Water: Buying a Message on a Bottle
Consumers are finally realizing that bottled water is a waste of money and resources.
Nov. 14, 2008
By Wendy Williams, Prairie Writers Circle
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What's wrong with bottled water? One problem is that not nearly enough of those plastic bottles actually get recycled.
PHOTO BY DENISE TORRES/ISTOCKPHOTO
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I remember when the name of the game at my gym was pump’n’swig. Weight lifters and treadmill sloggers routinely carried with their sweat towels expensive water in plastic bottles.
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Drinking commercial water was the cool thing. In 2006, Americans bought 32.6 billion single-serving bottles of water, and another 34.6 billion larger bottles.
With a slew of brands for basically the same product, image marketers have pushed the envelope — the bottle itself. My favorite absurdity: “Bling H2O,” with the motto “More than a Pretty Taste.” You can buy this water in a “Limited Edition” frosted-glass bottle encrusted with crystals for $40.
The surprising truth is that an estimated 25 percent to 40 percent of bottled water comes from public drinking reservoirs. Pepsico’s Aquafina label shows high-peaked mountains, but the water is from municipal systems, including that of Ayer, Mass., a town next to a military base and a short drive from Boston. Coca-Cola’s brand, Dasani, also uses municipal systems.
I remember a Dennis the Menace cartoon showing Dad, dazed and bleary-eyed at 3 a.m., holding out a glass of water. Dennis says, “That’s bathroom water! I wanted kitchen water!”
It’s all in the marketing.
At some restaurants, “water sommeliers” have pushed $75-a-bottle water for each course. I once took my husband for his birthday to a restaurant where the waiter asked if we would like our water bottled or — with curled lip — “native.” That convinced us. We absolutely had to go local.
We still laugh about that.
For years, the joke’s been on consumers. We spend all that money on water and plastic, and toss the plastic. It litters America from sea to bottle-bobbing sea.
“We estimate that fewer than 20 percent of those get recycled,” says Betty McLaughlin, executive director of the Container Recycling Institute.
Elizabeth Royte, author of the highly readable Bottlemania: How Water Went on Sale and Why We Bought It says America uses about 17 million barrels of oil each year to make plastic water bottles.
“If you have good tap water, if bottled water is redundant, why wouldn’t you go for the low-impact option?” she asks. “Bring your water over to the Stairmaster in a reusable bottle.”
