Palm | Kelapa Sawit

Times are changing. While water bottles have become popular in the last five or so years, it is finally apparent that the water touted to be from natural springs from the swiss alps are simply just tap water and marketed as natural from the springs. This is deceptive marketing desgined to sell and enticing, seemingly "miracle water" to the public and we have fallen for it.

Studies are now being done on the water and it is determined that these products are no better than simple tap water from our faucet. The plastic water bottles are also filling up landfills and causing a mess in society. It is not easy to recycle plastic bottles. I have always been under the impression that plastic bottled water is in fact able to be recycled. It is also estimated that we consume more bottled water per year over any other beverage according to research (see: http://www.earth-policy.org/Updates/2007/Update68_data2.htm#table5) for date.

**Pepsico has decided to disclose that their brand of water Aquafina is actually from the tap.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20038120/.

**Coca Cola company has also been charged with Greenwashing practices-http://www.polarisinstitute.org/coke_faces_new_charges_in_india_including_greenwashing.
Coca Cola is also the distributor of Evian water, which is known as one of the best bottled waters straight from the French Alps, bottled at the source with a composition of certain minerals. While I cannot find a site that proves that Evian does not actually come "from the source", I do know that it comes straight from Lake Geneva and has been known to have healing qualities for centuries. I know that when I feel sluggish and if I drink Evian I usually feel better, however, I have recently gone on "strike" from water bottles and feel better anyway. I noticed that when I have a large bottle of Aquafina or Dasani or Fiji water, I tend to feel sluggish afterward. While drinking tap water, I feel more energy and overall, healthier!

The issue is also that companies put so much time and energy into making plastic bottles to sell tap water to people. These products cost consumers more money but we are paying for convenience anyway. It is better to buy our own re-useable water bottle and fill it up with a few ice cubes and tap water. I attend a conference at Portland Community College recently where we were given Klean Kanteen, stainless steel bottles in our goody bags. There was also also a session on take back the tap: http://takebackthetap.org/. I did not attend this session but probably should have. There are lessons to be learned about the water bottle industry, things we may not know about, things I was not interested in until this subject of Greenwashing came up.