Bottled water industry faces growing opposition

Well for once I fully support Jan, TouchArt, and Marylynn. The new habit of carrying a bottle of plastic enclosed water, through airports, libraries, schools. and other public institutions is ridiculous. I have traveled all over the world, hunted and walked in harsh environments, for hours, without carrying one drop of water. The human body will adjust to a short term shortage of water, so why drag a liter of water all around the globe advertising your environmentlism, while harming the environment by supporting a corrupt plastic,corporate culture! You will not die due to lack of water, over 2-6 hours. Do the environment a favor and drink from the water fountain! And when you insist on a backpack on a crowded airplane, remember that every move you make, smacks someone else in the face, with your hump!

do not buy bottled water! get a water filter! it will save your money and the environment...the choice is simple!

Check out this film coming end of summer:

www.flowthefilm.com

It's also playing at both the Democratic and Republican National Conventions.

"Across the country, opposition to bottled water is building, amid growing concerns about the industry’s environmental impact and rising fears about private control of public water supplies."

There should be opposition. I've read as much as 95% of plastic bottles of water are not recycled.

My recommendation: Whenever you go for a stroll/run whatever, anywhere, carry a bag (plastic or paper, just make sure you recycle it in the end :D) and rest assured you'll find discarded bottles, cans and litter. Toss it all in the bag, separate it when you're able, and trust we'll all be better for your efforts.

Thanks for your offering, Jan. Voted 'Up' w00t!

TAKE CLORINE OUT OF TAP WATER AND I'LL DRINK TAP WATER

TAKE THE CLORINE OUT OF TAP WATER, AND I'LL DRINK TAP WATER.

Tap water does not have to have clorine in it. There are process that remove bacteria from water just as good as clorine, but more expensive.

I have an experment for you. Take a 5 gallion bucket, and a garden hose. Fill the bucket with the garden hose turned on full blast. As the bucket fills up, place your head a safe distance over the bucket and smell the clorine.

After this experment, then you will discover why I drink spring water.

In 1919, clorine was placed in the drink water for good reason, coleria being one of the reason. Lung cancer was a rare disease, until 1919. Of course tobacco was blamed for the increase in lung cancer, but people were smoking for 3 hundred years.Clorine like alcohol leaves your body through your lungs.

Lung cancer started to stop in the 70's, when people started to quit smoking, and people started to drink spring water. I'm not saying that smoking does not cause cancer. I'm saying that tap water with smoking increase your chances of lung cancer.

Why has tap water with clorine never been listed as a known carcinogen?

The UN says that water is a human right, but this is the USA where wealth rules and common good or common sense does not rule.

Word, JanforGore.

Resist. Get indigenous heritage seeds.

My concern as well is that companies like Monsanto, Cargill, and others (including Walmart that was said to be making deals regarding agriculture a few years ago with India ( and looking to build megastores in the poverty) and is into predatory lending practices in Mexico and no doubt other places) are also buying up water rights which are "rights" they don't have. They are also buying up seed companies to control what is planted, the water used to irrigate those crops, the pesticides sprayed on those crops that has led to toxification of our waterways and to me no doubt the food they are spraying. Ultimately, they then own the people who are forced to plant their seeds (at a price many in debt cannot afford which leads them to suicide) use their water, and drink their milk all because they have power and influence in Washington DC and pick easy targets to exploit.

And it is literally costing people their lives.
This is the real expose' that should make it to tv. I wish Current's Vanguard group would take it upon themselves to do a pod on that (if they haven't already) because it doesn't look like it will make it to Current news. If it has I will gladly stand corrected, but I don't believe it has.

This is about our very surival and the health and sustainability of our planet. And while it may not be sexy or glamorous, it is important. It is about corporations gaining total control of all of the mechanisms that are used for our survival. I don't know about anyone else, but that to me is a big story and one the MSM is NOT getting out.

The fact that privitization of our own water sources right here in America by American Water and other companies is rising along with water rates should be something that concerns citizens... and it would i am sure if they knew about it. Who owns the water and where is it coming from. Who owns the seeds and are they safe for humans and other species' health. Consider the flight of the bees. Who owns the rights to put any sort of hormone or chemcal in our products just to make a profit at the expense of us and our children... That not only affects our environment, but our economy and our health. Want to know why healthcare costs are so high? Because everyone is getting sick off frankenfood and water and the toxins created by burning fossil fuels.That is why to me this is more important than anything right now. You control the seeds and the water, you control life itself. And to me that is evil.

I guess I'm pretty lucky. The tap water where I live is of really good quality (IMO), yet still I see so many people spending money for bottled water? WTF?

some bottled water tastes worst than tap....lets eliminate those...and screw fiji water...its way over priced and imagine..how much oil is wasted spent on transporting those tiny little bottles from some island that will just end up underwater in a few decades due to global warming.

We might also consider the plastic in the electronic products we buy.

What if consumers demanded that industry develop sustainable non-toxic alternatives to make eletronic devices?

And what about demanding that the minerals they use for cell phones and video games not come at the expense of women's lives in the Congo?

Good.
Don't buy bottled water especially in plastic bottles.

Filter water at the tap or with a pitcher with a filter. My friend in Long Beach uses a pitcher with filter for LA tap water. Tastes delicious.

I'm with JanforGore, too.
Water and clean air are a human right.

what can i say, we get thirsty,
the cheapest way is to plastic it.
what the f,
give us something that does not take the
korn away from the land.

Comment to Aligirl: We're trying to get the word out.

www.friendsofwater.com.

I used to drink unfiltered tap water in the Northeast too. Then I had kept tropical fish and realized if I put them in tap water it killed them. Made me think about it, and I started learning a lot about water and water filtration. In particular the water that comes from our taps. For a fun story about water quality, see http://www.friendsofwater.com/Purify_Water.html.

Peace

The idea of bottled water is definitely a scam....but it’s frequently purchased because the of the public’s perception of tap water. I grew up in San Diego where beaches are shut down because of sewer spills in Mexico; the water in San Diego tastes extremely different than the water in the northeast. I would drink tap water when I lived in Connecticut but would never dream of doing such a thing in San Diego
.
Bottled water companies use advertising to motivate folks to buy their brand and apparently it works! So why don’t opponents utilize advertising especially grassroots efforts to change that perception. Anti-bottled water activists should be educating the public on the harms of buying bottled water as well as how safe and tasty tap water is.

They just package up tap water nowadays

Right! We can't permit access to fresh water to be taken away. For more information on this and related water topics, please visit www.friendsofwater.com. Keep it up!

Now that song is stuck in my head. Thanx janforGore

If I could afford any advertisment (as coke can) I would use the one that works best. This guy is cokes share holders hero.

I bet if they sold reusable water bottles for a dollar instead of the plastic ones, then the plastic ones would be left behind and a ban would be easy.

Next lets start with reusable cleaning bottles (Like the Windex bottles) and have itty-bitty power you mix with your own water and ban those (like on the commercial with the arm-n-hammer stuff!).

Down with plastic waste, up with reduce, reuse, recycle!

I don't know about anyone else but am i the only person that feels like a dumb ass paying for water? Its really f'ed up knowing not only do i pay for something that is a human right but im paying for my own slow death. We're drinking liquefied drugs in trasportable toxic chemicals, & next we'll be buying death air!

I guess our death water gives a whole new meaning of brain washed, brain washed, brain washed!

I work for a small municipality in a little tourist community. We struggle every year to make our budget balance. If we could sell the water at a proffit you bet we would.

As a taxpayer

Jan-

Did you know that Coca Cola did research and found out that the Nazi soldiers love orange soda so during the 3rd reich they invented FANTA to sell to the nazi pricks?

Fun facts... Love em.

It's a culture thing too... a status symbol... look at me I have an Evian on my belt... Kind of like when smoking first started it was pushed as sophisticated, chic, glamourous.... everyone who is anyone who is sophisticated smokes.... It's all marketing hogwash. Consumerism is the new religion of America, and to be honest i will never be happier than to see people wising up to the Bs being spewed at them by these companies who feign that they care about us all the while charging us 5.00 a bottle for tap water.

I think, in the end, what we are talking about is corporate responsibility. Since corporations', by definition, only responsibility is to make money for their shareholders, it is up to us, the consumers, to make it profitable for them to be good citizens. And we are talking about all corporations.

Thats not good. What will the world do with no water? ow yeah well just go to Starbucks around the corner.

at my job we give out plastic bottles on a daily basis, and they STILL do not recycle them nor paper, PATHETIC

why drink bottled water when it comes out of the tap for (relatively) free? as other posters have stated, buying bottled water is one representation of american consumerism at its worst.

Mr. What is your job with Big Oil? We aren't drinking from our cell phones, or computers. Plastic is toxic and should never be used for food or drink containers. It should absolutely never be microwaved.

Hey! Smithers ! Leave that oil alone.

dennet, denet, denet.....

Don't just stop your ignorance at plastic bottles hippocrites! what are your cell phones, computers and faucet filters made of?

Plastics make our life better and next time you use your cell phone think of me, yes Stephenthomas I can already hear you saying next time you take a crap you will think of me. . . . . .

Blah blah blah

God bless me
God bless big oil that made your computer possible

I live in the valley and the water isn't like it was when I was growing up. The amount of chlorine in it is bad. I haven't been able to drink water out of the tap for years. I admit that I buy bottled water, 6 gallon bottles. I have always drank a lot of water. I switched because of the taste of spring water. It really doesn't taste the same through a filtered tap. I see people drinking from many types of plastic bottles and I've heard that the problem is the plastic is leaking into the fluid. There's suppose to be a number on the bottle for recycling that tells how bad it can happen. I remember something on current about this.

Hey now, hold on, bottled water in plastic bottles is not in itself a bad idea. I think the trick is to use the plastic bottles in a responsible manner, such as reusing them and filling them with your own tap water... it's pretty simple really.

As for the companies looking to control water in an entire state, isn't it kind of redundant to say that a private company can't control it but the government can? Regardless of who controls the water don't people without access to their own wells still have to pay?

We dont need no... pla-stic bot-tles.

dennet.... denet, denet, denet.....

I can still remember when I was a kid growing up in the Sacramento Valley in California. It was damnably hot. Our water was from the Sierra Nevada Snow melt. Even in summer it was really cold out of the tap and wonderfully clean and tasty. Can't bottle that. I heard a radio personality visiting there and broadcasting commenting on how wonderful the water is the other day and could almost taste the water. Maybe we should work on cleaning our water supplies instead of bottling up fantasies?

Well said sapere_aude bottled water is on the same par with Starbucks. Either one is great example of Americans being turned into consumer Zombies. Incredible what you can get the American consumers to buy with the right promotion. How gullable can people be?

Bottle water, suffocate water.

I remember back in high school my english teacher would comment on what a joke bottled water is and make some reference to bottling air. That was when the whole bottled water fad was just beginning. Since then the bottled water industry has exploded. I still think its a joke and almost never buy bottled water. Just another example of Americans being turned into consumer zombies. I'm glad that actions are being taken to limit bottled water production and consumption.

It also shows how gullible so many people are to ad campaigns. The subliminal messages passed to people in these commercials are what activate the part of the brain emotionally rather than reasonably. i watched a water commercial where people were climbing a mountain, and even though it was a hot day the bottled water in their belt looked cold, crisp, and appetizing... of course, people watching this will be influenced by the images they see rather than thinking about the fact that it is refiltered tap water in a plastic bottle sitting in the same hot sun where chemicals from the bottle can mix with the water.

Drinking water bottled in plastic is stupid. People do it thinking they are getting clean safe spring water. Not much wrong with the water except it is just filtered overpriced water. The bottle on the other hand is plastic. "Toxic", and the softer it is the more toxic. This is one of the biggest scams going. Buy a filter for your faucet. Keep a glass pitcher of water in the refrigerator. Free after the initial filter, pitcher purchase.

It's still, unfortunately, all about money and increasing their bottom line... When will these large corporations realize that they should be investing in the people...that is the most valuable resource on the planet...

nyingma13: I'm sure they will get around to that soon enough when they run out of resources to exploit.

I say, boycott them all.

Good, shut em down.

This pod is excellent, in that it focuses attention on yet another instance of the damage that can be done if corporations are not held in check. Do not doubt for a moment that if they could, they would buy the rights to the very air we breathe and charge us for it.

If I'm not mistaken, nestle bought the water rights in one of the southamerican country's already. HUH, something for me to look into to check my facts. Anyway,, greenlight. excellent post.

I am with you Jan. Water and clean air are a human right.