Industry/Bottled Water
"…bottled
water costs anywhere from 240 to 10,000 times more than tap water, depending on
the brand….the bottled water industry is conservatively estimated to be worth
$100 billion annually” (Barlow, p.82, 2007).
The bottled water industry is huge, worldwide. While bottled water can serve a great purpose, such as getting water to disaster victims and providing water to those who do not have access to safe clean drinking water, it is a huge drain on the world reserves. It is being sucked up by corporations, ran through factories, bottled, sold for astronomical prices compared to tap water and all of those bottles are littering and polluting our environment.
Much of the water that is being bottled by corporations is coming from rural communities around the world. The water reserves for the area are being depleted rapidly, the people living there are not gaining access to the water that they need and used to have access to, and the areas that are being depleted are seeing little, if any, money for what is being taken. Often, these corporations are also building factories in these rural communities, paying the workers poorly, and polluting the local environment with the production. Much of this water is not even being consumed by the people producing it, because they cannot afford it, it is being exported to other countries.
The photo below has countries resized to show their consumption of bottled water:
The bottled water industry is huge, worldwide. While bottled water can serve a great purpose, such as getting water to disaster victims and providing water to those who do not have access to safe clean drinking water, it is a huge drain on the world reserves. It is being sucked up by corporations, ran through factories, bottled, sold for astronomical prices compared to tap water and all of those bottles are littering and polluting our environment.
Much of the water that is being bottled by corporations is coming from rural communities around the world. The water reserves for the area are being depleted rapidly, the people living there are not gaining access to the water that they need and used to have access to, and the areas that are being depleted are seeing little, if any, money for what is being taken. Often, these corporations are also building factories in these rural communities, paying the workers poorly, and polluting the local environment with the production. Much of this water is not even being consumed by the people producing it, because they cannot afford it, it is being exported to other countries.
The photo below has countries resized to show their consumption of bottled water:
Bottled water, and the corporations invested in selling it to the public are a huge problem. Here of some of the facts about transporting and producing bottled water:
- 1/4 of all bottled water crosses national borders to make it to its final destination. This means tons of energy used in that transportation (boats, trains, trucks - and the fuel to power them).
- 1 million water bottles that are exported, cause 18.2 tons of carbon dioxide emissions in the air.
- 2.7 million tons of plastic go into producing water bottles every year.
- Fewer than 5% of water bottles world wide are recycled, and many that are being recycled are being sent back to China and India to be done - more transportation energy.
- It takes 2.6 liters of tap water to produce 1 liter of coca-colas bottled water, due to their filtration process.
- Much of the bottled water produced is not cleaner than tap water, and the industry is fairly unregulated.
These corporations are selling the population lies in advertising and pocketing their money. "Corporations have utilized rate hikes to maximize profits, which, by definition, is their bottom line. This bottom line often comes at the expense of water quality and customer service, but not at the expense of maintaining inflated executive salaries” (Public Citizen, N.A.).
Posted below is a video called The Story of Bottled Water, which shows how corporations are lying to the public about tap water, to support their bottom line, where exactly that water comes from and where all those bottles go.
Posted below is a video called The Story of Bottled Water, which shows how corporations are lying to the public about tap water, to support their bottom line, where exactly that water comes from and where all those bottles go.