Global Campaigns News

US: Bottled water craze may be drying up

Metro-New York. By Amy Zimmer -

Maybe it was Madonna’s fault.

The scene in her 1991 documentary “Truth or Dare” where the pop star pleasures a bottle of Evian altered beverage industry history for ever.

Bottled water sales skyrocketed from 1997 to 2006, from $4 billion to $10.8 billion, with more Americans buying bottled water than beer or milk, according to Elizabeth Royte, the Brooklyn-based author of “Bottlemania: How Water Went on Sale and Why We Bought It.”

But with increasing environmental scrutiny — the bottles themselves require 17 million barrels of oil to manufacture — the backlash is overflowing. The heyday of bottled water — a gallon of which costs essentially three times a $4 gallon of gas — may have hit its peak.

Celebs (Madonna included) are now attaching their names to tap water charities, and this summer’s must-have item is the a Swiss-made aluminum Sigg water bottle. (The company was so overwhelmed after recent reports on some polycarbonate plastic No. 7 bottles leaching bisphenol A, a chemical linked to disrupting hormones, it had to pause Internet sales.)

Morgan Stanley beverage analyst William Pecoriello found in a recent survey that 16 percent of consumers are reducing bottled water due to environmental concerns, up from 5 percent last year. Of those consumers, 34 percent are reusing their plastic water bottles more often and 22 percent are paying closer attention to the packaging their beverages come in.

“High gas prices have driven people away from SUVs, and I think pressure groups’ public education campaigns ... may be driving people away from those beverages to the tap,” said Royte.

Just over 20 years ago, the average American drank 5.7 gallons of bottled water a year. By 2006, it was up to 27.6 gallons. Royte attributes the increase to the bottled water industry’s campaign convincing people of the need to drink 80 ounces of water a day.