Bottled Water: A Questionable Choice

Core77 points at an article from Fast Company about America’s national obsession with bottled water. It has been difficult not to notice the astonishingly rapid ascension of bottled water, “enhanced” or otherwise, into the marketplace, and the question now is whether these alleged lifestyle choices have been ethically considered in the way they should be. Here are a couple passages from the FastCompany’s article that should make you pause next time you pass up the tap:

Bottled water is often simply an indulgence, and despite the stories we tell ourselves, it is not a benign indulgence. We’re moving 1 billion bottles of water around a week in ships, trains, and trucks in the United States alone. That’s a weekly convoy equivalent to 37,800 18-wheelers delivering water. (Water weighs 81/3 pounds a gallon. It’s so heavy you can’t fill an 18-wheeler with bottled water–you have to leave empty space.)

Meanwhile, one out of six people in the world has no dependable, safe drinking water. The global economy has contrived to deny the most fundamental element of life to 1 billion people, while delivering to us an array of water “varieties” from around the globe, not one of which we actually need. That tension is only complicated by the fact that if we suddenly decided not to purchase the lake of Poland Spring water in Hollis, Maine, none of that water would find its way to people who really are thirsty.

Fast Company: Message in a Bottle

[via Cor77 Design Blog]