bottled water on tap

[Guest guest]

I guess I was fooled also. I choose not to buy water, but I have on occasion.

The price for bottled water is ridiculous. In my opinion it's silly to have to

pay anybody

for water. It should be included in basic human rights, and no fees, taxes or

any other charge

attached to basic human rights. But I digress ...

~

NEW YORK - So you thought that water in your Aquafina bottle came from some

far-away spring

bubbling deep in a glen?

Try the tap.

PepsiCo Inc. is the latest company to offer some clarity about the source of its

top-selling

bottled water as it announced on Friday it would change the label on Aquafina

water bottles to

spell out that the drink comes from the same source as tap water.

A group called Corporate Accountability International has been pressuring

bottled water sellers to

curb what it calls misleading marketing practices. The group has criticized

PepsiCo over its blue

Aquafina label with a mountain logo as perpetuating the misconception that the

water comes from

spring sources.

Aquafina is the single biggest bottled water brand, and its bottles are now

labeled “P.W.S.” The

new labels will spell out “public water source.”

“If this helps clarify the fact that the water originates from public sources,

then it’s a

reasonable thing to do,” PepsiCo spokeswoman Naughton said Friday.

Aquafina water is

taken from public sources then purified in a seven-step process.

The corporate accountability group is also pressing for similar concessions from

The Coca-Cola

Co., which owns the Dasani water brand, and Nestle Waters North America, seller

of Nestle Pure

Life purified drinking water, which gets some of its water from municipal

sources.

Dasani’s Web site says that Dasani comes from local water supplies, is filtered

using a process

called reverse osmosis and enhanced with minerals.

Ahhh... refreshing tap water!

July 27: Americans who buy Aquafina may be surprised at where the bottled water

actually comes

from, reports NBC's .

“We don’t believe that consumers are confused about the source of Dasani water,”

Coca-Cola

spokeswoman Garza Ciarlante said. “The label clearly states that it is

purified water.”

Sales of bottled water has been a growing source of revenue for companies such

as PepsiCo, based

in Purchase, N.Y., and Atlanta-based Coca-Cola as they lessen their dependence

on sales of

traditional carbonated sodas, as consumer concern over health issues has

weakened demand.

Nestle said Friday it has been printing new labels for its Pure Life water that

say whether the

water comes from municipal supplies or ground water, and the labels will begin

showing up later

this year. Pure Life is the only Nestle bottled water that uses public water

sources and the

company did not have an estimate for how much of its supply originates from the

tap.

Wholesale sales of bottled water grew to $11 billion in 2006, according to the

Beverage Marketing

Corp., and the industry is expected to maintain growth rates of about 10

percent. The fastest

growing segment of the industry is sales of bottles of less than 1.5 liters,

which includes the

individual serving sizes sold in many convenience and grocery stores.

The decisions by Nestle and PepsiCo come as criticism grows over environmental

concerns about the

industry’s use of local water sources as well as consumption of resin and energy

to package and

ship the bottles.

Do you buy and drink bottled water? Why?

Last month alone, a barrage of news hit the industry: San Francisco Mayor Gavin

Newsom banned

city-funded purchases of bottled water; New York City launched an ad campaign

called “Get Your

Fill” to promote the benefits of tap water; and the U.S. Conference of Mayors

adopted a resolution

to bring attention to the importance of public water systems and the negative

impact of bottled

water.

“I think it’s unfortunate we have gotten into this tap water vs. bottled water

debate,” the CEO of

the International Bottled Water Association, Joe Doss, said. “I do not think

consumers are

uniformly replacing tap water with bottled water.”

PepsiCo shares fell 55 cents to $66.29 in afternoon trading Friday amid a broad

market pullback.