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Kim Jeffery, president and CEO of Nestle Waters North America, has written an opinion piece for Hearst Newspapers countering recent criticism of the bottled water industry.
“Those who propose bans on bottled water don’t acknowledge that bottled water represents less than one percent of the municipal solid waste that ends up in landfills,” Jeffery writes. “Bottled water is only one beverage among hundreds that come in plastic containers.”
“We believe that if you drink a beverage from a container, bottled water is by far the best choice you can make,” writes Jeffery.
Jeffery points to Nestle’s new “ultra light Eco-Shape bottles” which are 30 percent lighter than most other half-liter bottles. “They will save the environment 65 million pounds of plastic in 2008, and they take less energy to make,” jeffery writes. “Because we make all of our own packaging at Nestle Waters, we also save the environmental cost of shipping 160,000 truckloads of empty bottles into our plants annually, saving over 6 million gallons of fuel.”
San Francisco’s Mayor Gavin Newsom recently issued an executive order prohibiting city departments from buying bottled water.
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Comments
The bottled water insanity follows closely on the heels of the Global Warming hysteria. As soon as I saw an article about it, I went out and bought 5 cases of plastic bottles of water, large and small. I note that imported alcoholic beverages across and outside the U.S. are not banned; e.g., wine, beer, distilled liquors(oh my, all that fuel for ships to transport heavy glass and mining for metal cans). Neither are the plethora of sport drinks in plastic bottles banned. As a biologist, botanist, and environmental science expert, I do conclude the human race in and out of the media has gone bananas. Oops, are bananas ecologically green safe and approved by the Al Gores, Sharon Begleys, and John Edwards (from his new 28,000 +/- sq. ft. energy sucking home)? Shame on the eco-terrorists.
Bette Hartnett September 5th, 2007Bette must be on the board at nestle.;)
Jaason Glen September 6th, 2007Comments like “As soon as I saw an article about it, I went out and bought 5 cases of plastic bottles of water, large and small.” from an “environmental science expert” show lack of understanding…. Hope there arent to many Bettes….
I am seeing alot of chatter about smaller plastic bottles why are we not talking about the giant 5 gallon bottles.
Talk about thick plastic that is going completley under radar lets do an artical about that piece as well.
Thank You,
Michael Coleman
Michael Coleman September 6th, 2007The fact that most water, especially in the U.S., comes out of the tap ready to drink is one very good reason to stop buying bottled water.
When I can get milk, beer, a sports drinks or Pepsi right out of the tap, I would certainly stop buying them by the bottle.
People should look at all of the packaging they get when they buy something. Drink water that doesn’t come in a package.
Kriss Schulz September 6th, 2007Packaging is lost profits. How about refilling empty bottles locally? Now that would be cool! In the old days a company called ‘Charles Chips’ would deliver locally produced pretzels and potato chips to your house and pour them into reusable tins. No waste packaging! That’s where this is going…if that’s Bettes definition of terrorism sign me up.
CHRIS WEEKS September 6th, 2007I don’t drink bottled water (why would I be crazy enough to buy something I can get for free?)so why should I pay the cost of burying the bottles the stuff comes in? Hey,why not slap a tax on unrecyclable packaging? All unrecyclable packaging? Hit the polluters in the pocket. Bet you manufacturers would soon get their act together!
Richard Johnson September 7th, 2007Jeffery is listing up constructed arguments with which he wants to distract from the main points.
Even if water is the best beverage and if the new bottle with the eco-shaped name produces less waste, 1% still equals how many million tons of waste that could be avoided by drinking tap water.
Avoiding to ship empty bottles does not avoid shipping the full bottle and the plastic waste.
The whole discussion on waste is important but one should also discuss the issue of privatizing and monopolizing a public good like water…
Ugo Moss September 7th, 2007