WEDNESDAY – MARCH 24, 2010
I never gave much thought to where bottled water came from. As far as I was concerned, it came from the grocery story or the 7-11. It never once occurred to me that bottled water comes from someone’s town or that extracting and bottling water was disrupting someone’s way of life. Indeed, bottled water does just that, and the result is communities across America torn apart in dispute over whether bottled water is good or bad for their neighborhoods. One side argues that the bottled water business brings jobs to the area, while the other side argues the dangers of allowing a corporation to take ownership of a town’s water supply.
There’s another side to the bottled water business that surprised me – where do all those bottles come from? Americans consume 29 billion single serve bottles of water a year. Those bottles are made in communities where people live and breathe in all the fumes that come from producing plastic.
How have we become so disconnected from the products we use every day?
Today I’d like to honor all the people that live in these communities; especially those that have dedicated so much of their lives fighting the multinational corporations that come into their towns. They are truly heroes and should remind us all that one person really can make a difference.
Why don’t you make a difference today and sign our Get Off the Bottle pledge? Or buy a DVD – 10% of your purchase today will go to the Environmental Working Group.
Our guest column today comes courtesy of one of the every day heroes I discussed in today’s introduction. Jim Wilfong has spent years defending his town’s right to water and has helped hundreds of other people around the country stand up to the bottled water giants in an effort to keep water a basic right rather than a commodity.
by Jim Wilfong
by Jane Houlihan
