The following set of facts come from Elizabeth Royte’s Bottlemania. This is the second set of facts that have been used for the Five Friday Facts. Click here for the previous one.
- Between 1990 and 1997, U.S. sales of bottled water shot from $115 million to $4 billion. They grew another 170% between 1997 and 2006, from $4 billion to $10.8 billion. Globally, bottled water is a $60-billion-a-year business.
- In 1989, PET (polyethylene terephthalate) was introduced. (Look at the bottom of most any water bottle today and it will have either the letters PET or a number one in a recycling symbol).
- The EPA allows 10 micrograms per liter of arsenic in drinking water. Officials from the city of Cleveland tested their tap water and a bottle of Fiji. Cleveland had zero micrograms, while Fiji’s water had 6.3 micrograms per liter.
- In 2006, 44 percent of the bottled water sold in the United States came from municipal supplies and was labeled either drinking water or purified water.
- In 2005, the bottled-water industry spent $158 million on advertising in the United States. In 2006, Pepsi spent more than $20 million on its “drink more water” campaign. (According to news reports, $20 million is a typical budget for a bottled-water campaign).
Image source: Metropolitan Museum of Art
