An interesting project sponsored by Corporate Accountability International, the website focuses on taking a pledge to “Think Outside the Bottle”. It asks individuals and groups to pledge to try and choose tap water over bottled water.

http://www.stopcorporateabuse.org/tob/

They currently have close to 25,000 people signing the online pledge. They’ve also included a map of cities, institutions and restaurants who have chosen to take the pledge. Some interesting statistics presented by the site:

“Up to 40% of bottled water comes from the same source as tap water, but is sold back to consumers at hundreds of times the cost. Producing bottles to meet Americans’ demand for bottled water required more than 17 million barrels of oil last year – enough fuel for more than 1 million U.S. cars for a year – and generated more than 2.5 million tons of carbon dioxide.“

“The United Nations warns that by 2025, two-thirds of the world’s population – more than five billion people– will lack access to water. “

“Corporations like Coke, Nestlé, and Pepsi have manufactured demand for bottled water through years of misleading advertising – building a market by eroding confidence in public tap water. In reality, the tap is more highly regulated and doesn’t generate billions of pounds of plastic waste.”

“Just a handful of corporate giants are driving this global water grab, and it is growing. Supplying water is already a $400 billion a year business–30% larger than the pharmaceutical industry.”

An interesting set of facts from the website:

• Seventy-four percent of Americans drink bottled water, and one in five drinks only bottled water.
• Worldwide, consumers spent $100 billion on bottled water in 2005.
• Each year more than 4 billion pounds of PET plastic bottles end up in landfills or as roadside litter.
• Making bottles to meet Americans’ demand for bottled water required the equivalent of more than 17 million barrels of oil last year – enough fuel for more than 1 million U.S. cars for a year – and generated more than 2.5 million tons of carbon dioxide.