Bottled Water: Healthy yet Harmful

As a result of the concern by consumers about the quality and taste of tap water, bottled water is the fastest growing segment of the entire beverage industry at an 8.7 percent growth rate in dollar sales for 2006, second only to soft drinks in popularity and rapidly narrowing the gap.

Almost all of the growth for more than 10 years has been in the small, convenient sizes as people choose bottled water as a refreshment alternative to soft drinks, juices and caffeinated drinks. This small-bottle segment represents 64 percent of total bottled water dollar sales, and has experienced continuous growth of more than 25 percent each year.

3 Million Plastic Bottles a Day

However, the Bottled Water industry is reaching its tipping point. Today, environmental, citizen and consumer advocacy groups, including Food & Water Watch, are speaking out against the bottled water industry's harmful impacts on American communities. Plastic bottles -- some 3 million of them every day -- enter the waste stream, where they take up space in landfills or are incinerated, and thereby yield toxic fumes.

The truth is that people today are in need of effective, safe, affordable and convenient water sources. Ecos Water purification equipment and water filtration technology answer this need.

Bottled Water Alternatives

There are several products on the market today for businesses and consumers to get high quality, good tasting water. In the business arena, companies typically have two choices for single serve water for their employees or customers; they either provide "water coolers" with 5-gallon jugs, or they supply or sell single-serve plastic bottled water.

Water Cooler Not So Cool Anymore

The fact is that most 5-gallon delivery services work out to about $1.60 per gallon, which is at any convenience store, a retail price for chilled purified water. There are also volume and convenience issues with the 5-gallon jug, much less the storage and refill requirements.

Under the Sink Purifiers Not So Pure

In an effort to reduce costs, more companies are moving to an additional method: In-home and in-office purification systems. These are the most widely recognized alternatives to the water delivery and environmental issues. This solution, while lower cost, is also a lower quality purified water. The "under the sink" water purification systems are not commercial grade and do not meet the same quality and taste requirements that the consumer is demanding. They also do not fulfill volume requirements for larger facilities, and generally do not supply crisp, chilled water.

As a result of the lower quality taste factor from the cheaper "water purifiers", more than half of all Americans drink bottled water; about a third of the public consumes it regularly. Those statistics speak clearly to the perceived value of bottled water, specifically in quality, taste, and convenience.

Bulk isn't Always Best

For consumers seeking a "bulk" unchilled solution, there are also a variety of outdoor "Glacier" type vending machines that offer inexpensive bulk water to consumers. These water vending solutions are typically only offered in a revenue "share" model that does not favor the business owner.

At this time, alternative solutions have not been introduced in the market to improve upon these models, except perhaps on-site purifiers, which have limitations and weaknesses in the key consumer requirements: quality & safety and taste & convenience.

Consumers meanwhile have voted with their wallets and moved en masse to the single serve plastic bottle.

This has resulted in billions of plastic bottles filling up waste bins and waste sites, creating a growing environmental concern that is now swaying public opinion away from "plastic" water bottle solutions.

Ecos Water, Inc. provides a bottle free solution!

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