Greenwash Watch: "Eco" bottled water

PepsiCo’s Aquafina, the nation’s best-selling brand of bottled water, recently unveiled its new “Eco-Fina” plastic bottle – made with 50% less plastic than before, eliminating an estimated 75 million pounds of plastic annually. This new development comes nearly 2 years after Nestle’s “greener water maker” move with the Poland Spring “Eco-shape” bottle, then said to use 30% less plastic than bottles currently available on the market and aims to reduce 65 million pounds of plastic resin annually.

Aquafina is also “driving additional environmental benefits” by producing the bottle at purification centers where filling occurs and by eliminating cardboard base pads from 24-packs – reportedly saving nearly 20 million pounds of corrugate by 2010.

Equipped with an all-too-snazzy “rippled web” and almost-sexy hourglass shapes, these water-giants seem to suggest that saying “We use less plastic” is as good as asking consumers to not use plastic at all – obviously encouraged more by recent negative press over the bottled water industry rather that actual environmental concern.

From the Aquafina-Eco-fina press release:

“At a weight of 10.9 grams, the Eco-Fina Bottle is made with 50 percent less plastic, eliminating an estimated 75 million pounds of plastic annually. Aquafina is also driving additional environmental benefits by producing the bottle at purification centers where filling occurs and by eliminating cardboard base pads from 24-packs, which will contribute to saving 20 million pounds of corrugate by 2010.”

The entire process of manufacturing, storing, shipping, disposing, and recycling plastic is a HUGE negative impact to the planet as a whole. No measure of disposable plastic water bottles can really be considered “green”.

The marketing ploy here is what I like to call “gullibly green”: convincing – no, tricking – customers into believing that the act of purchasing THESE bottles by the buttload is waaaay better than before. To hell with the stainless steel reusables that have been stealing the spotlight from the bottled water industry over recent months from companies like Sigg and Klean Kanteen. Buy THESE bottles, over and over again, and don’t worry about how much you throw away because hey it’s less plastic.

With huge revenues to be made by drink giants PepsiCo and Nestles, the greenwashing is not going to end. America’s “addiction to oil” is tied to its addiction to plastic. Only a small percent of the plastic we dispose of (even try to recycle) actually GETS recycled. Studies have shown that tap water, when filtered properly, is equally and in some cases even more beneficial to our health than its bottled counterpart.

Do yourself, your health, and your planet a favor. Get yourself a Sigg bottle, or any brand of reusable, poison-free bottle to carry your water around, and leave these bottles alone.