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October 11, 200
YubaNet.com
Cities, groups pledge to "think outside the bottle"
Cities, celebrities, students, religious communities and environmental and corporate accountability organizations urge support for public water systems
By: Corporate Accountability International
A broad range of national and local organizations, cities, celebrities, student groups and communities of faith launched the Think Outside Bottle Pledge today calling on people to choose public tap over bottled water.
The Pledge supports the efforts of local officials to invest and build confidence in public water systems.
Momentum has been growing over the last year for cities and consumers to reevaluate corporate control of water sources, including city water systems. The explosive growth of the bottled water industry, fueled by misleading advertising, has contributed to a loss of confidence in public water systems. [i]
However, scientific studies have shown that bottled water is on average no safer than tap water, and may sometimes be less safe, containing elevated levels of arsenic, bacteria and other contaminants. [ii]
What's more, up to 40 percent of bottled water comes from the same source as tap water, which is highly regulated for its safety to consumers. [iii] In contrast, the bottled water industry is regulated by the FDA, which lacks the capacity to fully monitor bottled water plants and largely relies on bottlers to police themselves. [iv]
This summer the U.S. Conference of Mayors passed a resolution, with leadership from the mayors of San Francisco, Salt Lake City, and Minneapolis, supporting municipal water systems. U.S. consumers currently spend $15 billion a year on bottled water. [v] At the same time, there is a $22 billion funding gap between what cities need to spend on water infrastructure and the money available to them. [vi]
In the face of shortfalls, cities in the U.S. and around the world are turning increasingly to private corporations to manage public water systems – sometimes at great expense to the public and to the overall quality of service. [vii]
Bottled water also takes a toll on the environment, and city budgets. Last year, at least four billion pounds of plastic bottles ended up in city waste streams. [viii] It can cost cities more than $70 million in dumping and incineration fees alone. [ix] Furthermore, making bottles to meet Americans' demand for bottled water required the equivalent of more than 17 million barrels of oil last year and generated more than 2.5 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions. [x]
The Pledge drive will continue over the coming months and be used to educate consumers about why they should choose the tap over the bottle.
[i] U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. "Analysis and Findings of The Gallup Organization's Drinking Water Customer Satisfaction Survey," August 6, 2003.
Britton, Charles R., Richard K. Ford and David, E.R. Gay. "The Market for Bottled Water in a "Water Rich" State," The Forum of the Association for Arid Lands Studies, Volume XXII, 2006.
[ii]Olson, Erik. "Bottled Water: Pure Drink or Pure Hype?" Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), March 1999, http://www.nrdc.org/water/drinking/bw/exesum.asp. Accessed 8 August 2007.
[iii]Olson, Ibid; Todd, Heather. "State of the Industry: Bottled Water Report-Riding the Wave," Beverage World, May 2005. Supplemented by internal analysis (using data from the second source listed here) that shows the North American market share commanded by major tap-water sourced brands well exceeds 25%, not including many smaller brands also using tap water.
[iv]Gleick, Peter H. The World's Water: The Biennial Report on Freshwater Resources, Vols. 4 and 5. Island Press, 2004/2006.
[v]Fishman, Charles. "Message in a Bottle," Fast Company, July 2007. (Note: Fast Company cites figures from Beverage Digest, a beverage industry trade magazine – www.beverage-digest.com)
[vi]"The Clean Water and Drinking Water Gap Analysis." Office of Water, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Sept. 30, 2002. www.epa.gov/safewater/gapreport.pdf
[vii]Lobina, Emanuele and David Hall. "Problems with private water concessions: a review of experience," Public Services International Research Unit, University of Greenwich, June 2003; Warner, Mildred and Bel, Germa. "Local Privatization and Costs: Theoretical Expectations vs. Empirical Evidence." Working paper, Cornell University and University of Barcelona, 2007.
[viii]Gitlitz, Jennifer and Pat Franklin. "Water, Water Everywhere: The growth of non-carbonated beverage containers in the United States. Container Recycling Institute, February 2007.
[ix]Repa, Edward W. "NSWMA's 2005 Tip Fee Survey," National Solid Waste Management Association Research Bulletin, March 2005.
[x]Pacific Institute. Fact sheet – "Bottled Water and Energy". www.pacinst.org/topics/water_and_sustainability/bottled_water/bottled_water_and_energy.pdf; Accessed 4 October 2007
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