Tapped: The Economics of Bottling Water

Water shortage in Cape Town: https://news.sky.com/story/cape-town-to-run-out-of-water-within-weeks-11221746

WATER IN TN: http://www.chattanoogan.com/2018/1/18/361792/Haslam-Appoints-Steering-Committee-To.aspx

Today we are going to be watching a documentary about bottled water and access to clean drinking water.

Before we begin, I want to say that I DO drink bottled water.  Not as much as I use to [I generally refill my bottles several times] but I am not an environmental activist at all.  I am also a Libertarian and I don't want the government making new laws or regulations -- if I want to drink bottled water and hurt myself or the environment, that's my prerogative... but this is definitely an important issue for our world and will continue to be more so in the future.

This movie discusses legal rights of water, access to water, and the production process.  It also talks about health risks associated with the production of the bottles and in the water itself.  Finally it discusses recycling, pollution, etc.

You'll note in this graph that bottled water consumption (per person) has risen dramatically over the last 30 years, but look at the dip right around 2007-2009; that is when attention [from films such as this documentary] brought attention to what is going on.  At that time cities [like San Francisco] began investigating banning bottled water.  Also notice, however, that the bottled water industry weathered that storm and is back on the way up.

I would also like you to consider the cost of bottled water.  A typical 16.9 ounce bottle of water
bought in a vending machine is around $1.50.  Since there are 128 ounces in a gallon, that means it would take 7.57 bottles of water to equal a gallon -- so we're paying about $11.36 per gallon... for water... which falls out of the sky... and we are complaining about paying $3.99 for a gallon of gasoline.

I'm not mad at the water industry -- I wish I had thought of it, myself.  But they get the water out of the tap, raise the price 1900%, and we buy it from a vending machine next to the water fountain.

I have a series of questions that I would like you to answer.  A PDF version of the handout can be found here, but the questions are also available here:

1. Is water a “fundamental right”?  Why/why not?
2. What is your opinion of buying bottled water?
3. How is the law of “Supply and Demand” important to drinking water?
4. _____% of the surface of Earth is covered by water – but only _____% is drinkable.
5. Why is ground water different from lakes, rivers, or other surface water?
6. What does “Absolute Dominion” mean?
7. Bottled water costs approximately _______ times as much as tap water.
8. Who said, “There is enough water for human need, but not for human greed”?
9. By saying that bottled water is “pure” or “safe”, do you think that implies that tap water isn’t?
10. Where does Aquafina and Dasani come from?
11. Where are the bottles made that hold the bottled water?
12. What is PET or PETE used for?
13. What does “benzene” have to do with bottled water?
14. How is tap water and bottled water regulated differently?  How are they tested differently?
15. If bottled water is produced and sold in the same state, how is it regulated?
16. What sorts of contaminants did action groups find inside bottled water?
17. Are the large “water cooler” bottles safer than the small, single-serve bottles?
18. What studies does the FDA rely on to make sure we [as the public] are protected?
19. The amount of plastic drinking bottles being recycled in America is about _____%.
20. What is the “bottle deposit” (5 cents in California) used for?
21. Why is recycling important?
22. Why is bottled water considered the “biggest scourge” affecting our environment?
23. What is the Western Garbage Patch and the Eastern Garbage Patch?
24. What can [or should] we do to change the way the industry handles bottled water?
25. Did the movie “Tapped” change any of your perceptions about bottled water?

This title use to be available on Netflix Streaming, but is now only available on DVD, unfortunately.

Below is the full documentary if you would like to watch it online, however it is subtitled in Spanish.

And since this movie was published, other stories have come out demonstrating other issue.  This article explains why the bottled water industry may lead to bad teeth in young people.

The Business of Water

The Story of Stuff: Bottled Water (2010)

From a personal perspective, the town I was born in has a dam that creates Lake Mendocino. It's like Norris Dam / Norris Lake, but much smaller. Here's how it looks:

This was Lake Mendocino in 2006:

Finally, here's a story about water being used up and the products being exported to Saudi Arabia and China:

http://news.sciencemag.org/earth/2014/06/rocks-made-plastic-found-hawaiian-beach