SURPRISING FACT NO 243

The Coca-Cola Company recently reported that it had installed 160,000 chilled drink display cabinets and reached 120,000 extra retail outlets. This is more than most companies have in total from their entire history. Yet Coke achieved it in just one quarter and one country - China.

US BOTTLED WATER BACKLASH

The summer was sillier in the States than usual. Restaurants and Mayors are perfectly entitled to prefer tap water to bottled water. Tap water is a great product. But their antagonism towards bottled water is misdirected.

1. All water is healthier than most other beverages. Few of us drink enough of it. It helps our mind, our body, our work, our attention, our comfort, our ageing.
2. Water also fills us up without calories or caffeine or alcohol or fat and few other drinks do that. In an increasingly obese world, society should be encouraging water consumption wherever and whenever possible.
3. Bottled water uses less packaging than most other beverages. PET is 100% recyclable. Still water uses much less material than sparkling drinks. In the US, packaging weights have been reduced by as much as 40% in the past five years. Large 20 litre cooler bottles are often used 50 times before recycling.
4. Bottled water travels less distance than most other beverages. The majority of brands in the United States, Europe and other countries are local or regional, travelling less than 100 kilometres on average from their source to the shelf.
5. Then there are principles of consumer convenience and choice, lifestyle and taste.

Policy makers should be doing more about health and the environment, not penalising one good product amongst thousands that may have less to offer. Water is and should be a human right, but in the modern world it is certainly not free. Tap water needs infrastructures that cost money and affect the environment too. When these break down, what does everyone turn to ? Wouldn't it be better if the lobbyists gave just a little more weight to the other 99.7 per cent of waste produced in the United States ? PS If silly isn't enough and you're looking for crazy, then go to Chicago where there's a proposal to tax bottled water by as much as 50%, compared with 3% for soda.