Tapped – Movie Notes
Estimate – By the year 2030 – 2/3’s of the world will lack clean drinking water
When you treat water as a commodity, you end up with corporate ownership (more expensive than gasoline)
Freyburg Maine – Small farms and businesses
Nestles (Arrowhead) – come in to Water Mine and made 3.6 billion dollars in 2008 (water sales)
Only 1 % of water on the planet is drinkable
Absolute dominion – largest pump gets the most water
Nestle Bought land and started pumping – water is free and then sells it
It costs 5 – 11 cents a gallon – They sell it for 4 bucks a gallon
Trying to tie up the rights for water – set precedent
Coke and Pepsi – 1900 times the cost of tap water.
800 billion dollar industry – World Bank estimate
Raleigh North Carolina – dry earth
Climate change and drought – effects on fresh water supplies
2007 – Drought in 35 states
Pepsi still pumping water (400,000 gallons a day)
Atlanta and South Georgia – water restrictions
Restrictions on watering lawns and car washing
Coke still taking water – 118 million gallons of water in 2007
Bottle water industry only using .02% in U.S.
But are accused of taking it in a very few places
Has impact – like any other product
Nestles said they weren’t responsible – blamed beavers
Trash – plastic water bottles in lowered lake
Governor prayed for water
Government
Environment vs. Job loss – look on demand side
Bottled Water Craze Started in 1970’s – French water - Perrier
Began to bottle in plastic (PET) – easier and started advertising due to soda declines
An 11.5 billion dollar business in 2007 – Advertised as Personal, convenient, throw away
Implied it was healthier than tap water (taste) – SAFE and PURE (implies tap water isn’t)
Paying for tap water – repackaged 40% is tap water
Flint Hills (Corpus Christi, Texas)
Plastics made in petrochemical plants
PET or PETE (Polyethylene terephthalate)
80% end up in Coke and Pepsi products – biggest factory Corpus Christi
Benzene product = causes cancer – don’t use to protect your health and community around Flint Hills
Environmental agencies could only write violations after a complaint has been filed
84% higher than the state average – cancer / birth defects
Contaminate ground water, air, soil
Meets standards at the FDA
One person monitoring all of bottle industry (part time)
Tap water – highly regulated – tests are public
Bottle water – not regulated (if in state)
Companies Test their own products – don’t have to be published
Contaminants in Bottled Water
Two labs – independent studies
Off Shelf – Toluene (found in gasoline, linked to birth defects)
Trunk of Car – Styrene (causes cancer, birth defects)
Phalates (3 types – birth defects, adverse conditions)
Bisphenol A (BPA) – found in water coolers, baby bottles, sports bottles = Clear hard plastic
Acts as an estrogen - Small amounts cause reproductive damage
Regulatory industry rely on industry tests to determine safety
No independent studies asked for
May be linked to childhood diabetes, obesity, breast cancer, prostate cancer, liver, ovarian uterus, low sperm
count, ADHD
Trash
80 million bottles daily
World recycles 50%
US recycles only 20%
Not enough recycling capacity – paid by municipalities (cities not water bottling companies)
11 states with consumers get money back for recycle program (soda and beer bottles)
Higher the amount, the more they get recycled
(Only 6 states cover water bottles)
50% of the U.S. does not have curbside recycling
Ends up in the ocean
Southern beach of U.S. – trash washup
Sand now made up of plastic instead of rock and corral
Central Gyre– Eastern Garbage Patch (twice the size of Texas)
Find plastic more than plankton
1999 – 6X more plastic than plankton
2008 – 46X more plastic than plankton