1. Bottled Water A look into the expanding billion dollar industry PELI 2010 Melissa Peplinski

2. Why buy bottled water? 1.Fear about quality of tap water A common misconception is that bottled water is healthier, and more pure than tap water. In order to gain a large consumer audience many bottled water manufacturers scare people about tap water.

3. 2. Convenience In the United States alone, people spend over 12.5 billion dollars per year on bottled water, and consume over 9 billion gallons. This is greater than 30 gallons of bottled water per person in the US. Worldwide consumption is more than 50 billion gallons! (or 189 billion liters)

4. 3. Preferences and perceptions of taste Does bottled water really taste better than tap water? Many blind taste tests show that this is not in fact the case! But, bottled water sales have increased an upwards of 70 % since 2007.

5. “Manufactured Demand” Companies make consumers feel scared and insecure if they don’t have a product – this is what the bottled water industry did Then, companies seduce consumers with fantastical pictures and places; mountain streams and pristine nature They also mislead us in believing that their company is environmentally friendly Thewaterproject.org

6. Pepsi’s Vice Chairman publicly said, “ The biggest enemy is tap water.” They want us to think that tap water is dirty and the best alternative is bottled water.

7. There are many issues of public concern surrounding bottled water: - Impacts of water extractions on local watersheds; Are bottled water companies damaging sensitive water resources when extracting groundwater for sale? - Equity issues associated with commercializing a public resource - Environmental consequences of producing and disposing of plastic bottles -The energy and green house gas emissions that result result from producing bottles

8. Is the water quality of bottled water better than tap water? The National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) tested 100 brands of bottled water. One-third of the brands failed to meet clean water standards for tap water. The FDA regulates the standards for bottled water, but over 70% of industries are exempt because they are manufactured, bottled and distributed within the same state. Bottled water regulated by the FDA has weaker regulations that tap water regulated by the EPA. One-fourth of bottled water water is bottled tap water, and one-third is filtered tap water.

9. Bottled Water costs 2000 times more than tap water.

10. What about the waste?

11. Do all these plastic bottles get recycled? No. According the the Container Recycling Institute, 80% of plastic bottles end up in landfills or incinerators. Some litter roads, beaches, streams and other waterways. 25% end up in oceans where they break down into small plastic pieces that are ingested by marine animals. These plastic pieces are toxic to the animals and may prevent them from eating real food, or may cause them to choke, both ultimately leading to death. Don’t forget about the food chain…we may one day end up eating fish that have been poisoned by a water bottle that was broken down in the ocean…one we may have drank from months before.

12. Great Pacific Garbage Patch 3.5 Million Tons of Garbage the size of Texas!

13. Energy is also a concern: The oil and energy used to make all the plastic bottle in the United States could fuel 1 million cars. The energy used to manufacture plastic bottles requires 50 million barrels of oil per year globally. Most plastic bottles are made of PET (Polyethylene terephthalate). Annually, one million tons of PET is made is the US, three million tons globally. There is also the energy to process the bottled water, to clean, fill, seal and label the bottles, energy to transport and distribute and energy to keep the water cool. The total energy needed to manufacture bottled water combining all these sources is 5.6 to 10.2 Mega Joules 1 -1 The total energy needed for tap water is 0.005 Mega Joules 1 −1 Not only does it cost 2000 times more to purchase, it takes 2000 times more energy to produce bottle water. It takes 3 liters of water to produce 1 liter of bottled water. Gleick & Cooley, 2009

14. The oil and energy used in the United States to produce plastic water bottles could fuel one million cars per year. The Pacific Research Institute has also found that the production of plastic water bottles releases 2.5 million tons of Carbon Dioxide. We spend three times as much for bottled water as we do for gas!

15. Water in Pakistan- a battle with bottled water The global water shortage of affordable and safe drinking water is manifested in Pakistan with an estimated 44 percent of the population without access to safe drinking water. In rural areas, up to 90 percent of the population may lack such access. As one indication of the magnitude of the problem, it is estimated that 200,000 children in Pakistan die every year due to diarrheal diseases alone. It is a basic human right to have access to clean, safe and sufficient drinking water.

16. With regard to the access to safe drinking water the Supreme Court of Pakistan specified in another case in 1994, that mining companies have violated the rights of citizens by polluting local drinking water supplies. The Court expanded Art. 9 of the right to life and said: “the right to have unpolluted water is a right of every person, wherever he lives.”

17. In 1998 in Pakistan Pure Life bottled water by Nestle was introduced, there was the fastest worldwide growth in bottled water production at 140% Yearly, each person in Pakistan drinks 2 liters of bottled water, totaling 318 million liters of bottled water each year in the country. This indicated a 964% increase in consumption increase in 5 years time! The Pakistan Council of Research in Water resources has found that about 50% of bottled water is contaminated by arsenic and bacteria. In 1998 in Pakistan Pure Life bottled water by Nestle was introduced, there was the fastest worldwide growth in bottled water production at 140% Yearly, each person in Pakistan drinks 2 liters of bottled water, totaling 318 million liters of bottled water each year in the country. This indicated a 964% increase in consumption increase in 5 years time! The Pakistan Council of Research in Water resources has found that about 50% of bottled water is contaminated by arsenic and bacteria.

18. The cost to produce a bottle of water in Pakistan is PKR 12.51, and then they sell it for PKR 22.00. Nestle company uses groundwater instead of spring water in their bottling water process. In Pakistan there is no regulation or proper monitoring of groundwater. Nestle is trying to build another plant in Karachi, but it is still in the Sindh high court and has yet to have been decided.

19. What can you do? Water is accepted in Islamic teachings as an essential source of life; of which everybody has the right to a fair share. Each year 20 billion is spent on medication for waterborne diseases. Improve water supply; There need to be regulation of groundwater. More money needs to be allocated to provide access to safer and sufficient drinking water through the creation of water treatment facilities and filtration systems.