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Had a good chuckle this morning reading the Sun-Times. Smack dab in the middle of page 3 was this AP article detailing PepsiCo's announcement that their popular Aquafina bottled water - the most popular bottled water brand in the nation - will literally spell out on the label that the water contained within is filtered from a public source, rather than the somewhat cryptic "p.w.s." that's currently on the label. Show of hands if you didn't know that.
The change comes after pressure from a watchdog group called Corporate Accountability International, which has long been lobbying for full disclosure from PepsiCo, the Coca-Cola Bottling Company (makers of Dasani brand bottled water) and Nestle Waters North America for their Pure Life brands. The Dasani website clearly states their publicly sourced water undergoes a process called "reverse osmosis" to remove impurities and later fortified with minerals, while Nestle Pure Life vacillates between natural and public sources. CAI seeks to have Coca-Cola follow Pepsi's lead and label their brands as publicly sourced. Nestle announced yesterday that they're in the process of printing labels for Pure Life indicating whether the product came from a natural or public source.
The main issue here, we think, isn't corporate accountability. Although it certainly is an issue; corporations have long only told consumers the truths they feel the public need to know. What we see here is the ease of consumer gullibility: the belief that if the water is bottled, it has to be good for you. It's a theory that's long been debunked by groups ranging from CAI to Penn & Teller. It also raises the double standard to which we sometimes hold our municipal governments, i.e. we're quick to think that publicly sourced brands like Aquafina are better for us than what comes from our taps.
Bottled water is a serious industry, to the tune of $10.8 billion in wholesale sales in 2006. The growth of the industry has exploded amid raised awareness of health concerns related to drinking colas and other soft drinks. The increase in revenue also raises other environmental concerns, like the increase in plastic waste from empty bottles, which are produced using petroleum, thereby contributing to skyrocketing oil prices. We can't keep track of the number of times we've debated with people who thought that Aquafina was natural bottled water because the label depicted mountains. Some just couldn't believe that a company would do something as filter publicly sourced water and sell it. We believe in personal choice in most cases, so if you want to spend a few dollars on a case of bottled water, one has that right. We'll prefer to save that money filling up our camelbacks with tap water.
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Best. Chicagoist Headline. Ever.
I've always suspected the major-label bottled waters were complete shams. It's hard to believe people really think Aquafina is anything other than Pepsi without the added sugar and dye, especially with the size of its distribution.
Bottled water has its uses, especially in places where tap water is not readily available. However for many people it's a status symbol that says "I'm above the tap water the rest of you peons drink".
Little did they know.
It's not just Aquafina it's pretty much all of them.
There was a great article on what it takes to make and get Fiji water here.
Every bottle of Fiji Water goes on its own version of this trip, in reverse, although by truck and ship. In fact, since the plastic for the bottles is shipped to Fiji first, the bottles' journey is even longer. Half the wholesale cost of Fiji Water is transportation--which is to say, it costs as much to ship Fiji Water across the oceans and truck it to warehouses in the United States than it does to extract the water and bottle it.
That is not the only environmental cost embedded in each bottle of Fiji Water. The Fiji Water plant is a state-of-the-art facility that runs 24 hours a day. That means it requires an uninterrupted supply of electricity--something the local utility structure cannot support. So the factory supplies its own electricity, with three big generators running on diesel fuel. The water may come from "one of the last pristine ecosystems on earth," as some of the labels say, but out back of the bottling plant is a less pristine ecosystem veiled with a diesel haze.
Each water bottler has its own version of this oxymoron: that something as pure and clean as water leaves a contrail.
If you can find the episode of Penn & Teller's "Bullshit" that covers just how much bottled water comes from public sources, I suggest y'all watch it (usually you can find it via Shoutcast.com on your Winamp player).
When you think about it, it takes a lot of chutzpah to filter and purify water that's already been filtered and purified, then package it for sale to consumers who don't even think twice about where it's sourced. One woman in the Sun-Times/AP piece pretty much admitted that she drank Aquafina because it was convenient. But she's a rare exception to the rule.
I know we have bigger things to worry about than bottled water, but it links to a bigger problem. If we took the time to actually see where what we consume comes from, we'd all be healthier and be able to hold companies accountable for what they sell us.
Many people underestimate how clean tap water is in Chicago and in most other cities for that matter. However I've spoken with too many who swear tap water is dirty and bottled water is pristine.
You are right, Chuck, this is symptomatic of a larger problem. We are an image-obsessed society in which we are defined by what and how much we consume. Little regard is paid to where our goods come from or where they go when we casually toss them away.
I have loathed bottled water for years. I recently started my current job, and one of my duties is to purchased bottled water for the higher-ups...freaking cases and cases of them every month or so.
Everytime I lug these things from cart to closet, I think, "Buy some Brita Pitchers you lazy bastards!"
And then I think about all the waste, oil usage, environmental damage I am contributing to.
Ban The Bottle!!!
great post, chuck. i didn't know any of this about bottled water. i remember being in middle school and one of my science teachers telling us that we'd eventually run out of water and that we'd have bottled water we'd have to buy and i thought, "seriously? that's crazy."
lo and behold, here we are. although, i will say i'm more along the lines of the "convenient" streak. sometimes, it's nice to go to a walgreens and buy a cold bottle of water to take on my daily errands.
Evian is good; the rest are bullshit.
Fiji Water is one of my clients and I know for a fact that their water no longer comes from Fiji but the US, even though their packaging says otherwise.