http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/07/27/pepsico.aquafina.reut/index.html?iref=mpstoryview
While this article focused on the growing environmental concern that bottled water just translates to an overflow of plastic bottles in landfills, I thought the article failed to truly address a genuinely ironic truth of the bottled water industry. According to the article, two of the leading bottled water companies, Aquafina and Dasani, use tap water. This discovery forces many environmentalists to wonder why on earth are people insisting on drinking bottled water if it is coming from the same source as their tap water? Surely the convenience of having bottled water everywhere is nice, but isn't it more convenient to have your own water from your own tap (which can also save you at least a buck)? The article also really doesn't pay much attention to the tremendous energy costs of transporting bottled water from "natural springs" aka water from foreign and exotic countries to the United States. Instead, the article talked about how bottled water doesn't bring in very much profit to the Pepsi company, and how the increase in environmental awareness will not impact the bottled water industry...which is ultimately frustrating because we insist on causing further environmental harm on things we already have...essentially for free!
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3 comments:
I think that is so ironic. It seems so normal to people that are water is becoming privatized. What does that mean...well the people who can afford to buy "clean" water don't have to worry about what pollution and agricultural run-off is being distributed into our drinking water. Companies are benefiting from our ignorance and in the process increasing the degradation of the environment. Of course as consumers we are involved in the process of privatization of water, and we have the choice to support this with our dollar, but what will be next, privatization of air?
On a side note, I have noticed how the growing trend in the water industry seems to be with the distribution of mineral water. I wonder if this is in response to scandals like this, people realizing that they do not have to spend money on water?
Well wherever it comes from, the tap water they use is probably not very good quality, because as far as I'm concerned the water from my tap still tastes better than bottled water. That is, indeed, a very sad and worrying irony, people are so often unaware of the choices they make. Thanks for the info.
Aquafina bottles have always stated where the water comes from and they have never claimed to be natural spring water. It says they are pure water - meaning purified. And from what I’ve heard the purification process is quite intense.
Nevertheless, people buy the water with the expectation that it is from a purer source than what comes out of the tap.
Also, on a side note, a couple of weeks ago I saw a CNN segment that talked about bottled water. It stated that only 10% of bottles are recycled and each month over 15 million bottles of water are purchased in the USA. We're really taking care of our environment and world!
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