Sierra Blogging Post Archives

Good news for the environment, bad news for the bottled water industry. Looks like consumers are realizing the tremendous waste involved in the bottling of water - sales of bottled water are down 5% in the past two years.

That might not seem like a lot but it's enough to have the bottled water industry questioning the decline. Is it because the economy is struggling right now? Or is it because people have realized the environmental impacts of consuming case upon case of bottled water?


The Bottled Water Association says it's simply the economy. “We don’t think that anti-bottle water activists have had any impact,” said Tom Lauria, spokesman for the International Bottled Water Association. “People love their bottled water.”

A representative from Beverage Marketing Group, a research firm in New York, says “Environmental concerns among consumers may have had an effect on bottled water sales, but the primary reason sales are soft is the economy.”

But individuals and environmental groups are quick to say the drop in bottled water sales is because of heightened awareness of the damage bottled water does to the environment. Not only does plastic end up in landfills, rivers and the Pacific Garbage Patch, the production of the bottles themselves requires significant energy and petroleum. And in most cases, the water in those bottles we drink is no cleaner than the tap water running out of our faucets.

“In some ways, bottled water has become the SUV of the ecological movement,” said Tony Clarke, director of the Polaris Institute, a Canadian nonprofit that organized an anti-water bottle campaign called “Inside the Bottle.”

There's no doubt that water bottles are convenient and I'm guilty of using one or two here and there. But for the most part, filtered tap water in a reusable bottle or glass is all I need.

What about you? Do you use plastic water bottles? Why or why not? Are you trying to kick the habit?