Message is a Bottle is a great article in the July issue of Fast Company magazine about the bottled water business. It's by Charles Fishman, one of the best writers working the business magazine beat these days and also author of the excellent The Wal-Mart Effect. I almost missed the article since I skipped my usual monthly acquisition at the bookstore when I saw Al Gore on the cover and just couldn't take another taste of the Goracle.
Fishman's article is well worth reading for anyone concerned about real "green" principles and sustainability. One or two sample quotes...
We buy bottled water because we think it's healthy. Which it is, of course: Every 12-year-old who buys a bottle of water from a vending machine instead of a 16-ounce Coke is inarguably making a healthier choice. But bottled water isn't healthier, or safer, than tap water. Indeed, while the United States is the single biggest consumer in the world's $50 billion bottled-water market, it is the only one of the top four--the others are Brazil, China, and Mexico--that has universally reliable tap water. Tap water in this country, with rare exceptions, is impressively safe. It is monitored constantly, and the test results made public. Mineral water has a long association with medicinal benefits--and it can provide minerals that people need--but there are no scientific studies establishing that routinely consuming mineral water improves your health. The FDA, in fact, forbids mineral waters in the United States from making any health claims.
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In San Francisco, the municipal water comes from inside Yosemite National Park. It's so good the EPA doesn't require San Francisco to filter it. If you bought and drank a bottle of Evian, you could refill that bottle once a day for 10 years, 5 months, and 21 days with San Francisco tap water before that water would cost $1.35. Put another way, if the water we use at home cost what even cheap bottled water costs, our monthly water bills would run $9,000.
It's worth a read. Or, like the man says, read the whole thing.
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