Think outside the bottle

Renewing our public water systems begins by turning off the spigot to bottled water

Because water is a human right and not a commodity to be bought and sold for profit;

Because bottled water corporations are changing the very way people think about water and undermining people's confidence in public water systems;

Because up to 40% of bottled water in the U.S. and Canada is sourced from municipal tap water;

Because some bottlers have run over communities' concerns and the environment when they extract water and build bottling plants to get local spring and ground water;

Because bottled water travels many miles from the source, results in the burning of massive amounts of fossil fuels, and contributes to the billions of plastic bottles ending up in our landfills;

Because worldwide there is a need for investments in public water systems to ensure equal access to water, a key ingredient for prosperity and health for all people; and

Because solutions to ensuring water as a fundamental human right require people acting together and standing up for public water systems,



The report "Tapping Congress to Get Off the Bottle," the third in a series, outlines bottled water spending in the House of Representatives, maps current trends in public water system investments and examines the additional costs associated with water bottling. The report also discusses the connections between bottled water marketing and the erosion of confidence in tap water. Finally, it recommends the elimination of all unnecessary congressional spending on bottled water and calls for renewed investments in the nation’s public water systems.


read the report