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Bottled Water Industry Pushes Back Against Drive To Phase Their Product Out Of National Parks

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A week after a campaign was mounted to encourage the National Park Service to phase bottled water out of the parks, the bottled water industry pushed back a bit, saying to do so would encourage visitors to turn to unhealthy alternatives to quench their thirsts.

In a release Tuesday the International Bottled Water Association said "(E)fforts to eliminate or reduce access to bottled water in our national parks will force consumers to choose less healthy drink options that have more packaging, more additives (e.g., sugar, caffeine), and greater environmental impacts than bottled water."

According to the group, research shows that in the absence of bottled water products, "63 percent of people will choose soda or another sugared drink – not tap water."

"We expect the same consumer response if access to bottled water is restricted in our national parks," said the group in the release. "And such a response will therefore not likely reduce the presence of plastic bottles within the recycling streams of our national parks."

Corporate Accountability International, a non-profit that works to encourage cleaner environmental habits, last week sent representatives to Yosemite National Park, Golden Gate National Recreation Area, Independence Hall National Historical Park, and Mount Rainier National Park with over-sized postcards encouraging park officials to commit to phasing out bottled water.

Kristin Urquiza, who oversees the "Outside the Bottle and Public Works Compaign" for Corporate Accountability International, says more parks need to follow Zion, Hawaii Volcanoes, and Grand Canyon national parks in phasing out the sale of disposable water bottles.

To get more parks to phase-out bottled water, the non-profit has been working with stakeholders in and out of national parks, including concessionaires, "to help give Park Service (superintendents) the support they need to really move forward on implementing a 'bottled-water-free' policy in their parks," she said.

While none of the four parks has given "firm commitments" to moving forward with a ban, said Ms. Urquiza, talks have been ongoing to examine the feasibility of such a ban.

"The real exciting feedback that we've been getting is that water in the parks is an incredibly important issue for superintendents," she said. "They want to figure out how to minimize the amount of waste, to promote public water."

But the water bottlers say Americans want bottled water. "Consumers choose bottled water for several reasons, including its refreshing taste, reliable quality, zero calories and additives, and convenience," the organization said. "In fact, since 1998, approximately 73 percent of the growth in bottled water consumption has come from people switching from carbonated soft drinks, juices, and milk to bottled water.

"Banning or restricting access to bottled water in the marketplace, including within national parks, directly impacts the right of people to choose the healthiest beverage on the shelf. And for many, bottled water is a critical alternative to other packaged beverages, which are often less healthy. Bottled water must therefore be available wherever packaged beverages are sold."

The group does support ongoing efforts to "further increase the availability of clean, safe drinking water in national parks, cities, towns, on college campuses, in the work place, and at home should be encouraged. This, in fact, complements the National Park Services’ own ongoing healthy foods initiative. Bottle refilling stations and water fountains throughout national parks and communities are an excellent opportunity to help promote healthy hydration. But access to bottled water is also a key component of this effort and should not be discouraged, prohibited, or overlooked when discussing water’s role in a healthier lifestyle."

Comments

To Moonpie:

Link one - an agenda list with no substantive facts or arguments - but I guess you liked the title.

Link two - an opinion piece about water used for farming. Nothing to do with drinking water - tap or bottled. But again, I guess you liked the title and didn't bother reading the article.

Link three - a repeat of the "subsidized oil" myth. Oil and Gas are some of the highest taxed industries in the country. Exxon/Mobile, by far the largest company in the industry, for example paid $102 billion in taxes and had net income of $44.9 billion. That equates to an effective tax rate of 69.5%. Explain to me how that is a "subsidy'.

http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/34088/000003408813000011/xom10k20...

Link 4 - The old global warming hoax. Even some of its strongest former proponents are backing away from that one.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/features/twenty-year-hiatus-in-risi...

http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21574461-climate-ma...

http://opinion.financialpost.com/2013/04/01/were-not-screwed/

The global warming models have been a total fiction.


as several others have pointed out above.

No justin, that is just the problem. Despite my asking several times, no one has actually identified the "ecological problems" much less explained how banning bottles in the park would have any impact on that "problem".


I posted a link above. It's a primer that lists a range of ecological costs, from harm to marine life to how reuse over recycling conserves energy and reduces pollution. That primer should point you toward a mountain of common knowledge and common sense to argue against.


Justin, since most of the items on that list don't have anything to do with the environmnet - i.e. how many bottles we buy, how much we spend ..... and the rest is unsubstantiated claims, why don't you pick out one or two "environmental" issues you want to defend and we will discuss what is fact and what is myth.


[color=#0e2233; font-family: 'Open Sans', arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 23px]I found this info; Over 60,000,000 plastic bottles a day are disposed of in U.S. landfills from bottled water use. Other than the direct impact of 30 billion plastic bottles a year being disposed of in U.S. landfills alone, bottled water negatively impacts our environment in many other ways. 17 billion barrels of oil are used each year to produce the 30 billion plastic bottles, producing some 2.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide pollution. It takes three times the amount of water to produce the bottle as it does to fill it. Not to mention the pollution from transporting heavy loads of bottled water all over the World and the empties to landfills or recycling centers. Having land fills fill up also means having to open new land fills usually farther from the communities center because of urban sprawl. This creates the use of more fuel for garbage service to go to a more distant land fill.[/color]


David -

Thanks for sharing some useful stats. Unfortunately, I'll predit ec will shrug such information off as of no import, as he consistently has in the past.

I once lived in a rural area not far from where a major water bottler had a deep well for one of their sources. There was a constant stream of big tanker trucks in and out of there, 7 days a week, hauling water to the bottling plant in a distant city. That's part of the "hidden cost" of this product.


To me the cost is not as important as trying to fill the land fill more slowly.


since most of the items on that list don't have anything to do with the environment

As anyone can see, that's simply not the case.

and the rest is unsubstantiated claims

Funnny thing those references to Yale University, the National Academy of Sciences, etc. But like I said, it's a primer, not a bibliography. If you have the inclination to learn more, you shouldn't have much trouble tracking down a list of further reading. Check out Google Scholar.

Like to continue this conversation through the looking glass, but gotta run.


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