Environmental Controversy - Resources and Pollution

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Bottled Water BACKLASH

Knopper, Melissa. E : the Environmental Magazine 19.3 (May/Jun 2008): 36-39.

[...] after big client meetings, she Jl collected all the empty mm plastic water bottles, took them home

and added them to her own curbside recycling bin. High school activists are raising questions about why

their school board members are locking them into a contract with Coke or Pepsi (makers of Aquafina and

Dasani bottled water) when they have access to drinking fountains for free. Now that more people are

trying get out of the bottled water habit, groups like Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and EWG

wonder if this new awareness will translate into more support for public water supplies, and for water

conservation in general.

Jennifer Phillips always felt guilty that her large Nashville law firm didn't recycle. So after big client

meetings, she Jl collected all the empty mm plastic water bottles, took them home and added them to

her own curbside recycling bin. Now, she is proud to report that her firm, Bass, Berry & Sims, serves an

icy pitcher of tap water during meetings. "We even have glasses with the company logo on them," she

says. Phillips estimates switching to tap keeps 3,000 plastic water bottles per week out of the landfill.

It's a trend that is taking hold in the s U.S., Europe and Canada: more people are switching from bottled

water to tap. Call it reverse snob appeal. Bottled water once carried a certain European mystique. But

these days, it's the tap water enthusiasts, concerned about the environment, who get to act self-

righteous. Just like it has become cool to bring your own cloth bags to the grocery store and your own

mug to the coffee shop, the reusable water bottle is the hip, new eco accessory.

It's because people like Phillips and David WiIk, a Connecticut book publisher and tap water activist, have

started to connect the dots. For WiIk, it happened on the soccer field. After his sons finished their games,

he noticed the grass was littered with bottled water and Gatorade empties. Pretty soon, WiIk started

showing up with a huge container of tap water. Now all the kids bring their own bottles and fill up when

thirsty.

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"We have such a consumption mentality, which leads to our throw-away society," says WiIk, who started

the website Turntotap.com to build more support for public water supplies and to cut down on the

amount of plastic going into landfills. "I think the cost of our behavior should be built into the. products,"

WiIk says.

A Gathering Revolt

In Canada, the bottled water issue has become, as WiIk says, an "uprising." College students are staging

protests-declaring "bottled water-free zones" on campus. High school activists are raising questions about

why their school board members are locking them into a contract with Coke or Pepsi (makers of Aquafina

and Dasani bottled water) when they have access to drinking fountains for free. Some students have

jokingly started to sell bottled air for $1.

In an even bolder move, the United Church of Canada asked its three million members to consider

banning bottled water during meetings and events. "We just had a lot of concerns about governance and

accountability," says Julie Graham, who leads the anti-bottled water campaign for a Toronto ecumenical

activist group called Kairos. "Why is it people in Canada are willing to pay twice as much for bottled water

as for gasoline? We started challenging that and raising questions about billions of empty bottles going

into landfills."

Others, like Richard Girard, a corporate researcher for the Ottowa-based Polaris Institute, don't like the

hypocrisy I they perceive in the bottled water marketing. "This movement is gaining momentum because

the general public is starting to figure out bottled water is a scam," says Girard. More than half of all

bottled water is simply filtered tap anyway, he argues. And some of it is actually worse in quality because

bottled water companies aren't subject to the same strict oversight as public water supplies.

"We want the bottled water corporations to be held accountable for their actions," Girard says. "These

companies are essentially commodifying water. We hope we can force them to change and be more

environmentally responsible."

The trend away from bottled water also ties in with the Slow Food movement-as the restaurant industry

tries to support local agriculture and cut down on extravagant energy used to ship imported foods from

around the world. At Berkeley's Chez Panisse, general manager Mike Kossa-Rienzi had his "a-ha" moment

when he sat down and calculated how far the 25,000 bottles of sparkling Italian spring water he ordered

had to travel through the air. "It really does not make sense to ship from all around the world when you

have such good water in your backyard," he says. "You have to think about the carbon imprint you're

making there."

Another big push for the bottled water backlash came during World Water Day 2007, when San Francisco

Mayor Gavin Newsom declared a ban on bottled water contracts for all city departments. Instead of

bottled water vending machines, he installed large dispensers in city buildings that poured out pure tap

water from the Sierra mountains. Other cities, from Chicago to Salt Lake, followed suit.

Just think about a bottled water brand like Fiji, says WiIk. On the company's website, it says, "When it

comes to drinking water, remote is very, very good." If you think about it, WiIk says, it's pretty arrogant

to ask that Fiji water be flown 8,000 miles across the world just so North American yuppies can enjoy a

slightly better taste.

Responding to rising criticism, the company launched the "Fiji Green" campaign. It partnered with

Conservation International to go carbon negative, reduced packaging, committed to 100 percent recycled

materials and has pledged money to protect the Sovi Basin rainforest in Fiji. A cynic would say the

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company is doing this because it can afford to-marketing Fiji water is an enormously profitable

enterprise.

Bottled Waste

It takes 15 million barrels of oil per year to make all of the plastic water bottles in America, according to

the Container Recycling Institute. Sending those bottles by air and truck uses even more fossil fuel.

Once people drain the bottles, they rarely recycle them because they're often purchased at big concert

venues or airports with no recycling bins. CRI says eight out of 10 water bottles end up in the landfill.

The bottles that drift from landfills and litter streams are washing out to sea to form a huge raft of plastic

debris in the center of the Pacfic that is twice the size of Texas.

It takes 1,000 years for plastic bottles to break down, CRI estimates. But when they do, they disintegrate

into tiny bits. The green and blue bottles, especially, look like tasty food to fish and shorebirds. Scientists

are finding these dead animals on the beach, with bellies full of plastic pellets.

If more states added deposits on bottled water bottles, it might spur recycling. Congressman Ed Markey

(D-MA) has even proposed a national beverage bottle bill. But PET water bottles (short for polyethylene

terephthalate) can only be recycled a few times. What about going back to refillable glass bordes? For

one thing, they are heavy to ship. And Zero Waste expert Neil Seldman of the Institute for Local Self-

Reliance doesn't imagine anyone could persuade the beverage industry to go that route.

"They have always lobbied against it," Seldman says. "The industry does not want to deal with it after

people buy their productthey want to wash their hands of the containers." That's why it makes the most

sense to avoid creating the waste in the first place by drinking tap from your own container, Seldman

says.

Meanwhile, as drought spreads to North Carolina and Atlanta, residents are casting a suspicious eye on

beverage companies like Coca Cola, which tap into local aquifers to rill their bottles. Nestle has been

seeking environmental approval for what would be the largest water bottling plant in the U.S.- one million

square feet in McCloud, California-against community protests. The company has had to significantly

increase the amount it's paying for the water (from $26 an acre-foot to $183) and limit its draw to 520

million gallons annually. It's still battling opposition from residents concerned about the mega-plant's

effects on quality of life and outdoor recreation.

Bottled water industry groups, such as the International Bottled Water Association, say they are being

unfairly targeted. They argue bottled water is a healthy alternative to sugary soda. And it can also be a

lifesaver when disasters, such as Hurricane Katrina, strike. "It's not really a bottled water vs. tap water

world," says IBWA spokesman Steven Kay. "Most people drink both. We think bottled water provides a

good healthy choice."

But industry marketing firms have had to do an about-face. "What's interesting about the backlash," says

CRI Executive Director Betty McLaughlin, "is that the companies say 'drink our water, not tap water.' Now

people are going back to tap and they've got to reposition themselves." Companies are trying every

angle, from claims of superior filtration to adding antioxidants (Snapple) and fruity flavors (Dasani and

others).

Don't Refill that Bottle!

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The IBWA argues that bottled water companies are responding to environmental concerns by making

lighter bottles that require less plastic in the manufacturing process. Kay says the industry does invest

significant money to improve access to recycling at large public venues, such as airports and concert

halls. Companies like Nalgene, Sigg and Brita are aggressively marketing their refillable bottles and home

filters as a more responsible option.

When it comes to reusable bottles, however, consumers still need to do their homework. Research shows

that clear bottles made of polycarbonate plastic (such as the original 32-ounce Nalgene) can leach

bisphenol-A (BPA). This is an endocrine-disrupting chemical that acts like estrogen in the body. BPA

essentially tricks your body into thinking it's estrogen, says Washington State University Researcher

Patricia Hunt. She discovered the dangers of BPA when some of her polycarbonate mouse cages started

to leach BPA, causing infertility in female mice.

Since BPA has been linked to low sperm counts and an increased risk of breast and prostate cancer,

scientists like vomSaal and Hunt suggest avoiding reusable bottles made from plastic. They also raise

serious concerns about the potential for other plastic chemicals to leach out of typical PET water bottles-

especially if they sit in the hot sun.

Hunt uses a stainless bottle brand called Klean Kantene, and Wilk's website sells stainless guaranteed-

not-to-leach SIGG bottles made in Switzerland. The trend away from bottled water may also boost sales

of home filters. Water-quality experts say most tap water is fine to drink straight from the faucet-

especially in cities like San Francisco, Seattle, New York City and Denver, where water comes from

pristine mountain reservoirs. But in places that draw drinking water from lakes and rivers with sewer

outfalls, it might make sense to install a filter. Sometimes rusty pipes or naturally occurring iron can also

affect the taste.

It makes sense for anyone turning back to tap to become educated about the local public water supply.

And since the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requires frequent water quality reports, the data is

easy to find. The Environmental Working Group (EWG) makes it easy with its Tap Water Database. You

can plug in your zip code and find out whether your local water system is up to par.

Now that more people are trying get out of the bottled water habit, groups like Natural Resources

Defense Council (NRDC) and EWG wonder if this new awareness will translate into more support for

public water supplies, and for water conservation in general.

Once you kick the bottle, they say, the next step is to get educated and get involved-find out what your

water system needs and start pushing your elected officials to bring more funds to bear on the problem.

According to NRDC, the EPA has asked for billions of dollars for a public water supply needs assessment.

But the Bush Administration has allocated only a small portion of that request, says NRDC attorney Mae

Wu.

"People are very concerned about what's in their water because we drink so much of it," says Jane

Houlihan, EWG's vice president for research. "We're advocating for more protection for the waters that

are the source of what comes out of kitchen faucets."

CONTACTS: Container Recycling Institute, (202) 263-0999, www.container-recycling.org; EWG, (202)

667-6982, www.ewg.org/tapwater; Institute for Local Self-Reliance, (202)898-1610, www.ilsr.org; Turn

to Tap, www.turntotap.com.

Sidebar

This 10-foot tall cube of crushed water bottles was made by sculptor Steven Siegel.

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Details

Subject Recycling;

Drinking water;

Bottled water;

Water supply;

Water conservation;

Vending machines;

Research & development--R&D;

Meetings;

Marketing;

Fossil fuels;

Colleges & universities

Title Bottled Water BACKLASH

Author Knopper, Melissa

Publication title E : the Environmental Magazine

Volume 19

Issue 3

Pages 36-39

Sidebar

Environmental Concerns are Sending People Back to Their Taps

Sidebar

High Water Marks

Online calculators are the latest thing in eco-land: a quick way to gauge one's wasteful footprint against

the consumption level of other Americans. The newest addition is H2O Conserve, a joint project between

Food & Water Watch and other nonprofits. The site leads users through a series of personal questions-

their home state, the number of people in their household, how they shower, wash dishes and maintain

lawns and cars. Using national averages, the calculator determines individual "water footprints." While

the number isn't scientifically accurate, even its approximation can be alarming-most Americans use

more than 1,000 gallons a day, according to the site's measures. CONTACT: www.h2oconserve.org.

-Brita Belli

AuthorAffiliation

MELISSA KNOPPER is a Colorado-based science writer and tap water enthusiast.

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Number of pages 4

Publication year 2008

Publication date May/Jun 2008

Year 2008

Publisher Earth Action Network, Inc.

Place of publication Norwalk

Country of publication United States

Publication subject Environmental Studies

ISSN 10468021

Source type Magazines

Language of publication English

Document type Feature

Document feature Photographs

ProQuest document ID 229069630

Document URL http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.rasmussen.edu/doc

view/229069630?accountid=40836

Last updated 2014-05-23

Database ProQuest Central

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