Are You Fooled By Bottled Water? [VIDEO]

By Tara Lohan, AlterNet
Posted on April 4, 2008, Printed on November 25, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/bloggers/www.alternet.org/81259/

There is a growing movement across the country, driven by groups like Food & Water Watch and Corporate Accountability International, to get Americans to quit the bottled water habit. And they've been met with success -- from city halls to restaurants to campuses.

On April Fool's Day, folks from Food & Water Watch set out to prove that people will believe just about anything about water as long as it's in a bottle (even that water bottled when music is playing will make it healthier). Check out the hilarious video on the right.

Where the joke ends, is the truth about bottled water -- most of it is not any safer or cleaner than what we get out of the tap. And in the long run, the environmental costs of bottled water far outweigh anything else.

Recently Food & Water Watch kicked off a new "Take Back the Tap" restaurant campaign in San Francisco, a city which has taken a leading role in ending bottled water consumption. F&WW is working with cities across the nation to urge local restaurants and chefs to sign a pledge to switch to serving only municipal tap water, help educate customers about the benefits of tap over bottled water, and whenever possible, install a carbonation machine to make sparkling water from the tap.

Likewise CAI is running a "Think Outside the Bottle" campaign and getting folks to sign on. Check out this link to see a map of which cities, schools, restaurants, and faith groups have taken CAI's "Think Outside the Bottle" pledge.

Tara Lohan is a managing editor at AlterNet.

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