Business Blog: Hoover’s Business Insight Zone

In some circles, bottled water — an industry in which Nestle, Coca-Cola, and PepsiCo are big players — is getting a bad name. Critics are asking pointed questions on several points:

• What sort of water goes into the bottle I’m paying, say, $1.50 for? (Answer: in many cases, ordinary tap water that’s been thoroughly purified and, in some cases, mineralized.)
• What are the health and environmental effects of all those extra plastic bottles? (Answer: probably not as benign as plastic manufacturers would like you to think.)
• Is it environmentaly sound to ship a bottle of water all the way from the South Pacific or wherever just so I can enjoy water at its purest? (Answer: errrr, that’s probably a “no.”)
• Do we need bottled water? (Answer: Do we need LEGO Bionicles? In the grand scheme of things, probably not, but my six-year-old son would beg to differ.)

Issues like these have surfaced in various environmental fora and have emerged into the mainstream business press, most notably in this long Fast Company feature by Charles Fishman:

Message in a Bottle

Americans spent more money last year on bottled water than on ipods or movie tickets: $15 Billion. A journey into the economics–and psychology–of an unlikely business boom. And what it says about our culture of indulgence.

Not ones to take this lying down, the water bottlers are striking back with a p.r. campaign of their own that touts the health benefits of drinking water and the strides the industry has made to promote recycling and reducing packaging. The Treehugger folks are skeptical, saying it’s no more than a “defensive ploy.”

What do you think?