I’ve been, for a while, meaning to post something about the absurd rise of mineral water consumption, which means billions more plastic bottles to be disposed of when in the developed world tap water is often perfectly good to drink. So when I saw that Newsweek magazine got on the act today, I thought it was time to join the chorus of those condemning this selfish form of consumerism.
The figures presented by Newsweek are impressive. Americans buy more than 30 billion single-serving bottles of water a year. The figures in Europe, it should be added, are even bigger: European consumers drank 50.3 billion litres of bottled water in 2006, according to figures from industry analysts Canadian and Zenith International, with average market growth of 3.3 percent a year since 2000. It’s a hell of a lot of water.
But the backlash against the preposterous growth of the bottled water market has started. According to the Newsweek article, “campaigns to get citizens back to tap water led by city mayor concerned about global warming are getting momentum”. Still according to the article, Salt Lake City Mayor Ross Anderson is urging the U.S. conference of Mayor to promote tap water as a greener alternative.
Elsewhere, The Parisian Water Authority has been promoting Paris tap water, under the name Eau de Paris, since 2005. The campaign insists that tap water has all the minerals of expensive bottled water, and drinking from a glass at home is better for the environment.
And earlier this month, the New York City administration launched a similar campaign to prompt New Yorkers to drink from the tap.
Let’s hope more and more municipal administrations organize similar initatives, using the summer as a hook to get people’s attentions. Maybe the urge to be sucking on a bottle has something to do with the fact that people don’t get breastfed as they should, but it’s time to wean all those big babies out there off the plastic water bottle for good!
