From a different thread....

Is Nestle (Danone too?) inherently evil by either

i) taking water from Switzerland and shipping it around the world?
or
ii) taking local municipal water and treating it and selling it in bottles (using 4 or 5 times as much water to make it as is present in the bottle itself)

OR

are these businesses merely responding to consumer need and actually HELPING communities with unsafe tap water by providing better water when local authorities have failed?

Not sure its a simple question to answer - but before you leap to the obvious conclusions, look at what you are wearing.....it takes around 10 gallons of water to produce 1 gallon of drinking water, but it takes almost 2000 gallons to produce a pair of jeans!

I think bottled water is the biggest scam in the world.

Are you suggesting we go out in this cold weather without trousers on?

I hate bottled water, its money for old rope. my biggest gripe is going to a restaurant and being expected to buy a bottle of water for chf 6 (rather than being offered tap water) to go with my meal.

So what would you drink in a hotel in Moscow or Lagos? Tap water?

And on a hot day in London, what you going to do?

because in many other places, bottled water is cheap.

Fair enough, I don't doubt that it is the preferred option in places where the tap water is not entirely safe, but to market so vigorously in territories where there is no question on the safety of tapwater is downright criminal.

Edit: In London? Drink beer

in London tap water is fine for me.

I don't know about tap water in moscow but I guess its OK, I would find out. bottled water in lagos is probably cheaper than in CH

I like sparkling water with a meal (as well as wine, of course) so am happy to pay for bottled. In Switzerland I would never choose to use still water from a bottle, as the tap water is so good. In France I take care to filter it first, as round us there's quite a high content of certain chemicals from farming (we had a warning about it some years ago, aimed at pregnant women and babies, and although it's improved since I'm not sure by how much) as well as high calcium levels, so it's better for the kettle and coffee machine as well.

In other parts of the world I would use bottled water for various reasons - when I'm sailing in the Med the water we take on in tanks is not reliably clean, and indeed sometimes the shore-side water may not be treated or stored to required standards (in parts of Greece or Turkey, for example). In the US I always get bottled water (not mineral water) to make tea or coffee with, as the treatment there leaves a very unpleasant taste (perhaps not everywhere, but in enough places I don't like to risk it). Also true in some parts of the UK.

good point, I took it for granted we were talking about bottled water in CH, thats why I referenced the chf 6!

Up to you! My point was that we make environmentally or ethically questionable judgements with bigger impacts than the obvious ones

I don't think marketing can be criminal. Surely the consumer bears the responsibility, not the marketer.

Tap water in Moscow isn't ok.

So the decision for you is only about price, not about sustainability / ethics? Therefore its OK to extract the water from underneath an african village that they have used for their well for generations and put a label on it and sell it back as long as its cheaper than in Switzerland?

I feel it should be like water purification tablets/units .. available widely and cheaply (ok water purification is currently not cheap for many many people) in areas where needed.

Eh? Did I say that about african villages? I just said that bottled water was money for old rope. You're being rather aggressive

I think anyone who doesn't like the concept of bottled water can simply refuse to buy it. I often buy sparkling water and in countries where the quality or taste of tap water is not good I opt for bottled water.

Producing a bottle of Coke or other beverages still uses more water than a bottle of water, so I think the arguement of "wasting water" to make bottled water is not strong enough.

What about shipping wine or meat from New Zealand to Europe (or vice versa). How is that ecological? As long as consumers are buying the producers will keep on producing. Vote with your wallet...

I'm not sure of the relevance of my trousers, but by drinking tap water instead of bottled water at work every day (unlike most of my colleagues) according to your 4 or 5:1 calculation I am saving:

46 work weeks per year x 5 days per week x 2 litres per day = 460 litres

(460 x 4.5) - 460 = 1,610 litres saved per year

Not to mention the cost saving to the company...

When practical why not use a carbon filtered water jug? Btitax et al.

I agree in most cases it is unethical to sell water in bottles. http://canadians.org/blog/?p=13184

Water arrives as rain on the ground in a fairly pure state, agreed it can pick up air pollutants, but the poor water delivered to taps in the second or third worlds is always a result of ground water pollution and bad maintenance of the piping.

Many charities in Africa are installing wells in villages, there is a lot of water down there, but maybe not enough for irrigation to grow cotton for your jeans.

Just playing devils advocate Nothing personal

Indeed it's so good, Coca-Cola tried to sell it as bottled water. But they contaminated it in the botteling plant

NB Dasani still is a big money spinner in the U.S. Now where's that other thread?

fair enough, no problem

It's definitely not evil.

It's a consumer product produced for a market demand.

Yes it is a product that is readily available in most places for a fraction of the cost. But people are willing to pay the premium for ease of use, portability and standard product. There is increased pollution involved and of course the NIMBY respect to centralized raw material extraction. But I don't think this is much worse than any other manufactured product.

On the other side, the business is very lucrative, and in the case of Nestle, a huge contributor to their overall profitability. This is economically favorable creating thousands of jobs and technological advancements.