Nestle bottled water a source of controversy

Nestle is doing what it's done best lately: stir up controversy. The company is now claiming that bottled water is "the most environmentally responsible consumer product in the world." Sounds too good to be true, right? Exactly. The statistics thrown up by Nestle are convincing on surface, but a little more research is required before everything comes to light. Companies selling bottled water are in trouble, particularly in Toronto and London where bottled water bans will potentially go into effect in 2009.

Nestle's CEO, Kim Jeffery, made a speech at the Beverage Forum in May 2008 to correct what he calls the "seven myths about bottled water." As I watched the video of the highlights, I realised that the "corrections" presented by Mr. Jeffery didn't have any numbers behind them. Where were the statistics supporting his arguments? What I did notice was that argument #3 "No one in our [beverage] industry... is doing enough to prevent plastic from going into landfills" held the most statistics but they didn't really support his argument. He argues that the industry does a lot to prevent this and that banning bottled water won't actually have an effect on this issue.

Jeffrey notes that 25% of plastic bottles are recycled, but blames the 75% that go to waste facilities on the lack of availability of curb-side recycling programs. What he fails to note is that bottled water is a contributing factor to this problem. He doesn't acknowledge that Nestle is contributing to this problem and instead shifts the blame to the cities and consumers. That's a great way to retain a customer base.

One of Nestle's main values is respect for people, community, and the environment. I'm curious as to how they're living up to these values when they keep trying to pull wool over everyone's eyes.