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Of the billions of plastic water bottles sold each year, the majority don’t end up being recycled. Those single-serving bottles, also known as PET (polyethylene terephthalate) bottles because of the kind of resin they’re made with, are recycled at a rate of about 31 percent in the U.S. The other 69 percent end up in landfills or as litter.
This spring, as California withered in its fourth year of
drought and
mandatory water restrictions were enacted for the first time in the state's history, a
news story broke revealing that Nestlé Waters North America was
tapping springs in the San Bernardino National Forest in southern California using a permit that expired 27 years ago.
And when the company's CEO Tim Brown was
asked on a radio program if Nestlé would stop bottling water in the Golden State, he replied, "Absolutely not. In fact, if I could increase it, I would." That's because bottled water is big business, even in a country where most people have clean, safe tap water readily and cheaply available. (Although it should be noted that
Starbucks agreed to
stop sourcing and manufacturing their
Ethos brand water in California after being drought-shamed.)
Profits made by the industry are much to the chagrin of nonprofits like
Corporate Accountability International (CAI), a corporate watchdog and
Food & Water Watch, a consumer advocacy group, both of which have waged campaigns against the bottled water industry for years. But representatives from both organizations say they've won key fights against the industry in the last 10 years and have helped shift people's consciousness on the issue.
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