Bottlemania Book Available in Paperback (Explores Nestle in Fryeburg)

Bottlemania, the book about bottled water that so frightened Nestle, they tried to produce a page-by-page critique, will be available in paperback form July 7.

The book was chosen as one of the Top 10 Green Books of the year, and while it invests a great deal of time on Nestle Waters of North America’s less-than-cordial activities in Fryeburg, Maine, Royte also looks at the larger issue of our water supplies.

Now available in paperback (click image to buy it)

It’s an engrossing, well-researched read, but the readers of this blog will be most interested in the portion chronicling Nestle’s interactions in Fryeburg. It’s a painful look – one that Nestle has tried to cast as an “atypical” situation, though those fighting the Swiss multinational in other parts of the country might not agree with that assessment.

That’s also why the UK Bottled water industry held up a copy of Bottlemania at its annual meeting and described it as something to be feared:

Elizabeth Royte’s book, Bottlemania: How Water Went on Sale and Why We Bought It, is causing waves.The book, which describes bottled water as “the biggest scam in marketing history”, was held up as serious cause for concern at the annual conference of the British bottled water industry this month.

Industry executives fear the work, which was published in May, could be as influential on public sentiment as Eric Schlosser’s early 1990s investigation into the American fast food industry, Fast Food Nation: What the All-American Meal is Doing to the World .

More information about Bottlemania is available here (also ordering information).