#228 / Bottled Water

I hope you will join me in my "zero tolerance" policy on bottled water: don't buy it; don't drink it; don't provide it when you organize a meeting.

Bottled water may not even be "clean." And it certainly leads to massive plastic pollution. It is emblematic of the "stuff," that we don't need more of.

Annie Leonard's "Story of Bottled Water" will provide you with a briefing, if you need it.

One of my main objections to bottled water is that selling water to consumers in individual serving containers reinforces the idea that the world is essentially composed of "individuals," rather than of "communities."

Water is a necessity of life. More and more, we are accepting the idea that we are not going to organize ourselves, collectively, to provide this basic necessity to individuals within our communities, through the construction and operation of community or municipal water systems. More and more, each individual is expected to be individually responsible for providing the water that he or she needs to survive. It's the "market" that will deliver our water.

It is my opinion that placing responsibility for water delivery on the "market," instead of on local communities, has meant that the price has gone up, and that the quality has gone down, and you go thirsty if you can't buy your bottle.