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Bottled Water: A History by CityTech blogger Viki Bailey

Photo Credit: Pinterest

The history of bottled water, as written in a website I visited, states: “The first bottle of water happened in 1622 in United Kingdom’s Holy Well bottling plant.” In an effort to copy the fizziness of mineral water, Johann Jacob Schweppes manufactures carbonated water in Geneva, Switzerland. Marketed by the Schweppes company and the rest – as they say – is history.  There were signs of carbonated water being born in the USA in 1809. Perrier in 1977-1981 positioned itself as “Earth’s First Soft Drink”, benchmarking the moment when bottled water begins its commercial dominance (although the initial boom is just for sparkling mineral water — not flat water). U.S. annual consumption reaches 9.67 billion gallons — that’s an average of 30.8 gallons per person. Unabridged, we’re gulping more bottled water and less tap water, increasing domestic bottled water sales to $11.8 billion. Well, how did bottled water business become an 11 billion-dollar industry? And bottling something that comes right to your tap already. Where does this water come from really? Will there be a depletion?

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6 Responses

  1. It surprised me that the U.S annual consumption bottle water reaches to 9.67 billion gallon which makes up to 11 billion dollar industry. According to this fact, the demand of drinking bottle water is extremely huge and wondering how this process of producing the bottle water work?

    1. It certainly is something to be concerned about, Wen Yong. Especially worrisome is that plastic that is added to the land fills and the ocean. thanks for your comment

  2. This is fascinating! I had no idea about the history of US bottled water or the immensity of the industry today. It would be interesting to explore the quality of water in different places in the US and what other potential motivators exist that drive Americans to buy so much of a resource that, as you say, we already have in our homes.

  3. When I was growing up, I lived in a household that sometimes drank tap water, sometimes drank out of plastic water bottles. Regardless, I lived in a municipality, Rockville Centre (on Long Island New York) that claimed to have filtered, clean drinking water. As I became more environmentally conscious I shifted towards drinking only tap water. However, the contamination of water in Flint, Michigan concerns me. Lead is also present in New York City water pipes, where I live now. As a result, I am sometimes hesitant to use tap water. Perhaps the compromise is to use a portable filter?

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