New York Times Notes Drop in Sales of Bottled Water, Charges of Contamination
Bottled water nightmare continues; New York Times piles on with story about lagging sales, accusations of contamination in bottled water
It hasn’t been a great year for the bottled water industry (or Nestle Waters of North America, who’s having trouble finding new sources for spring water).
Growth in the market is slowing (or falling), and environmental and consumer groups are taking a hard look at the industry. Now even the New York Times is piling on:
More companies and consumers are turning back to using tap water and filters. Environmental groups have gone on the offensive against those millions of used plastic bottles. And though numbers from industry marketers are still projecting growth, independent measures suggest that the market for bottled water is nearly, well, saturated. For example, as reported yesterday, double-digit drops in sales of Aquafina and Propel waters helped dragged down quarterly earnings at PepsiCo.
On top of all this, a new report today finds a “surprising array of chemical contaminants” in 10 brands of bottled water, including byproducts of chlorination, small amounts of caffeine and acetaminophen, and fertilizer residue.
The report mentioned is the same Environmental Working Group report just reported here, and its findings (ten of ten brands tested had some form of contaminant, and two suffered illegal amounts of some chemicals) are sure to drive another downward spike in sales.
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