Bottled Water Strikes Back on YouTube — and Comes Up Dry
The bottled water industry is feeling hurt.
During the last week of one of the steamiest Julys that the U.S. has ever seen, environmental activists and lawmakers in Massachusetts rallied in front of the statehouse to urge Governor Deval Patrick to spend less money on bottled water — and more on upgrading the state’s drinking water systems. In Santa Fe, New Mexico, Mayor David Coss announced a plan to end municipal purchases of bottled water. Similar moves to cut back on bottled water use — and save money — have been taken in Colorado, New York, Illinois, and Virginia. And on the consumer front, a number of states are considering new measures to tax bottled water as a soft drink.
The idea that more Americans could turn back to the tap has so frazzled the International Bottled Water Association that yesterday its consumer website,www.BottledWaterMatters.com, released a YouTube video attempting to reframe its corporate losses as a public disservice. In “Bottled Water: Show Your Support,” a teen-age girl talks about the value she places on bottled water and her fears of the “people who want to take your choice [to drink it] away.” Sign the petition! she urges. “Let your legislators know that bottled water matters to you.”
And why should it matter? Because, according to the “Show Your Support” pledge, bottled water is a “safe, healthy, high-quality beverage choice … a modern-day choice,” and one we make when we want “a beverage that doesn’t contain calories, caffeine, sugar, artificial flavors or colors, alcohol and other ingredients.” Also, it’s packaged in a fully-recyclable plastic container, the petition adds.
Problem is, the industry’s safety and environmental claims are all wet. In his new book Bottled & Sold: The Story Behind Our Obsession with Bottled Water,author Peter H. Gleick points out that while our tap water is regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency under the Safe Drinking Water Act, bottled water is regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as a food product (even though it often comes from the very same source as tap water).
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