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Pepsico Concedes Its Bottled Water Comes From the Tap

Aquafina Has Little to do with Snow-Capped Mountains

July 28, 2007

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Rather spend money on Aquafina bottled water than drink from the tap? Both, it seems, come from the same place.

Pepsi says it will begin labeling its bottled water with “PWS,” meaning it comes from a public water source. A company spokeswoman called the action “reasonable,” saying it helps clarify where the water comes from.

It’s not exactly a decision Pepsi arrived at on its own.

Corporate Accountability International has been pressuring the beverage company to change its labeling. The organization objected to the Aquifina label, which includes an image of snow-capped mountains and states “pure water, perfect taste.”

The group said the image implies that the source of Aquafina is mountain spring water, when it actually is tap water.

Pepsi's not alone. CAI claims up to 40 percent of bottled water uses tap water as its source.

“Pepsi’s response to the Think Outside the Bottle campaign is an important first step,” says Gigi Kellett, Think Outside the Bottle Campaign Director. “Concerns about the bottled water industry, and increasing corporate control of water, are growing across the country. It is significant that Pepsi is taking some action, especially since Aquafina is the leading bottled water brand in the U.S.”

According to CAI, U.S. consumers spent $11 billion on bottled water last year, and Pepsi’s Aquafina generated $1.3 billion in revenues in 2005. It's expensive. A bottle of water -- which most likely comes from a nearby public water supply -- costs thousands of times more than the same quantity of water drawn from the tap.

There is also a heavy environmental cost to bottled water. Making bottles to meet Americans’ demand for bottled water requires more than 1.5 million barrels of oil annually, enough to fuel some 100,000 U.S. cars for a year. This doesn’t include the greenhouse gases omitted to transport bottled water over long distances by truck, as opposed to the pipes that carry tap water to your home.

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