An article in The Street asks if bottled water, which has been hammered in the press lately, is the environmental scapegoat of the soft-drink industry. Should cities like San Francisco consider banning all drinks that come in a bottle or can?
Sodas account for half of U.S. soft drink sales while bottled water has slightly more than a quarter of the market. Aside from a few smaller players like Fiji water and Icelandic Glacial, the biggest bottled water brands are owned by the industry leaders who put a variety of soft drinks onto store shelves: Dasani by Coca-Cola, Aquafina by PepsiCo, and Perrier, Poland Spring, Deer Park and others by Nestle.