Bottled Water and Its Industry

Bottled weewee and Its Industry Bottled piddle is a larger business. Since the 1970s the plenty for bottled urine system has boomed well-nigh the world. point soft- confuse companies same Pepsi and Coca-Cola have immerse their hands into this successful w be. According to drinkable Marketing Corp, New York City, Ameri masss now let to a greater extent bottled weewee than milk, coffee, beer, or some(prenominal) other drink (Fishman) Consumers thirst for the crapulence is fueled by umpteen factors, superstar of the largest causations world an increased interest in a healthy lifestyle.As a result, the bottled pee market increased by an second-rate of 9% annu on the wholey amidst 1999 and 2004 (Spinner, 2006) The spheric rate of usance more than quadrupled between 1990 and 2005 (Li, 2007) People in the linked States debase more than half a meg bottles of piss a week that is copious to circle the earth more than 5 generation (Leonard). How understructure we explain this heading and what be the consequences for producers, consumers, and the environment? Bottled irrigate consumption reflects a certain(prenominal) look of life. In galore(postnominal) a(prenominal) cases, bottled pissing is an alternative to fee peeing.Consumers think it attempts amend than tip body of irrigate and they perceive it as being safer and of better prime(a). Bottled piss is perceived as processed and harm little, although it is non necessarily the case. Consumers c atomic number 18 for their health and their well-being and bottled irrigate happens to be a quick, easy, and healthy alternative to other bottled beverages. The level of bottled piss comes support to how the economy works. If companies require to hold open growing they have to keep selling more and more stuff. In the 1970s giant soft drink companies got worried when they saw their growth projections looting signal to level off (Leonard).This was most(prenominal) possibl e because angiotensin converting enzyme person can b bely drink so much soda peeing supply and sooner or later wad were going to realized that soda is non healthy and they allow convert back to insobriety ping pissing. So at the end of the 1970s companies base their nigh big thing in a French product, Perrier. This was water exchange in glass bottles and became the newest fad. It wasnt until 1989 when they started manufacturing bottled water in plastic containers ( pesterped, 2009). But how do you cook large number to keep spending 2-thousand whiles more on a product that they can get out of their kitchen throw off?Companies needed to find an effective way to keep people interested in their product, so they start using construct demand, or advertising. They started scaring people away from drinking faucet water, telling them it was no good. Susan Wellington, chairman of the Quaker Oats Companys coupled States beverage division said, When were done, water lea n water will be relegated to showers and slipstream dishes (Gleick, 2010) Their next technique was to hide the truthfulness of bottled water behind pure fantasy. They market it as being convenient and personal, which caters to our desires as a human.Producers know that we love having something that is all(prenominal)(prenominal) in completely(a) ours and in close r for each one whenever we wish it. They seduced us with images of mountains, streams, and pristine temper, nevertheless in reality one-third of bottled water in the United States comes from the knock. Pepsi and Coca-Cola ar honourable deuce of many brands that are merely knap water. There is much debate on whether bottled water is better or worse than tap water. Obviously there are places rough the world, and even the United States that do non have access to change drinking water, so yes, in these places bottled water is the better choice.But in the places where most bottled water is purchased, tap water i s equally comparable, if non better, than bottled water. In 2006 Fiji built an ad weigh around not drinking metropolis tap water. They chose the metropolis of Cleveland, Ohio and printed full summon ads in magazines that read The label says Fiji because its not bottled in Cleveland(Gleick, 2010) Obviously the city of Cleveland was not pleased and conducted a art test comparing Fiji water to their citys tap water. The test showed that a glass of Fiji water is lower theatrical role and loses the taste test against Clevelands tap water.Five portion of the bottled water purchased in Cleveland throw away within the required fluoride range recommended by the state, compared with 100% of the tap water haves (Duncan, 2010) Also, a bottle of Fiji costs thousands of times more than the same some of tap water. Tap water being chosen blindly all over bottled water fronts to be the jet trend (Wilk, 2006) Bottled water is actually less regulated than tap water. City municipals must iness perform multiple tests a twenty-four hour period on the citys water source, whereas bottled water industries are not curb under these same laws.Clearly taste is not the central motivation behind the act increase in the bottled water trade (Li, 2007) In March 1999, the Natural Resources defending team Council (NRDC) released a radical called Bottled Water, Pure confuse or Pure Hype? NRDCs writing points out that as much as 40% of all bottled water comes from a city water system, just identical tap water. The report besides focuses on the fact that 60% to 70% of all bottled water sold in the United States is exempt from the FDAs bottled water standards, because the federal standards do not sustain to water bottled and sold within the same state.Unless the water is transported crosswise state lines, there are no federal regulations that govern its quality. According to the NRDC, Bottled water companies have use this loophole to avoid complying with raw material healt h standards, such as those that harbour to municipally treated tap water. Also, all carbonated or sparkling amniotic fluid are completely exempt from FDA guidelines that manipulate specific contamination limits. According to the NRDC think, Even when bottled waters are covered by the FDAs specific bottled water standards, those rules are weaker in many ways than EPA Environmental Protection Agency rules that apply to big-city tap water. For instance, if we compare EPA regulations for tap water to the FDAs bottled water rules (these examples are quotes from the NRDC report) City tap water can have no confirmed E. coli or fecal coliform bacteria. FDA bottled water rules hold no such barrier (a certain amount of any oddball of coliform bacteria is allowed in bottled water). City tap water, from come along water, must be filtered and disinfected. In contrast, there are no federal filtration or disinfection fatalitys for bottled water. Most cities using surface water have had to test for Cryptosporidium or Giardia, two common water pathogens that can cause diarrhea and other enteral problems, yet bottled water companies do not have to do this. City tap water must agree standards for certain important deadly or crabmeat-causing chemicals, such as phthalate (a chemical that can bare from plastic, including plastic bottles) some in the manufacturing persuaded the FDA to exempt bottled water from the regulations regarding these chemicals. City water systems must issue annual chasten to know reports, telling consumers what is in their water. Bottlers successfully killed a right to know requirement for bottled water The Natural Resources Defense Council report settled Therefore, while much tap water is indeed risky, having compared obtainable data, we conclude that there is no assurance that bottled water is any safer than tap water. Often, enforcement and monitoring of water quality is uneven and irregular for both(prenominal) tap water and bottl ed water.While tap water contamination incidents must be inform promptly to the open, the same is not unfeigned for bottled water. While contamination of bottled water does occur, many instances have never received public notice until recently (Gleick, 2010). Aside from the unjustified spending of consumers on bottled water, there are also many health effects inadvertently ca apply by the bottled water industry, one of these problems being tooth decay. Since the 1950s, the United States has been involved in a public health programme called community water fluoridation(1800 Dentist).Many communities passim the nation added fluoride to their water supply, and the result was a significant decrease in the hail of childhood cavities (Xiang, 2010) Bottling companies use processes such as reverse osmosis or distillation to extinguish impurities from the water, which also removes the fluoride (Lalumandier,2009). Fluoride, or lack thereof, in your water may not seem like much of a reason to worry round whether or not you should drink tap water versus bottled water, just now this is not the only risk for consumers.According to a 1999 NRDC study in which approximately 22% of brands were tested, at least one sample of bottled drinking water contained chemical contaminants at levels above state health limits. rough of the contaminants found in the study could convey health risks, such as cancer, if consumed over a long period of time (NRDC) Polyethylene terephthalate ( court, or kissE) is a chemical found in the plastic employ to withstand water bottles. A 2009 study by reasearchers form Goethe University in Germany signify that PET bottles may contain hormone-disrupting chemicals that are detrimental to human health. or so compounds in PET may seep out from these bottles and can possibly cause cancer. This typically occurs when the water is exposed to either cold or hot temperatures (Ferrier, 2001) Another chemical found in the plastic used to energize water bottles is bisphenol-a (BPA). This has multiple health effects, including cancer and re turnout problems in women of child posture age, as well as in babies (Ferrier, 2001, and Tapped). Producers and consumers are not the only components moved(p) by the bottled water industry. Probably the most effected element is our environment.From diminishing unobjectionable water sources, to wildlife, to pollution, our environment is suffering immensely from production and disposal of bottled water. In a recent full page ad, cling to said, Bottled water is the most environmentally answerable consumer product in the world. (Nestle Waters). How can this be true when these industries are trashing the environment all along the products life cycle. This is not environmentally responsible. The problems start with extraction and production where fossil oil is used to make water bottles. PET is derived from crude oil. unmatchable kilogram of PET requires two kilograms of oil and produces t hree kilograms of CO2. Making bottles to meet consumer demands for bottled water requires more than 1. 5 jillion barrels of oil a course of instruction (Arnold, 2006 and Ferrier, 2001). That is enough oil to fuel 100,000 cars each year. With all that energy used to make the bottle, even more energy is used to ship it around the planet and once it reaches us we drink it in about two minutes. That brings us to the problem at the other end of the life cycle. What happens to all the bottles when we are done with them?Eighty percent of empty bottles end up in landfills where they will sit for thousands of years out front decomposing. Many end up in incinerators where they are burned releasing toxic pollution into the atmosphere. The rest is recycled. But what happens to the recycled bottles? In a perfect world each bottle would be recycled and remade into some other water bottle. Instead the plastic goes through a downcycling process, which turns the material into lower grade plasti cs which is used to produce tons of other products, run out much of the scrap and discarding it in another countrys backyard and/or into the naval (Tapped, 2009).There is a garbage patch double the size of Texas in the North peaceable Ocean. The garbage patch occupies a comparatively stationary region of the North Pacific. The rotational pattern of the current draws in waste material from across the North Pacific, including costal waters off North the States and Japan. As material is captured in the currents it rest trapped inside this region of ocean. One hundred million marine mammals and turtles in the North Pacific are killed every year by plastic in the ocean. 70-100% of North Pacific sea birds are affected by eating plastic. flexible is killing the ocean and it is poisoning the weight we eat.Because the fish we eat have credibly ingested contaminated plastic, it is virtually impossible for nature to produce organic fish in the ocean. Pepsis vice chairman in public said , The biggest enemy is tap water. They want us to think it is dirty and that bottled water is the outstrip alternative. In many places public water is polluted. Thanks to polluting industries, one of the major contributors being the bottled water industry. Drinking bottled water has constrain a trivial habit in many peoples fooling lives. Bad tap water taste or quality, fitness goals, and other legion(predicate) reasons lead consumer to buy bottled water.Bottled water may even be necessary, for instance in case of temporary tap water contamination. This flourishing market is profitable for many companies and provides a great number of jobs to people around the world. Bottled water quality is mainly good, although it can suffer from the same contamination hazards as tap water and also contains hazardous compounds in the bottle itself. Some solutions to make sure bottled water quality is as good as it claims could include things like, companies releasing their quality tests on a day-to-day basis and make them available to the community.It should also be required by all companies to include information about where the water came from, or how it was filtered, on the label. The worldwide Bottled Water Association (IBWA) is beginning to go green. Nestle, for instance, will use 30% lighter plastic bottles and 30% littler labels, as well as eco-shaped bottles. Their bottles will be 100% recyclable, and when build production plants they will make sure the building is green-building certified.Another step they are taking is sounding into hybrid vehicles for distribution of their product (Nestle Waters, 2011). This seems like Nestle is taking the right locomote to improve production and use resources in a manner that will supporter improve, or at least maintain, our environment, but I cannot help but respect if this is one of their marketing tools. Sure, they are producing in a more environmentally amicable way, but is this one of their ways of tricking us i nto buying their product and steering us away from their non-green competitors?When buying their product we are still contributing to this market. Bottled water is not all bad. It has many positive uses. Bottled water is an absolute critical lifesaver in many natural disasters. Bottled water has a substantial shelf life. This is especially expensive for emergency preparation, but also for many other purposes. Also, bottled water is a almost ideal consumer product it is healthy, non-addictive, hypoallergenic, caffeine-free, calorie free, and contains no artificial colors, flavors, trans fats, etc. Fager, 2009) Some things we could do to reduce the environmental impact of bottled water are to re-use bottles of water rather than recycle them to be re-manufactured, or buy a reusable, BPA free, water bottle. A more offensive approach would be to lobby with city and state officials for more drinking fountains around your city, or towards the boycott of bottled water in your public scho ols and work places. These are just a few steps to start protecting our wallets, our health, and our planet.