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It requires more water to produce a plastic water bottle than the amount of water you drink out of a water bottle purchased from the store. Surely humanity can find better ways to store water. I can't say that I've never purchased bottled water in a pinch, but I have plenty of empty, clean containers in my house that I can fill up before a roadtrip with tap water which is essentially free. Likewise, re-used containers or barrels can be used to store water for an emergency.

Many industries such as Full Sail require use of water from our watershed. What is scary about Nestle is the scale: far more water is consumed than a micro brew and no doubt, Nestle will take the product globally.

As quoted in the piece, 86% of plastic containers are not recycled. In the U.S., consumers either don't care enough or are confused about what is and what isn't recyclable. Often, if a recycling receptacle is not available, the bottle ends up in the trash. In Latin America, where recyling programs don't exist and where too often people don't understand the toxic nature of plastics, I've seen plastic bottles piled in landfills, or even in front yards, where they are burned.

While better and more polished PR might help Nestle push this one through, we need to think hard about what this will do to our watershed, to consumers, to demand on oil, to the hurting Salmon, and a host of other issues. If we don't start dealing with these issues soon, our grandchildren will live on a nearly dead planet.

If our habits of convenience don't serve any of us well, except perhaps Nestle stockholders, then maybe we should change them.

posted 2 years, 11 months ago
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