Bottled Water
 
Bottled Water is one of the fastest growing, and least regulated, industries in the world.

Bottled water is rarely safer than tap water:

  • In 1999 the U.S. Natural Resources Defense Council found that 1/3 of the 103 brands of bottled water it studied were contaminated, showing traces of arsenic, E Coli and other contaminants.
  • 1/4 of all bottled water is tap water.
  • in many countries, bottled water is subject to lower purity standards than tap water.

In 2001, the World Wildlife Foundation reported that the bottled water industry used 1.5 million tons of plastic every year.
  • When plastic bottles are manufactured or disposed of, they release toxic chemicals in the air.

Pepsi, with its Aquafina brand, and Coke with Dasani, are two of the biggest companies in the bottled water market. Both of these brands are tap water.
  • Coke makes Dasani by selling packets of Dasani minerals to independent bottling franchises. The bottlers mix the minerals into their local tap water, and then stick the mixture into a Dasani bottle.


The bottled water companies resemble giant mosquitoes that suck water instead of blood:

  • The companies buy tracts of land which have access to fresh water systems. They drain the water on their own land, and often the water of the entire surrounding area, and then they move on.
  • Due to private property rights, the bottled water companies rarely pay fees when they extract water this way. Unlike the oil industry, which pays royalties, and the timber industry, which pays stumpage fees to the government, the water-bottling business is not required to pay fees for the extraction of water in most Canadian jurisdictions.

All of the above from Barlow & Clarke, 2002, pgs. 142-153.


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