Is Bottled Water Worth Big Bucks It Earns?

May 10, 2004 -- In the bottled-water industry, you would expect them to be breaking out the champagne.

New figures from the Beverage Marketing Corporation, a research group, show that last year, for the first time ever, Americans bought more bottled water than they did coffee, milk or beer.

Bottled water has become an $8.3 billion business. The market has grown by 7 percent to 10 percent a year, while sales of other beverages remain flat.

"Consumers are looking for no-calorie beverage alternatives," said Stephen Kay of the International Bottled Water Association in Alexandria, Va. "They are choosing bottled water because it is convenient, available, and virtually anyplace you can buy the other bottled drinks, you will find bottled water."

But nutritionists and environmentalists say for the most part, bottled water is... well, water. Even the brands that come from mountain springs are not much better for you than the stuff you can get from your faucet.

From City Tap Water

It's treated more and may taste subtly better, and is certainly convenient in a plastic bottle. But the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group that did a large study of the industry in 1999, says most Americans don't know what they're paying for.

"Many bottles of water are sold with pretty mountains on the label, with evocative names like Everest, that suggest it comes from a pristine mountain stream, when in fact many bottles of water come from city tap water," said Erik Olson, who led the NRDC study. "Bottled water has a huge marketing campaign to try to persuade the public that it's cleaner and purer and safer than tap water, and that is why the market has just exploded in the last 10 years."

Indeed, the report from the Beverage Marketing Corporation says consumption has surged to 22.6 gallons per person per year now, and has doubled in a decade. If any beverages are hotter, they are the so-called "enhanced waters" — bottles with gently flavored water, often fortified with vitamins. National sales grew from $20 million in 2000 to $339 million last year.

Competing with Soft Drinks

Nutritionists scoff at these too, pointing out that for all its shortcomings, the American diet generally does not lack for vitamin content.

But they agree that bottled waters are a tremendous improvement over the high sugar content and empty calories found in most sodas — and it's among soda drinkers, say bottled water manufacturers, that they hope to win new customers.

"Our competition, if you will, are the other drinks that the consumer has the choice of at the cooler, or at the retail store," says the International Bottled Water Association's Kay. "Our competition are the soft drinks."

And people are paying for that. For the price of a bottle of Evian water in most cities, one can buy 6,000 bottles of tap water.