82-year-old Jean Hill is making a stink. People in her home town of Concord, Massachusetts know her for the excellent blueberry jam she makes, but she has also gotten attention for her campaign to ban local merchants from selling bottled water. For a while it seemed that the battle had been won and that Concord would become the first town in America to ban the bottle (see link posted in this bluegranola post). This could still happen, but there are some hurdles to clear before January 1st when the ban would take effect.

Despite overwhelming support from the public, Mrs. Hill’s initiative is being questioned by politicians who aren’t sure if the ban can be effectively enforced. Certain bottling corporations are also putting in their two cents, threatening to sue the city. I recommend reading this New York Times article to learn more about this David vs. Goliath-esque environmental battle. Click here to read the full story.

I found this feel-good story about a successful use of ‘people power’ in the environmental movement:

Australia town bans bottled water
“Campaigners say Bundanoon, in New South Wales, may be the first community in the world to have such a ban… New South Wales Premier Nathan Rees has backed the cause, ordering government departments to stop buying bottled water and use tap water instead. Mr. Rees says it will save taxpayers money and help the environment.” –BBC News

Reading about collective action benefiting the environment renews my faith in grassroots movements. But Australia is not the only country making strides to ban the bottle. Here in America, urban communities like Seattle, San Francisco, and Chicago (to name just a few) are making change as well. In major cities all over the country local officials are responding to public pressure by either taxing the sale of bottled water or prohibiting the use of city funds to provide it at political events. Gavin Newsom, the San Francisco mayor told Newsweek:

“These [bottled water manufacturers] are making huge amounts of money selling God’s natural resources. Sorry, we’re not going to be part of it. Our water in San Francisco comes from the Hetch Hetchy [reservoir] and is some of the most pristine water on the planet. Our water is arguably cleaner than a vast majority of the bottled water sold as ‘pure.’”

And on a less political level, we see a lot of localized community organizing against corporate bullying. In Mecosta County, Michigan a group called Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation (MCWC) sued Nestle last year after the company began excessively pumping at a nearby watershed. MCWC won the case and the citizens (temporarily) celebrated. Ok, it’s a little more complicated than that because Nestle basically lost the battle and won the war in that situation—but the point is that this kind of environmental justice empowers and unites communities in a collective fight for control over their right to live in a healthy environment.

I think these efforts represent the effectiveness of grassroots movements to overcome the sometimes overwhelming corporate pressure which tells us to consume un-sustainably.

This year more than 25 billion single use plastic water bottles will be sold in the United States alone and more than 80 percent of those will end up being disposed of rather than being recycled, that’s 20 billion bottles to the landfill.

It’s not exactly jaw-dropping news that big names in the corporate world are suffering as a result of the current global economic crisis. But the decline in Nestlé’s bottled water sales (a 5% drop in North America and Western Europe) is particularly representative of our changing environmental values. Nestlé, the multi-billion dollar conglomerate, manufactures bottled water under the labels Poland Spring, Perrier, Pellegrino, and Deer Park. As people cut back on spending, luxury goods are usually the first things to go. That is to say, if you can hardly put your kid through college it’s unlikely you’ll be spending $3.50 on a bottle of Poland Spring at the movie theater this weekend.

The bottled water phenomenon is unique, however, in that it raises the question: when did water—the most essential element of human survival—become a luxury good? How did the most basic ingredient for health and happiness become a commodity? Water should be a human right because it is something that every person needs to lead a decent life. If that’s the case then,

why are we letting billionaires package our human rights in plastic and then sell them back to us at inflated prices?

Nestlé, among many others in the corporate realm, has the power to turn a necessary good into a luxury good with the use of clever marketing. Some trendy grocery stores are selling water in drop-shaped containers with gold caps and others sell water specifically marketed for children. They even have caffeinated water these days.

I understand that this is a contentious issue and that many people have lost confidence in our municipal water systems to the extent that they have now refused to drink tap water. In some places, these concerns are somewhat merited and should not be discarded as bourgeois paranoia. If the water in New York City was indeed unsafe to drink, then I too would pay five bucks for the bottled stuff in a night club. But actually, bottled water is often less regulated than public water systems, and the plastic used in the bottles has been known to contain harmful chemicals that leach into the water.

Even with a 5% drop in bottled water sales, Nestlé is still leading the way toward corporate control of our most valued resource. While some consumers are wising up to the facts about the safe quality of our municipal water systems and the harmful environmental consequences of bottling water, I don’t think Nestlé is going to loosen its grip on their luxury good marketing scams any time soon. However, it’s encouraging to hear what the Think Outside the Bottle campaign is up to. Communities, religious organizations, and students nationwide are doing their part to promote tap water use for the sake of environmental protection. Also, it makes me happy to see that American mayors are challenging private control of water as well. Government officials from Florida, California, Washington and beyond have collectively decided to decrease the bottled water consumption in their areas in hopes of easing the stress on our wallets and our environment. The green efforts that people are making on big and small scales chip away at my sometimes thick layer of cynicism. So for the moment I’m feeling optimistic that we can turn water into a human right again and save a little money while we’re at it.

As a final note, don’t be naive and drink bottled water…