Bottle water follies

I was born in Thonon, France, a mere 5 miles away from Evian’s bottling plant. When I came to live in America thirty year later, I couldn’t believe that clever marketing and strong consumer demand were ferrying these ponderous bottles of water from France to North America. Talk about the new version of “bringing coal to Newcastle!” Ten years later, I read that consumer tests had determined that when compared to all bottled waters sold in the United States (at the time Evian, Perrier, Poland Water and San Pellegrino,) New York City’s tap water tasted the best and was the least harmful. Since that time, America’s infatuation for bottle water has grown unabated to the point that now environmentalists are crying foul and are raising awareness that these non-degradable empty bottles are becoming as huge a problem as the plastic grocery bags that hang on trees and end up blocking fish stomachs. Earlier in the week, Evelyne passed me a recent Smithsonian article that claimed that it took 17 million barrels of oil each year to make all the water bottles needed for the U.S. market, enough to fuel 1.3 million cars for a year; that too is insane. Two days later, I was listening on NPR that Fiji, now the American’s best selling water that brings it all the way from the South Pacific, was “planting plenty of trees” to remain “carbon neutral” as a company; this statement would make me laugh if it were not so hypocritical. Add it all up: Oil to make the bottles, health risks related to these plastic containers, environmental issues and freight costs should make bottle water the next American villain after Marlboro. Well, in my opinion, snobbery remains the main the driver and vain consumers of fancy bottled water brands ought to be flogged for keeping up the demand!