04/30/07 Break the Bottled Water Bondage

Are you a true eco-centric? Do you drive a hybrid, use energy efficient light bulbs, buy only locally grown food? While these are all environmentally noble gestures, unless you have weaned yourself off the bottle you've got nothing to pat yourself on the back for. In order to leave a teeny- tiny eco-footprint you'll going to have to give up this century's biggest marketing con, bottled water. Without any evidence to back up claims, advertisers have convinced consumers that water in bottles is healthier than tap. It isn't. In fact in many cases, tap is what's in the bottle. A consumer advocacy group Corporate Accountability International is urging both Coke and Nestle to come clean about the source and safety of their bottled water. The Sierra Club and the World Wildlife Federation are asking consumers to return to tap as bottle water uses valuable energy both in transportation and packaging, plus creates literally tons of solid waste. If you buy only locally grown sustainable food yet insist on drinking bottled water, you're not environmentally correct, you're simply a hypocrite.