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    Bottled Water Industry: Business Policy

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    Delron SetentaMetros Poitier-Inniss
    The document summarizes issues with the bottled water industry. It began as a niche product but grew rapidly by claiming bottled water was healthier than tap water. However, research shows bottled water is often just tap water in a bottle and may contain more health risks due to chemicals. The industry is very profitable but poorly regulated by the FDA. Major problems include chemical leaching from bottles, high costs compared to tap water, and environmental pollution from millions of bottles used daily. While sales have declined, the industry is still predicted to be worth $65 billion by 2012.

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    Bottled Water Industry: Business Policy

    Uploaded by

    Delron SetentaMetros Poitier-Inniss
    59 views3 pages
    The document summarizes issues with the bottled water industry. It began as a niche product but grew rapidly by claiming bottled water was healthier than tap water. However, research shows bottled water is often just tap water in a bottle and may contain more health risks due to chemicals. The industry is very profitable but poorly regulated by the FDA. Major problems include chemical leaching from bottles, high costs compared to tap water, and environmental pollution from millions of bottles used daily. While sales have declined, the industry is still predicted to be worth $65 billion by 2012.

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    The document summarizes issues with the bottled water industry. It began as a niche product but grew rapidly by claiming bottled water was healthier than tap water. However, research shows bottled water is often just tap water in a bottle and may contain more health risks due to chemicals. The industry is very profitable but poorly regulated by the FDA. Major problems include chemical leaching from bottles, high costs compared to tap water, and environmental pollution from millions of bottles used daily. While sales have declined, the industry is still predicted to be worth $65 billion by 2012.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    59 views3 pages

    Bottled Water Industry: Business Policy

    Uploaded by

    Delron SetentaMetros Poitier-Inniss
    The document summarizes issues with the bottled water industry. It began as a niche product but grew rapidly by claiming bottled water was healthier than tap water. However, research shows bottled water is often just tap water in a bottle and may contain more health risks due to chemicals. The industry is very profitable but poorly regulated by the FDA. Major problems include chemical leaching from bottles, high costs compared to tap water, and environmental pollution from millions of bottles used daily. While sales have declined, the industry is still predicted to be worth $65 billion by 2012.

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    Bottled Water Industry

    Business Policy

    Sean Hurley, Michael Sands & Craig Charlow


    There are many profitable industries that allow its companies to make millions of dollars.

    However, few are able to do so selling a product or service that is of equal or lesser quality than

    the alternative. The bottled water industry has managed to do so for many years and in many

    instances by merely bottling the same thing it the companies claim its product is a healthier

    substitute for. It is only in recent years that the public’s eyes have been opened to the fact that

    due to chemicals bottled water causes more health risks than tap water with a significantly higher

    price tag. There is no sensible reason to choose bottled water over tap water.

    Government regulation of bottled water is portrayed as a joke in the documentary Tapped

    produced by Michael and Michelle Walrath. After several hours of research, this accusation has

    been found to be unfortunately accurate. The FDA is assigned the task of monitoring the quality

    and safety of all bottled water in the United States (Tapped 2010). The EPA is assigned the

    greater task of monitoring municipal tap services throughout the country (EPA.gov 2010). The

    problem with the FDA regulating bottled water is one person is in charge of overseeing the entire

    industry. In contrast, the EPA legally requires every state to regulate its own municipal water

    sources, proving to be a more effective delegation of authority. But since bottled water is

    considered a “food” product, the FDA has the legal jurisdiction, even though 40 percent of

    bottled water is filtered or unfiltered tap water. The FDA requires microbiological testing of

    bottled water samples to occur a minimum of once per week and chemical/radiological testing

    merely once a year. In these tests, specified contaminants are restricted from exceeding MCL’s

    (maximum contaminant levels), depending on the dangers of the contaminant.

    The bottled water industry took flight in the U.S. in 1976, when Perrier, a Nestle brand of

    sparkling water, was introduced to an affluent white-collar market. This new demand for bottled

    water lead to the production of competitive water brands by major corporations like Coca-Cola
    and Pepsi Co. From 2004 to 2009, the United States experienced a 4.4 percent compound annual

    growth rate of bottled water sales which is quite remarkable considering the 2009 volume

    production of bottled water fell by 12.5 percent in the United States (Rodwan 2009). The appeal

    of the bottled water industry is noted in key figures of the financials; sales $2,898,641, Net Profit

    after Tax $182,614 (Industry norms 2009). These figures are in the thousands of dollars.

    With the criticism this industry has been facing, major issues need to be addressed. The

    realization that bottled water is not safer than tap water has seriously altered the consumers’

    views. Because of this shift in opinion, many major cities have banned bottled water; including

    San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Chicago and many others (bottledwaterblues.com).

    Perhaps the most crucial of issues the bottled water industry faces are the chemicals emitted from

    the bottles into the water they contain and the rate of pollution which stands at 60 million bottles

    per day. As this information continues to spread, more of the public will realize that “There is no

    logical explanation for regular bottled water use: It costs more, offers less and pollutes our planet

    unforgivingly” (Witaker 2011).

    Bottled water is poorly regulated by the government, poses serious health risks from toxic

    chemicals used in bottles, is very costly and contributes greatly to the global pollution problem.

    Despite these facts the bottled water industry is very successful and even though it has seen a

    decline across the globe of the past several years, it is predicted to become a $65 billion industry

    by 2012. Something needs to be done to stop the large profits made by this industry.

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