Even “NBC Nightly News” anchor Brian Williams called it “this growing war on bottled water” in a promo and he was right on with his assessment.
In recent months, ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN have designated the bottled water industry as the environmental “bad guy.” The media have claimed the bottled water industry uses an unnecessary amount of energy to bottle and ship its product – and therefore contributes to global warming.
The shipping factor was disputed by Stephen Kay, a spokesman for the International Bottled Water Association (IBWA), who told Business & Media Institute “the industry is very regional or localized."
But it was “Nightly News” that hit the bottle again on October 17: “Across the country cities are urging thirsty Americans to think outside the bottle,” said NBC’s Chief Environmental Affairs Correspondent Anne Thompson.
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Thompson told viewers the bottles fill up landfills “because fewer than one-quarter are recycled.” However, rather than encouraging a recycle campaign for used water bottles, Thompson’s report focused on tap water consumption versus bottled water consumption.
According to the IBWA’s Web site, 100 percent of bottled water containers are recyclable, and water cooler jugs for home or office coolers are sanitized and “can be reused an average of 50 times.”
Still, that didn’t win any favor from Thompson, who advocated steps taken by cities to ban the bottle and argued that bottled water companies are fighting because of the profit motive.
“They say you can’t fight city hall, but bottled water manufacturers are trying and here’s one reason why – this year industry sales are expected to hit $16 billion,” Thompson proclaimed.
Anti-bottled water jihadist and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom banned city departments from purchasing bottled water, and referenced his previous 3-5 bottles a day of bottled water “addiction” during an interview with Thompson. Thompson credited Newsom, a Democrat, for “replacing the once-ubiquitous bottles with [water] filter machines.”
But, bottled water has been singled out by media critics compared to other products that use plastic to package their products – which could also end up in landfills.
“That’s where the effort should be focused, not on any one particular industry, particular – particularly one that makes up just one-third of 1 percent of the entire waste stream,” Joe Doss, president of the IBWA told “Nightly News.”
