| Bottled Geyser: The Growing Popularity of Bottled Water in East Asia |
| Thursday, 03 June 2010 | John Marten | Blog Entry |
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Why is this? Perhaps the most important factor is the growing awareness in Asia of just how bad their tap water is. Especially in heavily populated India and China, streams and lakes are polluted with everything from human waste to industrial byproducts. Add to this that access to water in general is pretty poor throughout many parts of east Asia, and you have a situation where there are only a few taps coming from a few polluted sources. So, if you can afford to, why not buy bottled water instead? While the general situation has been the same for years, what’s changed of late is that increasing numbers of Asians can now easily afford to buy bottled water thanks to their growing affluence. As there are more and more individuals seeking out a middle-class lifestyle, buying fancier bottled water becomes as much a status symbol as a luxury. Unpredictable weather patterns also seem to be a factor. Last winter most of China was slammed with blizzards and unusually high snowfall. Many of those same regions are now suffering from an extended drought. Under such conditions many people seem to be stocking up on water, preparing for the worst-case scenario. On the other hand, measures are being taken to reduce the impact of so many discarded plastic bottles. A recent campaign in Singapore promotes the use of personal reusable bottles, and has linked up a number of restaurants and businesses that have promised to serve as refilling stations. Their website even includes a searchable map that can direct Internet users to the nearest participating business. (This is beside the point that Singapore's tap water is among the best in Asia and certified for drinking). China also has gone to great lengths to improve recycling. For a number of years now, the bottle-recycling refund has provided a small income to scavengers in large Chinese cities. Recently, Shanghai has even implemented reverse vending machines that take bottles and dispense cash. There is also significant use of reusable bottles for water coolers in homes and offices that are leased and returned to the water company for a refill. However, these efforts have taken hold mainly in cities; in the countryside it is not uncommon to see large piles of plastic bottles and bags biding time on their extremely long road to decomposition. Hopefully, as municipal governments across Asia expand their budgets, and if other environmental measures can reduce pollution of water sources, we will see an increase of drinkable tap water and a decline in the production of bottle waste. Indeed, Beijing announced as early as 2007 that its tap water was drinkable. If more cities follow Beijing’s lead, both in terms of providing potable tap water and recycling plastic bottles, it may well prevent East Asia from being inundated by a flood of empty plastic bottles!
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Not that long ago, bottled water was all the rage in the US and Europe. It seemed to be the healthy and stylish thing to do: avoiding the vagaries of tap water and instead dropping hard-earned cash on some bottle of water purportedly from the undiscovered springs of eternal health and youth. Recently, though, these economies have hit hard times, awareness about the environmental impact of up to 
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