The Story of Bottled Water

Do you drink bottled water? I will admit I was duped by this clever marketing a few years ago and did drink bottled water for a while. And all the while I was lugging cases of bottled water into the house each week on shopping day, somehow in the back of my mind I felt there was something not quite right.

I finally did some research and bought a good quality water filter for my kitchen tap and gave up the the bottled water. What a relief, in so many ways! Now I fill my Klean Kanteen reusable water bottle and tote it along with me everywhere I go. The insulated model keeps my water icy cold for hours, and I don't have to worry about the water getting heated up inside a plastic bottle when I leave it in the car.

The Story of Bottled Water, released on March 22, 2010 (World Water Day) employs the Story of Stuff style to tell the story of manufactured demand—how you get Americans to buy more than half a billion bottles of water every week when it already flows from the tap.

This short film explores the bottled water industry's attacks on tap water and its use of seductive, environmental-themed advertising to cover up the mountains of plastic waste it produces. The film concludes with a call to take back the tap, not only by making a personal commitment to avoid bottled water, but by supporting investments in clean, available tap water for all.

Read the Fact Checks.