Ever since a friend of mine pointed out to me that “Evian” spelled backward is “Naive”, I’ve had an issue with paying for bottled water. But beyond names, bottled water has been marketed to us as a cleaner and sometimes healthier alternative to tap and given the choices when shopping for something quick to drink, bottled water might be the least objectionable. Unfortunately, Concord Massachusetts doesn’t think so and on April 30 2010, they became the first municipality in the US to ban the sale of bottled water. Monster, Red Bull, Full Throttle – you’re in. Bottled “spring” water – banned!
Why did this happen?
After the vote, Joe Doss, President of the International Bottled Water Association (IBWA), said:
“Any efforts to discourage consumers from drinking water, whether tap water or bottled water, is not in the best interests of consumers. Bottled water is a very healthy, safe, convenient product that consumers use to stay hydrated.’’
To the IBWA, this was an affront to water drinkers everywhere but the reality might be that their own marketing pitch is coming back to bite them. 
Just ask Fiji brand bottled water. In 2007, Fiji Water took a shot at the city of Cleveland OH in their marketing campaign that Fiji water was better because it wasn’t bottled there. A couple tests later and it turns out that Fiji Water had arsenic levels at 6.0 ppm whereas Cleveland’s tap water had none. And in blind taste tests, tap water from the city of Cleveland scored higher than Fiji brand water.
Marketing and ordinances aside, a major issue with bottled water is the water delivering Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles. 50 billion of them are sold in the US annually and the empty containers, recycled at only a 23% clip, seem to be everywhere. 
But avoiding their use should be a personal choice and should not come from an ordinance. It’s a choice made by cutting through the water bottler’s marketing hype and each individual’s knowledge that bottled water is not better than tap. In many cases, it is tap water.
The IBWA and its members are Jubbling to improve their image by reducing their packaging, incorporating post-recycled PET bottles into new plastic bottles and by supporting eco-causes. But they can’t change the fact that they are selling us what we already have access to and people are figuring this out. Bottled water sales in the US in 2009 flat-lined after years of consistent growth and in the UK, sales of bottled water dropped by 9%.
So I guess we can thank Concord for sending a message and that is about it. The ordinance is not necessary; we’re trending away from bottled water with or without legislation.
Penn and Teller did a funny bit about the perceived advantages of bottled water over tap.
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