All that energy spent to make the bottle; even more to ship it around the planet; and then we drink it in about 2 minutes? That brings us to the big problem at the other end of the life cycle - disposal. 

 

 

 

What happens to all these bottles when we're done? Eighty percent end up in landfills, where they will sit for thousands of years, or in incinerators, where they are burned, releasing toxic pollution. The rest gets collected for recycling. 

 

 

 

I was curious about where the plastic bottles that I put in recycling bins go. I found out that shiploads were being sent to India. So, I went there. I will never forget riding over a hill outside Madras where I came face to face with a mountain of plastic bottles from California. 

 

 

 

Now, real recycling would turn these bottles back into bottles. But that wasn't what was happening here. Instead these bottles were slated to be downcycled, which means turning them into lower quality products that would just be chucked later. The parts that couldn't be downcycled were thrown away there - shipped all the way to India just to be dumped in someone else's backyard. If bottled water companies want to use mountains on their labels, it would be more accurate to show one of these mountains of plastic waste. 

 

 

 

Scaring us, seducing us, and misleading us - these strategies are all core parts of manufacturing demand. Once they've manufactured all this demand, creating a new multibillion dollar market, they defend it by beating out the competition. But in this case, the competition is our basic human right to clean, safe drinking water. 

 

 

 

Pepsi's Vice Chairman publicly said: “The biggest enemy is tap water.” They want us to think it's dirty, and bottled water is the best alternative. In many places, public water is polluted thanks to polluting industries like the plastic bottle industry. And these bottled water guys are all too happy to offer their expensive solutions which keeps us hooked on their products. 

 

 

 

It is time we took back the tap. That starts with making a personal commitment to not buy or drink bottled water unless the water in your community is truly unhealthy. Yes, it takes a bit of foresight to grab a reusable bottle on the way out, but I think we can handle it. 

 

 

 

Then take the next step. Join a campaign that's working for real solutions. Like demanding investment in clean tap water for all. In the US, tap water is underfunded by $24 billion partly because people believe drinking water only comes from a bottle. Around the world, a billion people don't have access to clean water right now, yet cities all over are spending millions of dollars to deal with all the plastic bottles we throw out. What if that money was spent on improving our water systems or better yet, preventing pollution to begin with? 

 

 

 

There are many more things we can do to solve this problem. Lobby your city officials to bring back drinking fountains. Work to ban the purchase of bottled water by your school, your organization or entire city. This is a huge opportunity for millions of people to wake up and protect our wallets, our health and the planet. 

 

 

 

The good news is it's already started. Bottled water sales have begun to drop while business is booming for safe refillable water bottles. Yay! Restaurants are proudly serving "tap" and people are choosing to pocket the hundreds of thousands of dollars they would otherwise be wasting on bottled water. Carrying bottled water is on its way to being as cool as smoking while pregnant. We know better now. 

 

 

 

The bottled water industry is getting worried because the jig is up. We are not buying into their manufactured demand anymore. We will choose our own demands, thank you very much, and we're demanding clean safe water for all.