“The biggest enemy is tap water,”
according to Robert Morrison, who
was the vice-chairman of PepsiCo
around the turn of this century.
In North America and in Europe,
clean drinking water pours forth out
of the faucets—practically for free.
So the water industry devised the
biggest marketing trick of all time:
They turned an essential nutrient into
a lifestyle product. Water packaged
in bottles is marketed to consumers
as healthier, tastier, and in keeping
with the times, although tap water is
at least just as clean and healthy—
and more meticulously controlled.
Nonetheless, all the marketing has
been successful: Today in America,
more than 50,000 water bottles are
sold every minute in supermarkets.
That’s about 70 million bottles a day.
If someone were to line up all of the
0.5-liter bottles that are purchased
inoneweek,theserieswouldwrap
around the Earth five times.EachAmericanusesabout300–375liters(80–100gallons)ofwatereveryday:
for drinking, cleaning, showering, and flushing the toilet. But this calculation is
deceptive because the production of food, clothes, and other goods also consumes
water (see graphic below). America takes second place for water consumption.
The desert nation of United Arab Emirates uses the most—500 liters per resident.
Each person only needs
2 to 4 liters of drinking
water per day...
2 - 4
...but the production of one
person’s daily food consumes
about 5,000 liters of water.5,000
1 POUND
OF RICE1 PAIR
OF SHOES1 PAIR
OF JEANS1 POUND
OF BEEF2,200 –
6,600 liters
8,000
liters11,000
liters28,600 –
33,000 liters66,000
litersKevin McCarthy
Congressman from California
andMajorityLeaderofthe
U.S.HouseofRepresentatives“Nestlé pays 65 cents
for 100,000 liters of
water. Then they pour
it into bottles and sell it
for two dollars per liter.
That’s a profi t margin
of 10,000 percent.
Nothing else in the
world has such a high
profi t margin.”
How much water do I use?
1
CARideasanddiscoveries.com 33 Mar 2017