CAMPAIGNS & LOBBYING
Here are the Myths & Facts on Bottled Water.
Myth
Bottled water is simply one of thousands of legitimate uses of public water and plastic water bottles are 100% recyclable and are among the most recycled consumer products on the market.
Fact
We already get drinking water coming out of our taps. Bottled water is an unessential use of an essential resource.
Just because something is ‘recyclable’ doesn’t mean it gets recycled. More than 4 billion pounds of plastic water bottles go into landfills each year at an annual cleanup cost to cities of at least $70 million a year in the U.S. alone. Fewer than 20 percent of plastic water bottles discarded in the U.S. are recycled and bottled water corporations have aggressively lobbied against the expansion of container deposit laws to include bottled water even though they are proven to increase recycling significantly.
Myth
Banning the sale of bottled water removes the right to choose a legal, healthful and environmental responsible beverage choice.
Fact
Most campuses are dominated by Beverage Exclusivity Contracts (also known as pouring or vending contracts) which give corporations the exclusive rights to determine what drink options are offered on campus. Exclusivity contracts are another way that corporations are limiting a student’s right to choose on campus.
A Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, Canadian Union of Public Employees and Polaris Institute survey released in 2008, found that 33% of respondents noticed a reduction in the number of water fountains on campus and 43% cited delays in repairing them when beverage exclusivity contracts were implemented on Canadian campuses. What choice do people on campus really have to buy a bottle of Dasani or Aquafina from Coca-Cola or Pepsi vending machines when there are not enough water fountains or they are not being maintained?
Myth
When campuses ban bottled water it means that their staff, students and teachers can bring bottled water from home and that custodial and engineering staff are exempt as they will continue to purchase bottled water for them.
Fact
There is no evidence that when you ban bw on campus people will bring in BW products from home. Nestlé Waters Canada notes that bottled water is an “out of home product” but the point of the ban is to build more conscious citizen both in and outside of the campus community—acknowledging that a reusable water bottle is more cost effective, socially conscious and environmental to bring ANYWHERE then a water bottle from home.
Myth
Banning the sale of bottled water removes the healthiest option available in beverage containers available to college and university staff and students.
Fact
The choice is not between bottled water and sugary drinks, it is between bottled water and tap water. In the past we counter this argument saying that the choice is for supporting access to publicly delivered tap water. In the same way that Pepsi does not sell Coke products in its plants, cities should not be selling a product that competes with publicly delivered tap water.
Beverage corporations work hard to get consumers to drink less tap water and more of the products they sell and profit from. Aren’t these corporations that are now so concerned about healthy beverage choices the same corporations that have built fortunes on sugary sodas, milk chocolate candy bars and potato chips?
Myth
Instead of focusing on a phasing out bottled water the solution is recycling.
Fact
The bottled water industry is promoting and investing money in recycling programs to appear environmentally friendly even though most companies continues to use 100 percent virgin PET plastic in all of its bottles. Nowhere in this ‘pitch’ to recycle do the companies talk about reducing the proliferation of plastic bottles.
For example, Nestlé Waters Canada has consistently sought to undermine local democratic decisions to restrict bottled water sales through offers of corporate financial assistance through the offer to implement and fund pilot recycling programs (generally around $90,000 dollars given)to help expand recycling in city parks, buildings and at city sponsored events.
Just because something is ‘recyclable’ doesn’t mean it gets recycled. More than 4 billion pounds of plastic water bottles go into landfills each year at an annual cleanup cost to cities of at least $70 million a year in the U.S. alone. Depending on location and regional recycling programs, anywhere between 20% - 90 % of plastic bottles end up in garbage dumps where they take between 450 and 1000 years to break down . Nationally, about half of all plastic bottles end up in the garbage, while the other half are recycled.
Myth
Bottled water is the most environmentally friendly beverage product available in packaged form.
Fact
There is no green solution to bottled water given that it requires far more energy to produce plastic bottles, fill them with water and ship them to market than it does to deliver public drinking water through the municipal system.
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