Nestle, Pepsi and Coke Face Their Waterloo
As the Backlash Against Plastic Bottles Hits Its Stride, Water Marketers Are Fighting to Protect Their $16 Billion Business
By Emily Bryson York
Readers of Frankly Green know that I have been pounding the table on this issue for a long time. I have made many, many posts on the subject of Bottled Water Waste. The facts about bottled water are staggering. Here are just a few:
* The United States is the world’s leading consumer of bottled water. In 2006, bottled water consumption in the US reached a record 8.3 billion gallons, 185 million gallons of which was imported. The total amount spent on bottled water was over $11 billion.
* In contrast to tap water, which is distributed through an energy-efficient infrastructure, transporting bottled water long distances involves burning massive quantities of fossil fuels.
* Making bottles to meet Americans’ demand for bottled water requires more than 1.5 million barrels of oil annually, enough to fuel some 100,000 U.S. cars for a year.
* It costs more money to drink bottled water than to put gas in your car--up to five times more--due mainly to its packaging and transportation.
* 86 percent of plastic water bottles used in the United States become garbage or litter.
Of course the bottled water companies are whining, claiming that they are being unfairly targeted. But the fact of the matter is that, unlike laundry detergent, you can get perfectly good water from your tap ALMOST FREE. And if you have any concerns about drinking tap water, buy a filter and a reusable water bottle and save yourself lots of money while helping the environment! Oh, and in case you didn't know, chances are that if you drink bottled water, it comes from the same source as your tap water - municipal water supplies (see What's in YOUR Water).
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- When Robert Rheaume met with retail buyers last year, his $20 Sigg aluminum water bottles were a tough sell. After all, the market was limited mainly to hikers and campers, many of whom were already devoted to Nalgene's $10 plastic version. But after this summer's deluge of headlines about the environmental impact of plastic water bottles, he's got more buyers than he even wants.
"Now the same people that were blowing me off a year ago are calling me and saying, 'OK, I get it. How can I get onboard?'" Mr. Rheaume said.
Sigg -- which has the added bonus of not being made in China -- has been approached by several mass-market retailers in recent months as the once-booming $16 billion bottled-water industry, dominated by industry giants such as Nestlé, Coke and Pepsi, comes under siege.
Local level
City governments have taken up the bottled-water cause. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom (who recently banned plastic grocery bags) has banned plastic water bottles in city offices and is encouraging city residents to drink from the tap. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has issued similar warnings.
Americans are taking heed. A Google search for "stop using plastic water bottles" turned up 2.3 million hits. "Bottled-water waste" turned up 1.9 million.
Sales are slowing as well. Beverage Digest reports that retail sales of bottled water (excluding vending machines and Wal-Mart) grew only 9% this year compared with 16% in 2006. Editor John Sicher doesn't think this has to do with the negative publicity and attributes it to the inevitable slowing of a long-booming industry. Not everyone agrees.
"This could be pretty significant," said Joe Pawlak, VP of restaurant consultant Technomic. "People are being more socially conscious, whether it's global warming, sustainability or landfills. I think it's an offshoot of the boomers wanting to leave a positive legacy."
PR campaign
According to water-filtration company Brita (owned by bleach giant Clorox), Americans discard 38 billion plastic water bottles a year, and it takes 1.5 billion barrels of oil to produce them.
Joe Doss, president of the International Bottled Water Association, said the bottled-water industry has been unfairly targeted. He claims that bottled water is America's No. 2 beverage (after soda) but accounts for only a third of 1% of the nation's waste. "We strongly think any efforts to reduce the environmental impact of packaging must focus on all consumer goods and not just target one industry, like bottled water," he said.
To present that point of view, in August the association began a PR and advertising campaign in newspapers such as The New York Times and San Francisco Chronicle to, as the association says, "bring balanced, positive and factual bottled-water information to consumers and community leaders."
Individual bottlers, meanwhile, are struggling to stem the tide of cold water. "I get the sense that there's a desire to vilify our industry and point to it as hurting the community," said an insider at a major bottler.
Click the link at the top to to read the full article. And here are some additional links on the subject:
Bottled Water Facts
What's in YOUR Water
In Praise of Tap Water
Alternatives to Bottled Water
Reusable Water Bottles
Local Drinking Water Information
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