debris isn't even plastic, let along water bottles. But it does raise the issue of recycling -- do it! Do it with every single plastic bottle, regardless of content, that comes into your hands. Empty water bottles currently are most recycled item curbside signle stream programs at 30.1% but there's still more work to do. According to the EPA, empty PET water bottles amount to 1/3 of one percent of U.S. waste stream before recycling.
While the recycling stats you site are great, not using the bottles in the first place is better.
But the biggest issue here is what I think is a major black-eye for your industry: Source disclosure. As you know better than I, there are major issues with corporate control of water in the developing world, and a corporate facility in India that depletes the water table below the reach of the community wells in order to bottle water and sell it back to those people is unconscionable. And the thing is, I would LOVE for you to prove me wrong - but until the companies you represent come clean on the source of their water, what I have to go off of are the reports that say these companies are running roughshod over the rights of people in the developing world to clean water.
I believe very firmly that mulitnational companies can bring about a sustainable world in no time - If they accept the responsibility. More and more, companies that are up front and transparent about how, where, and by whom their products are produced, are enjoying not only market share, but converting critics - to advocates.
http://www.tapwater.org/ UK
http://www.tapitwater.com/ US
http://www.bluew.org/ Canada
http://jointhepipe.blogspot.com/ Holland
http://www.wetapwater.com/ Holland
It really amazes me how big the water industry has become, to the detriment of future generations. After purchasing an home RO filter system 6 years ago it's become difficult to drink other water from garden hose or plastic bottle.
Dale Kreiser