Survey: Can Fiji Water Be Green?

fiji water--delicious as it may be (and it is)--is a tough one, bc for those of us in the western hemisphere, it's got pretty much the biggest footprint of any water you could buy. still, we make much ado about bottled water being rotten, while giving things like wine and coffee a free ride.

i'm not saying i stand in support of bottled water, but we should ask bottled water companies to completely shutter their doors? or should we ask them to improve what theyre doing? or should we take a look at everything we're buying and treat it with equal consciousness? wine, after all--and i truly, truly hate to admit this to myself or out loud--is not a necessity, yet it racks up quite a carbon footprint. yet if a winery goes organic, we all seem to ooh and ah. why do we excuse some consumer behavior, but villify others?

Consumers need to be aware of marketing ploys, and learn to research products. Too often we just buy it because of a company claim.

This is a step in the right direction for a product, but many products we use aren't necessary. It is unfair the bash bottled water, when we don't give as much attention to companies that sell dirt in bags. Face it, humans want their world packaged with a nice label on it.

It's not like we need to hunt, fish, or gather any more; the least we could do is research the real impact of these companies.

Tap water and reusable water bottles all the way!

i chose maybe, not because i think Fiji water will ever be a truely 'green' product, but because the bottled water industry will be around for a very long time and they should take whatever positive steps they can to reduce their considerable negative impact.
it doesn't matter how much TH readers (etc) think bottled water is silly, or just plain dumb, millions of people will continue to purchase it. and, since we can't just shut them all down, their efforts to be less offensive should be applauded so that they will continue working in the 'right' direction.

bottle water itself isn't inherently evil. the way we overconsume it is the problem. so you're desperately thirsty, on the go, and you need a drink of water? buy a bottle. but in your everyday life, use reusable vessels and tap water. warren talks about the concept of using/buying only what you really need http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/04/word_of_the_yea_1.php

Unless you are drinking from a well, or are purifying collected water with renewable energy, you are drinking bottled water without the bottle.

Tap water draws from damned reservoirs, is piped or channeled through once pristine land and migratory paths, treated with toxic chemicals (in "acceptable" quantities), add few trace heavy metals and pharmaceuticals, a splash of Flouride and an occasional dead animal or body part, then piped to your home where it is wasted or used not only to drink, but for washing the car and watering the lawn - neither of which need such energy intensive treated water. Disposable, non-local, environment altering, processed and treated water. How green is that? The only thing missing is the recycled/able bottle that ends up in the garbage.

The portable beverage market used to be mostly plastic bottles full of GMO corn-syrup or artificial sweeteners - and water of course. So, it's getting slightly better, just not fast enough for our convenience-based lifestyles to appreciate.

Hopefully we won't need to have this debate about bottled clean air in the future.

@megoneill -- if you are on the run, drink from the tap (or refill you bottle there).

Better idea: Cut out the middleman -- drink from the tap AND send $5/liter to restore the Fijian rain forest, Indonesian gekkos, etc. No sense in trying to make up for damage when you can avoid the dame in the first place.

Bottled water is the biggest scam ever in North America. Mostly, it's a cachet that was imported from Europe with Perrier. Now in Europe, you pretty much have to buy water in bottles because it's unhealthy to drink tapwater (and I don't mean in a "you'll get cancer in 30 years" way, I mean in a "you'll get sick this afternoon" kind of way) in most places. But when it became chic to drink expensive water from a bottle in Paris and Milan, New York followed.

But the locals in Perrier, France drink the tapwater. So should the people in Aspen. Be proud of the water you ship to the polluted people of New Orleans.

As much a treehuggers would like to condemn it, bottled water - like Coke, iced tea, and other bottled beverages - is here to stay. It will likely become less popular as communities improve the quality and taste of the tap water (and bottled water prices rise), but there will always be a place for bottled water in the aisles of convenience stores.

So you can complain indignantly about how awful bottled water is 'til you're blue in the face, but the fact that some companies are trying to reduce the ecological footprint of their bottled water is a Good Thing as long as the bottled water industry is going to stick around.

Ever eat rainforest crunch granola? I have. Same idea.

If fiji water can save a rainforest then that WOULD offset the fuel used to ship the water around, in my opinion.

Lets face it, money talks. People don't look at a rainforest and think "what a great habitat." They look at the trees and see dollars. They look at the land under the trees, and imagine raising a few cows there (until the soil erodes, and they have to move on to a NEW patch of rainforest. If a sustainable harvest of nuts or water can convince people to not get out their chain saws, then hot darn!

I do drink bottled water: London UK tap water is disgusting, and we hear more and more about how other people's birth control pills, anti-depressants and anti-cancer drugs are still lurking about in the mega-chlorinated gloop that we're all encouraged to drink. Probably some sort of filter would fix it, but at the moment it's just easier for me to spend a quid a day on nice Belgian or Scottish water - my main green sin.

Still, I think it's outrageous that Fiji water is sold in Europe - such a long journey and it's qualities so overhyped.

Fuji water is reducing it's footprint. People should still use refillable bottles over 'green' water as a first resort. There are times that you don't have your refillable water bottle handy, or there isn't anywhere to fill it up. At those times, you must be an educated consumer and choose the 'greenest' water. This means choosing the option with the least packaging that has traveled the shortest distance. I still don't think that I'm ready to jump on board with water shipped from the opposite corner of the world.

Megoneill,

It's not like we have wine and coffee on tap, though, is it?

Bottled water is dumb like bottled air would be. Complete and gratuitous waste in countries that have good tap water.

Megoneill,

It's not like we have wine and coffee on tap, is it?

Bottled water is dumb like bottled air would be. Complete and gratuitous waste in countries that have good tap water.

Why can't we stop and appreciate the fact that people are drinking water?

It means that the collective conciousness is evolving , and the Fijian government is earning revenue, everybody is becoming healthier on many levels. Though the water probably doesn't contain as many minerals as glacial milk, let them ride the wave as long as they can.