Unbottled: The Fight Against Plastic Water and for Water JusticeAn exploration of bottled water's impact on social justice and sustainability, and how diverse movements are fighting back. In just four decades, bottled water has transformed from a luxury niche item into a ubiquitous consumer product, representing a $300 billion market dominated by global corporations. It sits at the convergence of a mounting ecological crisis of single-use plastic waste and climate change, a social crisis of affordable access to safe drinking water, and a struggle over the fate of public water systems. Unbottled examines the vibrant movements that have emerged to question the need for bottled water and challenge its growth in North America and worldwide. Drawing on extensive interviews with activists, residents, public officials, and other participants in controversies ranging from bottled water's role in unsafe tap water crises to groundwater extraction for bottling in rural communities, Daniel Jaffee asks what this commodity's meteoric growth means for social inequality, sustainability, and the human right to water. Unbottled profiles campaigns to reclaim the tap and addresses the challenges of ending dependence on packaged water in places where safe water is not widely accessible. Clear and compelling, it assesses the prospects for the movements fighting plastic water and working to ensure water justice for all. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
A More Perfect Commodity | 10 |
Making a Market Fearing the Tap Building a Backlash | 29 |
Corroding Pipes Eroding Trust | 80 |
Reclaiming the Tap | 110 |
A DecadeLong Struggle | 144 |
Watching Water Broadening | 197 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
Aberfoyle activists Aquafina ballot measure beverage BlueTriton bottled water consumption bottled water industry bottlers bottling plant campaign Canada Canadian Cascade Locks Coca-Cola commodification commodity consumers contamination corporate cost Council Council of Canadians County Dasani decommodification DeGraw drinking water Elora environmental Food and Water gallons Gleick global South going groundwater groups Hood River Hood River County human right IBWA interview issue major Maude Barlow million movements municipal water neoliberal Nestlé Waters North officials Ontario Oregon organizations packaged water percent Peter Gleick plastic bottles political public tap water public water recycling Resources right to water safe Save Our Water says single-use plastic Six Nations social spring water tap water tion tled water United water brands Water Crisis water extraction water infrastructure water justice water privatization water source water supply water systems water utilities Water Watch Wellington County Wellington Water Watchers Yakama Yes Yes