Message in a Bottle

Fast Company published an article this month about bottled water, from an economist's perspective. And I have to say, it's pretty shocking. Did you know that last year, Americans spent $15 billion on bottled water? And that our PET recycling rate is only 23%, so the majority of water bottles end up in landfills? The author, Charles Fishman, takes a look into the history of bottled water, and shares the fruits of his research into a few individual companies that produce bottled water. Here's an excerpt:

The Fiji Water plant is a state-of-the-art facility that runs 24 hours a day. That means it requires an uninterrupted supply of electricity--something the local utility structure cannot support. So the factory supplies its own electricity, with three big generators running on diesel fuel. The water may come from "one of the last pristine ecosystems on earth," as some of the labels say, but out back of the bottling plant is a less pristine ecosystem veiled with a diesel haze.

Definitely something to think about.