Excellent story, and great work! We are looking forward to participating in this very important campaign.

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A good & witty report Annie & I hope your campaign will do a lot of good in highlighting the reality that tap water in most developed countries is pretty safe and palatable.
I’m an ecologist, born on a beach and I hate plastic. Having worked as an executive in a UK statutory (tap) water company, I understand water quality and was convinced the drink tap message wasn’t getting through the marketing noise from the beverage industry. It’s my considered opinion the multi billion dollar/pound/euro bottled water industry isn’t simply going to go away through campaigns, which is why we’re fighting back with a ‘measurably better’ product. We’re competing against pretentious glass and oil based plastic with our ‘bottled water which isn’t in a bottle’ (we use paper cartons) because people do want the convenience of a portable beverage and don’t necessarily want the carbs that come with practically everything other than water.
The major difference with our ‘convenience product’ is that it’s genuinely pure and natural (even suitable for babies) and our tangibly lower carbon impact container is re-usable, at least for a week or so, before you can recycle it, use it for planting seedlings or compost it, whichever you prefer.
The fact is (in London at least) the majority of people are too short sighted to plan ahead and take a container of water from home, as well as being seduced by the marketing messages you so capably denigrate.
We transparently and actively encourage folk to drink tap if they’re near one, or to try and buy an Aquapax (our brand name) if they’re thirsty and didn’t think ahead before leaving home. We believe that competing with a tangibly better product will help us change the market as more folk wake up to the reality of oil based plastic bottles not actually being sexy, even if ad suggest otherwise…
Sincere warm wishes and please keep up your wonderfully entertaining activist work – I think it’s getting through – slowly…
Neil T (tweeting as @neiltwaterguy )

Hi Annie, I am a nurse and nutritionist in Denver Co. I just finished watching your video, The Story of Stuff about bottled water and was very intrigued. Some of my concerns about drinking water were not addressed in the video. Chlorine has negative effects such as disturbing gut flora and disturbing the immune system. During the Bush administration the standards for levels of arsenic and possibly other contaminates in drinking water were slackened. The other concern is some areas have old pipes and copper pipes. That is why I recommend that my clients filter their tap water. I would love to here from you for further discussion about this issue as health and healing are near and dear to my heart, Thank you, Debbie

As a chemist this is something I can agree with. Americans are so PARANOID about their drinking water when the majority of the world does NOT have clean drinking water. I live in a developed country and so very much miss good ole USA water because here my water is always brown with floaties. Besides, little known fact about the US is that bottled water is not regulated like municipalities which are very highly regulated. I have tested “natural spring water” high in nitrates/nitrites which is very dangerous for babies. Makes you think twice about how you make baby formula. I do think the wisest thing would have been to mandate recycling rather than banning bottled water because americans are like evian spelled backwards when it comes to supposed water quality.

Water is precious & we all have to cherish it before it is too late.