[greenyes] Bottled Water - Cover Story of E-MAGAZINE

["Pat Franklin" <pfranklin@no.address>]

Everything you ever wanted to know and were afraid to ask about BOTTLED
WATER is in the COVER STORY of the current issue of E-THE ENVIRONMENTAL
MAGAZINE.  To read the article go to:
www.emagazine.com/september-october_2003/0903feat1.html


COVER STORY of E-MAGAZINE (Sep/Oct):  "Message in a Bottle", by Brian Howard
The message is clear: Bottled water is ?good? water, as opposed to that
nasty, unsafe stuff that comes out of the tap. But in most cases tap water
adheres to stricter purity standards than bottled water, whose source can be
wells underneath industrial facilities. Indeed, 40 percent of bottled water
began life as, well, tap water...

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ALSO IN THE CURRENT ISSUE IS AN EDITORIAL WORTH A READ...........

All Bottled Up

Could someone please tell me: When on Earth did water go from being an
essential liquid upon which all life depends?to a commercial ?beverage??

It happened at least sometime before the Fall 2001 Natural Products Expo in
Washington, D.C., where Icelandic Spring Water was a ubiquitous sponsor,
including of a (yes, real) fur fashion show at one of the evening
get-togethers. Though I don?t think the company found many fans among the
largely vegetarian audience (what were they thinking?), shortly thereafter
Icelandic Spring did win an International Bottled Water Association ?Aqua
Award? for best print advertising, label design, point-of purchase
advertising and public relations campaign.

A recent trip to the local health food chain by the E staff had us all
howling in the water aisle over the rows and rows of bottled brands from
Iceland, Fiji, New Zealand, France... you name it. We didn?t find any
offerings from Kabul or Baghdad, or from Piscataway, New Jersey. But who
knows, maybe this will all eventually come full circle and local water will
someday enjoy the same kind of popularity as do local wines and beers
now?and lead us straight back to the realization that water from the tap isn
?t so bad after all.

How silly can it get? The K9 Water Company of Valencia, California sells
beef, liver, chicken and lamb-flavored bottled waters for dogs. You can even
get all four in a combo pack ?so your dog can decide??

It?s really all about the marketing. The same Madison Avenue that convinced
us to fall in love with cars a half century ago as the auto industry
simultaneously bought up and put the trolleys to pasture has done an
effective job persuading us that our tap water isn?t safe. We?re exhorted to
buy the one liquid we can?t live without from private companies who dress up
bottles with pretty nature scenes that contradict the true environmental
impact of their enterprises.

It?s indeed appalling how we take our tap water for granted. Here we?ve
created, with our tax dollars and the hard labor of many, incredibly
efficient collection, purification and delivery systems to bring this
precious liquid straight to our kitchen faucets. Yet somehow we?ve allowed
ourselves to be lulled instead into choosing water collected and distributed
in just about the least efficient way possible.

Clean water should be a universal human right. It?s God-given, and its
?market? should not be cornered by greedy enterprises that suck dry our
rivers, lakes, streams, aquifers and reservoirs, only to bottle the water
and sell it to us at a price higher than gasoline. Contrast this absurdity
with the fact that half the world?s population lacks clean water or must
travel great distances to procure paltry essential amounts, that unsanitary
water kills five to 12 million people per year, and that every eight seconds
a child dies from a preventable water-borne disease.

Even though municipal water supplies are overwhelmingly safe, more than 20
percent of Americans refuse to drink from their taps. But if any municipal
water is unsafe, let?s make it safe. And if we must bottle it, let?s get it
to those who need it, not those who waste it.


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Patricia Franklin
Executive Director
Container Recycling Institute
1911 N. Fort Myer Drive, Ste. 702
Arlington, VA 22209

TEL:   703.276.9800
FAX:   703.276.9587
EMAIL: pfranklin@no.address

http://www.container-recycling.org
http://www.bottlebill.info
****************************************
Patricia Franklin
Executive Director
Container Recycling Institute
1911 N. Fort Myer Drive, Ste. 702
Arlington, VA 22209

TEL:   703.276.9800
FAX:   703.276.9587
EMAIL: pfranklin@no.address

http://www.container-recycling.org
http://www.bottlebill.info
****************************************