Mike the Lab Rat wrote:Risa wrote:Why does Corporate Accountability International seem bent on giving drinking water, municipal water, a bad name?
It doesn't, you moron:
From their
website
Bottled water corporations use clever marketing and misleading advertising that makes people doubt the safety and quality of their own tap water. In reality, bottled water is less regulated than public water systems, and studies reveal that bottled water can actually contain harmful bacteria and other contaminants. Public water systems are required to disclose the source and quality of their water and are accountable to the public. Often, water bottlers are not.
Thank you for the links. CAI is still a front, it just isn't quite the front I thought it was.
My understanding was those harmful bacteria and contaminants are because folks reuse the bottles without sterilizing. There's an end user issue here. If you keep filling and refilling those bottles -- and the best reason (beyond one's liquid travel needs in a strange city) to buy bottled is for the reusable aspect -- without washing and sterilizing them, something is going to build up, and it won't necessarily be healthy. If that bottled water is contaminated at the source of the bottling, then that
is a problem.
But putting 'public drinking source' on the bottle doesn't address that. 'Public Drinking Source' is as much an image thing as putting a mountain on a bottle, just in the opposite direction of consumer desireability. 'Purified' and 'Drinking Water' have always meant 'tap water'. If you want mountain spring water, or mineral water, or water flown in from some frou frou Euro country; then you need to read the labels until you find that mountain spring water or mineral water or frou frou Euro country.
People need to read labels, not look at 'pretty pictures' when making decisions. It's like buying eggs; you don't assume that a product is organic and local just because it has a chicken and a red barn printed on the cardboard. You read the labels. If something is missing, THEN you bitch. But you don't pitch a bitch because you
wanted organic and local but the label says some corporation 3 states away.
And how about
this link, in which they sure as hell seem to be pushing municipal governments to drop bottled water and push for using municipal water?
Your site writes:
"These corporations are privatizing our water, bottling it and selling it back to us at prices hundreds, even thousands of times what tap water costs.... At the U.S. Conference of Mayors this summer, mayors passed a resolution that shines a spotlight on the true environmental costs of bottled water and demonstrates the support of mayors for municipal water. It is a critical step toward keeping our public water supply strong. The ripples of leadership already are being felt in cities and towns across the country with San Francisco, New York City, Minneapolis and Los Angeles among the cities choosing tap water over bottled water. " Following the US Conference link, the site then states
"At this year’s U.S. Conference of Mayors annual meeting (June 22-26 in Los Angeles), San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, Salt Lake City Mayor Ross “Rocky” Anderson, and Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak introduced a resolution that highlighted the importance of municipal water and called for more scrutiny of the impact of bottled water on city waste....Growth in the bottled water market not only undermines public confidence in the government’s ability to provide basic serves, but it also increases municipal government waste disposal costs. Last year, at least four billion pounds of plastic bottles ended up in city waste streams. It can cost cities more than $70 million in disposal fees, not including the costs of collection, trucking and litter removal."
This is an image issue, and a money issue. The mayors are apparently less concerned about regulating bottled water for public safety and the undermining of public confidence in tap water, than with the cost of litter disposal. A public water source is not portable, though it is (supposed to be) potable. So, what does putting 'public water source' on a bottle mean, that 'purified/drinking' does not? Image.
Do the cities ultimately want more of that 'hundreds, even thousands of times the cost of tap water' that the corporations have tapped into?
It took me a whopping total of three minutes to find CAI's website and find out their stand on the issue.
You mean this:
"This resolution calls for a study of the impact of bottled water on city waste. It also places the political will of mayors behind supporting full funding of municipal water and is a critical first step toward keeping our public water systems strong. Our "Think Outside the Bottle" campaign challenges the marketing muscle and political power of bottled water corporations. It’s part of our larger Campaign Challenging Corporate Control of Water."
It's not about public health. It's about money, who gets it, who gets how much. The cities are being gypped because the corporations are bottling water at a fraction of how much profit they're raking in -- money that's not being shared with the cities whose water the corporations are buying up and bottling, I assume? The cities then have to bear the brunt of the clean-up on top of that. Redoubled recycling efforts and public education about recycling beyond refilling bottles isn't really an option, for whatever reason (cost prohibitive?).
'Public Water Source'
is an attempt to take bottled water down a notch, while raising tap water from tap sources up. If it's all the same, then lowered public confidence in bottled water should force the corporations to lower their prices in order to persuade folks to buy bottled while municipalities rake in a little more money because folks will just say 'it's all the same', ignore the bottled, drink local and there's less plastic waste to have to clean up. That is the plan, right? Except that, in order to do that, there
is an expectation that 'public water/municipal water' is 'less special'. Real spring water and imported mineral water shoots up.
Of course, doing it your way, jumping to conclusions (using that oversized gut and undersized brain), works faster for you. And gives us more reasons to consider you a waste of carbon.
(shrug) I don't have a bottle of Aquafina or regular Nestle bottled water (Nestle bottles are cute, because the only ones I've seen have been so small) in front of me. I do have Arrowhead Mountain Spring Water; (Diamond Shamrock's) Fresh Choices Genuine Spring Water; and Dasani A Product of the Coca Cola Company Purified Water Enhanced with Minerals for a Pure Fresh Taste.
What I remember of Aquafina is that Kierland is right, it already states on the bottle exactly what it is.
Arrowhead Mountain's label states:
"Arrowhead Mountain Spring Water Company Division of Nestle Waters North America Inc Greenwich CT 06830 copyright 2003". It states 'Please Recycle CA Redemption Value'. But most importantly, it states:
" Arrowhead comes to you exclusively from protected natural mountain sources in the United States and Canada. Enjoy the clean, crisp, refreshing taste of pure Arrowhead Mountain Spring Water -- a taste so good it could only come from protected mountain springs. That's why, since 1894, we've been so proud to share arrowhead Brand Mountain Spring Water with you. arrowheadwater.com"
Buying Arrowhead SPRING water, I don't expect to have bought regular tap water. If it is tap water, then THAT is deceptive advertising. I'm not expecting to have received purified water, generic drinking water, water with additives, chemically processed water to remove all the stuff taken out when the city recycled it from its previous use. If I'm paying hundreds to thousands times what it cost Nestle to bottle it, and Nestle is telling the truth, then your little libertarian heart should be happy... and the cities can kiss my ass.
The Fresh Choices Genuine Spring Water was bought at a Diamond Shamrock filling station. It cost a little over a buck for a liter. It's label states:
"Bottled by Premium Waters, Inc. Fort Worth, TX, 76178 For information call 1-877-224-8392 Source: Samantha Springs, Keller TX Processed by: Carbon Filtration, UV Treatment, Microfiltration, Ozonation CT#861, NYSHD CERT #418" I have no idea what anything after 'processed by' means, including the importance of the certificate numbers. But it's there for folks who want to read it, and who find that important. I accept some processing of spring water. I don't expect the same processing that would come with tap water. If Samantha Springs turns out to be a fraud on the level of the urban legend 'city of Usa' and the real life 'Mariana Islands' scandal, then that's a problem and Premium Waters, Inc needs to be sued for it and forced to change their labeling. If it's a real spring, then everything is kosher. I didn't buy it because it was spring water, though. I bought it because it was the cheapest water for the amount of water -- 1.09 for a liter of water with the all-important reclosable nipple tip? makes sucking on it at work a lot easier between calls, and I can just stash it with everyone else's bottled water in the fridge, after refilling it from the break room sink with the filtered tap.
I don't immediately expect mountain spring water from any label that has Coca Cola Bottling on it; it goes against my expectations of what the Coca Cola company stands for. No amount of advertising featuring mountains, trees, rivers and salmon swimming upstream will remove what the words 'Coca Cola' mean to me, image wise. But that's irrelevant, because the only thing that matters is the label. If Coca Cola is bottling spring water or mineral water, then god bless them. They are not, however. At the very top -- as it's always been -- it states that this is Purified Water... and Purified means tap. Along with the reverse osmosis information included, I assume, because of the recent lawsuit, and the normal admonition to 'Please Recycle' and 'CA Cash Refund HI-ME 5 cents', it also states:
"proof of purchase 1999-1350 20 oz Consumer Information Call 1 800 788 5047 copyright 1999 The Coca Cola Company Produced Under authority of the Coca Cola Company"
No mention of where exactly it was bottled, or which city's water. Since Coca Cola is a huge company, I guess I can assume that this is an issue like
'this orange juice was made from oranges grown in Florida, Mexico, and/or Brazil' -- there's no telling exactly where this was bottled. If I really want to know, Coca Cola was kind enough to provide a 1 800 number. That's nice of them. I don't personally give a fuck, but somebody who does can call the number and either be satisfied or frustrated. Again, it's the Coca Cola Bottling company, and it says purified water. If CAI wants Coca Cola to list exactly where the water was bottled, that's fine. That's even admirable. Good luck.
Again, this is about somebody getting paid. Be it the city or the designer water companies (which is who I thought CAI was a front for... apparently, they are not. You got me there. neat thing the only thing folks read is the top and the bottom of my posts, if they read at all, right?), somebody wants to get paid more.
As long as bottled water continues to be convenient, cheap and conveniently portable, I will continue to buy bottled water no matter who produces it (unless it's Mexico). As for the restaurant issue the CAI brought up elsewhere on its site, for myself I've only bought a restaurant's bottled water once -- and that was because I wanted the bottle. Most restaurants don't charge for water, unless somebody is squeezing for money in the ghetto. All the times I've asked for water at a restaurant (sit down or fast), I assumed it was tap, and no one has yet run up a bottled water instead of a free courtesy water. Restaurants which pull the 'you have to pay for the cup' scam get the 'nevermind cancel that' and never return treatment.
If a restaurant is claiming to serve spring water, or exotic water, but it's really serving tap water; then that is a problem and the restaurants need to be taken to task for intentionally misleading paying customers. How much of a problem is that, though? and how many people do go to a restaurant, ask for water, and expect to be served something other than tap? Maybe that's a bigger problem than my little world.
