October 15th, 2010
Multnomah County, Oregon, which includes the city of Portland, took back the tap by passing a resolution prohibiting the purchase of bottled water with county funds. Members of the Multnomah Country Board of Commissioners were unanimous in their decision to ban the bottle. The county even joined Food & Water Watch’s national campaign to Take Back the Tap.
Members of the Multnomah Country Board of Commissioners voted unanimously against the bottle to save money and the environment. The county also joined Food & Water Watch’s national campaign to Take Back the Tap.
Commissioner Barbara Willer, who led the effort, was motivated by a desire to see the county save money and to protect the environment from unwanted waste and pollution. She punched her point home by reminding people just how costly bottled water can be when she said, “Buying bottled water is more expensive than buying gas.” Read more…
September 23rd, 2010
The Beverage Marketing Corporation reported that U.S. bottled water sales declined in 2009 for the second consecutive year. What’s bad for bottled water is likely good for planet earth.
Once you’re found out, it’s all downhill from there. The Beverage Marketing Corporation reported that U.S. bottled water sales declined in 2009 for the second consecutive year—5.2 percent in revenues and 2.5 percent of volume sold. Water activists and eco-conscious consumers can celebrate the news due to bottled water’s immense and negative impact on the environment, and its strain on public water resources. While the industry is quick to point to the struggling economy as a primary reason for the decline, the impact of consumer awareness over bottled water’s environmental footprint cannot be ignored. Read more…
August 19th, 2010
The champions of the tap vs. the outlaws of bottled water: TMZ should show how appealing it is when celebrities drink from the tap.
It’s August, so maybe there’s not much going on in the big city. Perhaps that’s why rapper Kanye West found himself tweeting about drinking New York City tap water last week. TMZ felt it was newsworthy in some way, so they mentioned the tweet on their website. It must have seemed trivial to some readers, so they expressed their dismay at how boring the tweet was. Since Kanye’s tweet about NYC tap is the kind of thing we like to hear, I found myself typing the URL for TMZ into my web browser to find out more. TMZ merely showed the contents of what Kanye tweeted—not much worth mentioning… until I noticed one particular photo-montage on their home page. Read more…
July 23rd, 2010
Jack Johnson takes back the tap with Jim Walsh and volunteers in Holmdel, NJ.
We just got off the bus from our summer tour with Jack Johnson. Yeah, THAT Jack Johnson—the Rodeo Clown, himself. Food & Water Watch was recently selected to receive a generous donation from Jack Johnson’s charitable organization All at Once. We teamed up with Jack and All At Once, a social action network connecting nonprofits with people who want to become active in their local and world community, on the Jack Johnson 2010 To The Sea Tour. We were invited to set up informational tables in Johnson’s well-known Village Green, a collection of interactive booths designed to educate, inspire and connect us face-to-face with music fans, water fans, and other local and national non-profits. Read more…
June 4th, 2010
The International Bottled Water Association recently reported a decline in the volume of bottled water sold in the United States for the second consecutive year. After a 2.7 percent decrease in 2009, the industry is looking for new ways to attract consumers to their products. Here are two egregious examples of their targeted marketing efforts: Read more…
March 22nd, 2010
World Water Day is an excellent opportunity to consider the ways in which our choices as consumers affect world water resources. As many of you already know, bottled water contributes to the world’s pollution and waste problems. It is also a prime example of corporate spin run amok. While the oh-so-clever industry execs have convinced many people that bottled water is better than water from the tap, in most cases this is simply not true. It actually reminds us of another industry infamous for using misinformation to peddle its products… Read more…
February 25th, 2010
Image: microbeworld.org
Bruce Rittman, director of the Center for Environmental Biotechnology in the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University (ASU) recently gave a lecture to ASU students about the safety of our water supplies and degradation of the infrastructure of our nation’s water system. He referenced research from a paper he wrote back in 1984, which is becoming all the more crucial now, as we take closer looks at the safety of our drinking water, the necessity and dangers of chemically treating it, and the environmental and human health hazards posed by bottling it.
Read more…
February 18th, 2010
Image: javcon117
Metro Vancouver recently took on the task of promoting the consumption of tap water over bottled water and is now battling it out with Coca-Cola at the Olympic games.
As one of the Olympics biggest official sponsors, Coca-Cola, who claims their bottled water “doesn’t compete with tap water,” is of course throwing a huge tantrum over this reality: they are now going to have to compete with tap water. You know, the same tap water that they use to fill their Dasani bottles. Maybe Coca-Cola should just stick with making Coke instead of re-packaging tap water from the local bottling plant in Vancouver and trucking it in to the Olympics.
Read more…
