Response: Estates of Russell Creek Newsletter
Updated August 1, 2008
Nestlé Waters North America supports people drinking more water – whether from a bottle or tap. For three-quarters of consumers, it’s not an either/or choice: they drink both. We do take issue, however, with the misleading allegations about bottled water in Louise Bell’s “Bottled Water vs. Tap” piece in the July issue of the Estates of Russell Creek newsletter.
The reality is bottled water plays an important role in today’s society. Nearly half of the increase in our daily caloric intake since the 1970s has come from sweetened beverages, adding to current obesity and diabetes rates. In a world where 70% of what people drink comes from a can or bottle, bottled water serves as an easily accessible, healthful, zero-calorie alternative to sugared and caloric drinks. It’s also an important option if a water fountain isn’t nearby, or if tap supplies become unavailable in an emergency.
Consumers can trust the safety and quality of bottled water products. By law, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations for bottled water must be as strong and protective of public health as the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) regulations for tap water. Even when bottled waters such as Nestlé Pure Life come from municipal sources, they receive extra filtration before they are hygienically sealed in convenience-sized containers. This explains why the cost structures between bottled and tap water are vastly different. Tap water is processed and distributed in bulk, while bottled water is processed and treated, and then packaged in smaller amounts.
Here at Nestlé Waters, we use a 10-step process to ensure the quality and safety of our water products made in the U.S. and Canada. Our spring water brands, such as Ozarka distributed primarily in Texas, come from groundwater sources, are bottled under sanitary conditions, and tested 6,000 times/day across our plants. We stand by the quality of our water and publish quality reports based on independent testing results comparable to those published by public water utilities.
We are equally dedicated to the safety of our bottles, including the components used to manufacture them. Our single-serve bottles are made with Polyethylene terephthalate (PET), which has been approved by the FDA as safe for food containers and is widely used within the food and beverage industry. Available scientific evidence indicates that bottled water is safe when stored properly and consumed in a reasonable amount of time.
We realize bottled water, like every other product on store shelves, has an environmental impact. Over the past decade, we’ve reduced the amount of PET plastic in our bottles by 40%. This has helped us avoid using 245 million pounds of plastic, not to mention the energy and greenhouse gas emissions that would have accompanied that. Our Eco-Shape® half-liter bottle, introduced in 2007, is the lightest "branded" beverage bottle and has helped us reduce our overall carbon emissions by 8%. We are expanding Eco-Shape to other bottle sizes.
While we’re proud of these advances, we recognize that too many plastic bottles – whether they once contained water, soda or juice – end up in landfills. While used water bottles make up less than one-third of 1% of overall solid waste, the current U.S. recycling rate is unacceptable. Nearly 50% of U.S. households do not have curbside recycling, and public recycling bins are not commonplace in most cities and towns. Nestlé Waters is working hard to advocate for more comprehensive recycling programs to collect all plastic consumer packaging.
