i'm guilty. i love my bottled water. but i reuse my bottle time and time again until it starts to smell. does that help offset my consumption? probably not...
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Snagged from Project Censored, top 25 stories censored by big media
in 2007: http://www.projectcensored.org/censored_2007/index.htm
#20 Bottled Water: A Global Environmental Problem
Source:
OneWorld.net, February 5, 2006
Title: "Bottled Water: Nectar of the Frauds?"
Author: Abid Aslam
Faculty Evaluator: Liz Close
Student Researchers: Heidi Miller and Sean Hurley
Consumers spend a collective $100 billion every year on bottled water
in the belief—often mistaken—that it is better for us than what flows
from our taps. Worldwide, bottled water consumption surged to 41
billion gallons in 2004, up 57 percent since 1999.
"Even in areas where tap water is safe to drink, demand for bottled
water is increasing—producing unnecessary garbage and consuming vast
quantities of energy," reports Earth Policy Institute researcher
Emily Arnold. Although in much of the world, including Europe and the
U.S., more regulations govern the quality of tap water than bottled
water, bottled water can cost up to 10,000 times more. At up to $10
per gallon, bottled water costs more than gasoline in the United States.
"There is no question that clean, affordable drinking water is
essential to the health of our global community," Arnold asserts,
"But bottled water is not the answer in the developed world, nor does
it solve problems for the 1.1 billion people who lack a secure water
supply. Improving and expanding existing water treatment and
sanitation systems is more likely to provide safe and sustainable
sources of water over the long term." Members of the United Nations
have agreed to halve the proportion of people who lack reliable and
lasting access to safe drinking water by the year 2015. To meet this
goal, they would have to double the $15 billion spent every year on
water supply and sanitation. While this amount may seem large, it
pales in comparison to the estimated $100 billion spent each year on
bottled water.
Tap water comes to us through an energy-efficient infrastructure
whereas bottled water is transported long distances—often across
national borders—by boat, train, airplane, and truck. This involves
burning massive quantities of fossil fuels.
For example, in 2004 alone a Helsinki company shipped 1.4 million
bottles of Finnish tap water 2,700 miles to Saudi Arabia. And
although 94 percent of the bottled water sold in the U.S. is produced
domestically, many Americans import water shipped some 9,000
kilometers from Fiji and other faraway places to satisfy demand for
what Arnold terms "chic and exotic bottled water."
More fossil fuels are used in packaging the water. Most water bottles
are made with polyethylene terephthalate, a plastic derived from
crude oil. "Making bottles to meet Americans' demand alone requires
more than 1.5 million barrels of oil annually, enough to fuel some
100,000 U.S. cars for a year," Arnold notes.
Once it has been emptied, the bottle must be dumped. According to the
Container Recycling Institute, 86 percent of plastic water bottles
used in the United States become garbage or litter. Incinerating used
bottles produces toxic byproducts such as chlorine gas and ash
containing heavy metals tied to a host of human and animal health
problems. Buried water bottles can take up to 1,000 years to biodegrade.
Worldwide, some 2.7 million tons of plastic are used to bottle water
each year. Of the bottles deposited for recycling in 2004, the U.S.
exported roughly 40 percent to destinations as far away as China,
requiring yet more fossil fuel.
Meanwhile, communities where the water originates risk their sources
running dry. More than fifty Indian villages have complained of water
shortages after bottlers began extracting water for sale under the
Coca-Cola Corporation's Dasani label. Similar problems have been
reported in Texas and in the Great Lakes region of North America,
where farmers, fishers, and others who depend on water for their
livelihoods are suffering from concentrated water extraction as water
tables drop quickly.
While Americans consume the most bottled water per capita, some of
the fastest collective growth in consumption is in the giant
populations of Mexico, India, and China. As a whole, India's
consumption of bottled water increased threefold from 1999 to 2004,
while China's more than doubled.
While private companies' profits rise from selling bottled water of
questionable quality at more than $100 billion per year—more
efficiently regulated, waste-free municipal systems could be
implemented for distribution of safe drinking water for all the
peoples of the world—at a small fraction of the price.
UPDATE BY ABID ASLAM
Consumer stories are a staple of the media diet. This article spawned
coverage by numerous public broadcasters and appeared to do the
rounds in cyberspace. Perhaps what seized imaginations was our
affinity for the subject: apparently we and our planet's surface are
made up mostly of water and without it, we would perish. In any case,
most of the discussion of the issues raised by the source—a research
paper from a Washington, D.C.–based environmental think tank—focused
mainly on consumer elements (the price, taste, and consequences for
human health of bottled and tap water), as I had anticipated when I
decided to storify the Environmental Policy Institute (EPI) paper (in
honesty, that is pretty much all I did, adding minimal context and
background). However, a good deal of reader attention also focused on
the environmental and regulatory aspects.
Further information on these can be obtained from the EPI, a host of
environmental and consumer groups, and from the relevant government
agencies: the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for tap water and
the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for bottled water.
Differences in the ways these regulators (indeed, regulators in
general) operate and are structured and funded deserve a great deal
more attention, as does the unequal protection of citizens that results.
Numerous other questions raised in the article deserve further
examination. Would improved waste disposal and recycling address the
researcher's concerns about resources being consumed to get rid of
empty water bottles? If public water systems can deliver a more
reliable product to more people at a lower cost, as the EPI paper
says, then what are the obstacles to the necessary investment in the
U.S. and in poor countries, and how can citizens here and there
overcome those obstacles?
Some of these questions may strike general readers or certain media
gatekeepers as esoteric. Then again, we all drink the stuff.
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amy, thanks for forwarding the article. good stuff. enlightening.
