The Bottled Water Backlash

[one...two...tree 2,762]

By Michael Blanding

At Bella Luna Restaurant in Boston's funky Jamaica Plain neighborhood, you'll find star-shaped paper lanterns hanging from the ceiling and gourmet pizzas named after Red Sox players. Downstairs, the attached Milky Way Lounge & Lanes boasts a seven-lane bowling alley and a Latin dance night on Saturdays.

But there is one thing you won't find at either venue: bottled water.

As a note at the bottom of the restaurant's wine list explains, "In an effort to preserve global resources, Bella Luna does not serve bottled water. We have fountain seltzer water and filtered still water by request."

Bella Luna's CEO, Kathie Mainzer made the decision to can the bottle six months ago after a trip to the Dominican Republic, where residents have to boil their tap water in order to drink it. "I came home realizing what a precious resource water is and how we take it for granted," she says, noting that tap water in Boston is safe, cheap and doesn't lead to more trash. "Here we were throwing away this free resource and generating more disposable items -- it seemed absurd."

Between the bottles of Saratoga Spring she served with dinner and Poland Spring that bar-goers would order downstairs, Mainzer figures she is losing around $500 a month from the decision. But "it was worth it to avoid adding more pollution to the landfills," she says. At the same time, she has also had to educate staff on how to explain the decision to customers, who may never have made the connection. "The first response is, 'Really?' Then the second response is, 'That's great,'" she says. "People are just kind of shocked, because it's new."

New it may be, but the eatery has joined a growing backlash against bottled water by restaurants, city governments, religious organizations and ordinary consumers, who reject it on environmental, economic and even moral grounds. At a time when Al Gore has won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on global warming, and consumers are lining up to buy hybrid cars and fluorescent light bulbs to reduce their carbon footprint, they see bottled water as a glaring example of needless environmental waste.

Americans drank some 37 billion bottles of water in 2005, despite the inconvenient truth that in most parts of the country, tap water is not only perfectly safe, but also more tightly regulated that its bottled counterpart. At the same time, manufacturing plastic bottles for bottled water creates an astounding amount of pollution -- an annual equivalent of 1.5 billion barrels of oil, according to Food & Water Watch. Add to that the carbon emissions from transporting water from as far away as Norway (Voss), Italy (San Pellegrino), or Fiji (Fiji), and the billions of plastic bottles that end up in the waste stream, and drinking bottled water does start to seem a little bit of madness.

Yet even at supposedly environmentally conscious stores like Whole Foods Market, bottled water is the No. 1 selling item. Over the past decade, sales have continued to grow 10 percent a year, a rate that would make most companies blush. It was only a matter of time, perhaps, before the industry became a victim of its own success and people began realizing what comedians from Dennis Miller to Janeane Garofalo have been telling us for years -- that "Evian is just naïve spelled backwards."

http://alternet.org/environment/65520/

[SteveLaura 0]

Excellent idea. Not sure that many other places will take it up, tho, if that's how much she's losing. Good for her!

[Caladan 19]

I find bottled water to be too expensive compared to buying a filter and a reusable Nalgene bottle.

[Nessa 23]

I buy gallons of water, which I use to drink and to make coffee, tea. For cooking I use normal water, and I refill my drinking water bottle with the gallon water, cheaper and best for the environment. I really dislike drinking from water fountains, I avoid as much as I can.

[Sister Fracas 5]

I'd only buy it if I'm in a place where I can't carry my own bottle in...and then I'd rather buy pop, just on principle of not buying the overpriced stuff....not that the softdrink industry should get my money either....hehehe.

[Mags 112]

Alot of restaurants in London have a filtration system set up rather than bottled water. Some have their own specially made glass bottles (normally frosted for purdyness) and they simply fill them up at their tap. The bottles tell you that they are from their own filtration system so there can be no mix up.

It was cold, tasted fresh and there is normally no charge either.

[JODO 2]

I have really cut back on my bottled water buying especially since it is starting to cool off a little here. I try to remember to fill and bring my reusable bottle with me so I won't be tempted to buy while I am out. Too, I have kicked my Perrier with Lemon habit.

[Amby 490]

I only offer canned sodas and canned water in my cafe. I found the canned water through an aluminum plant in my town. I recycle everything

[Marc and Olga 0]

I only offer canned sodas and canned water in my cafe. I found the canned water through an aluminum plant in my town. I recycle everything

CANNED water?!

No offense but that just sounds wierd...

I usually drink sodas anyway, $1/2L bottle, not too bad but I usually have some water from one of those filtered water machines around....though we are out atm =(

[Ban Hammer 13,641]

[mendeleev 68]

This is going to be an interesting one for me. In the US, I use tap water. In Novosibirsk, 100% bottled water. My wife swears by it and swears at tap water. And then there's the chlorine or the stuff that grows in the filters that removes the chlorine -- she's afraid of both.

So I don't know what I'm going to do pretty soon now ...

[one...two...tree 2,762]

This is going to be an interesting one for me. In the US, I use tap water. In Novosibirsk, 100% bottled water. My wife swears by it and swears at tap water. And then there's the chlorine or the stuff that grows in the filters that removes the chlorine -- she's afraid of both.

So I don't know what I'm going to do pretty soon now ...

Filter your tap water or... what we've been doing - we have about 8, one gallon jugs that we reuse, going to the local grocer where they have the coin operate water machines.

[almaty 19]

i use tap water...sanita never drinks water...

[Jasman0717 9]

I always buy Claudeth bottled water but that is probably from habit. I can't imagine drinking tap water in the Philippines

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

I just fill up bottles with filtered tap water. Except at work where they provide us with bottled water.