Ten Concerns about Bottled Water Excerpted from Inside the Bottle –
an Expose of the Bottled Water Industry by Tony Clarke
Polaris Institute Report, 2005
1.
Price Gouging – what kind of price
mark-ups do we find in the bottled water market? Single serving
bottles of water range in price from $1.00 to $1.75 U.S. By
contrast the same amount of tap water costs a fraction of this
price. The U.S. Natural resources Defense Council has estimated
that bottled water is between 240 and 10,000 times more expensive
than tap water. For Coca-Cola or Pepsi, who draw the water for
their products directly from municipal taps, this price mark-up
is astonishing. But it is even more shocking in the case of
Danone or Nestle because they pay little or nothing for the
water they take out of groundwater streams and aquifers.
2.
Water Takings – when the label on the bottle
says ‘pure spring water’, where does the water really
come from, who owns it, and how is it regulated? In the U.S.,
bottled water companies are not required by law to disclose
the source and geographical location of their water takings
on their labels. In Canada they are, but only for takings from
underground water. Water takings are also largely unregulated
in both countries where there are more laws governing surface
waters than there are for groundwater. Where groundwater regulations
do exist, they differ, often dramatically from state-to-state
and from province-to-province. As a result of the lax regulatory
environment, bottled water labels are often very misleading.
3.
Transforming Water – what kinds of filtering
a processing methods to companies use to turn ‘real’
water into bottled water? What’s the difference between
bottled water and tap water? The Big-4 bottled water companies
imply their elaborate ‘proprietary’ treatment processes
are the justification for the higher cost of their products.
Yet, unlike other raw materials such as timber, minerals, oil,
and gas, which are transformed into identifiably new products,
bottled water is simply water transformed into water. The industry’s
treatment processes do not guarantee that bottled water is safer
than tap water; in fact, a number of studies have demonstrated
that bottled water is often less safe than tap water. Consider
that one treatment process uses bromate, which is considered
to be a carcinogen.
4.
Contaminating Water – what evidence is there
to support the industry’s claim that bottled water is
superior to tap water? The International Bottled Water Association
proclaims that bottled water is superior to tap water. Yet several
peer-reviewed scientific studies have found disturbing concentrations
of toxic ingredients such as arsenic and mercury in their bottled
water samplings. When Coca-Cola launched its Dasani product
in the UK in March 2004, it had to withdraw nearly half a million
bottles due to bromate contamination. Bottling plants face inspections
only once every 3-to-6 years depending on the country and regulations
governing tap water are often stricter than those governing
bottled water.
5.
Marketing Schemes – what kinds of marketing and
advertising schemes are used by companies to sell what is really
‘water transformed into water’? The tagline for
Pepsi’s Aquafina says it all: “So pure we promise
nothing.” Through relentless advertising, the Big-4 companies
have turned bottled water into “America’s most affordable
status symbol”. Using images that evoke ‘activity’,
‘health’, ‘relaxation’, ‘pureness’
and ‘replenishment’, the bottled water giants dupe
consumers into buying something that largely exists in an imaginary
environment. Industry slogans like ‘get hydrated or die’
expose internal corporation contradictions such as the fact
that the same companies that sell dehydrating soft drinks are
promoting bottled water as a solution to dehydration.
6.
Eco-threatening – what environmental damage
is caused by the escalating use and disposal of plastic bottles?
Bottled water containers labelled with images of pristine natural
environments are rapidly becoming a major threat to the environment
and to our health. These containers release highly dangerous
toxic chemicals and contaminants into the air and water when
they are manufactured, and again when they are burned or buried.
Yet these same plastic packages are becoming the fastest-growing
form of municipal solid waste in the U.S. and Canada.
7.
Recycling Record – what is the track record
of the Big-4 when it comes to recycling? Recycling rates for
plastic bottles has been in steady decline since 1995, despite
the explosion in plastic-bottle use. Not only has the industry
promoted the shift from glass to plastic containers, and failed
to live up to the promises about using more recycled materials
in their containers, they actively oppose legislation aimed
at improving recycling rates for plastic bottles, and requiring
beverage container deposits. More sinister still is their use
of a deceptive logo on their products that misleads consumers
into thinking the product can be recycled, when the opposite
is often true.
8.
Manipulating Consumers – why are people turning
from tap water to bottled water? What’s really fuelling
the new bottled water culture? Ten years ago, most people relied
on their municipal system for all their drinking water. Today
close to one-fifth of the population in Canada and the U.S.
drinks bottled water exclusively – demonstrating how extraordinarily
successful the industry has been in luring people away from
tap water. The industry is surgical in its targeting of the
young, the affluent, the athletic, and the hip. It capitalises
on North America’s fear and fashion factors to convince
consumers to purchase its products.
9.
School Contracting – what marketing devices
have the bottled water companies used in cash-strapped schools,
colleges, and universities? Across the U.S. and Canada, there
is now a growing number of kindergarten to grade 12 schools,
universities, and colleges that have signed contracts with Pepsi
or Coca-Cola. ‘Exclusive beverage contracts’ give
these companies long-term high profit accesds to students in
captive environments. Skilful management of these exclusivity
contracts turn students into life-long consumers of their products.
Resistance to the deals or competition is made nearly futile
under secretive contracts that are cloaked from public scrutiny.
10.
Water Privatising – what role and impact does
the bottled water industry have on the privatization of public
water utilities in the U.S. and Canada? The world’s largest
for-profit water service corporations have set their sights
on North America: Suez and Vivendi (now Veolia) from France
and RWE-Thames from Germany are eager to deliver privatized
water services, and companies like these are targeting the home/office
bottled water market. The bottled water industry’s marketing
of ‘safe, clean water’ undermines citizen’s
confidence in public water systems, and paves the way for the
water companies to take over under funded public utilities.
In return, public willingness to pay premium prices for bottled
water enables water service corporations to establish top dollar
price.
The Polaris Institute, 312 Cooper St., Ottawa, On, Canada K2P
0G7
tel. 613-237-1717 fax 613-237-3359
E-mail: polaris
Web-site: www.polarisinstitute.org
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