Carbon Pirates

Amid a shortage of public water supply facilities and growing distrust of tap water, the bottled water market has surged to a staggering $300 billion industry. In India, private water suppliers known as the ‘Water Mafia’ thrive, while in Chiapas, Mexico, Coca-Cola has become a substitute for water itself. Against this backdrop, an astounding one million plastic bottles of water are sold every minute. The carbon emissions of bottled water are 700 times higher than those of tap water. Yet, some bottled water products bear a “carbon-neutral” label. How can water packaged in plastic, derived from fossil fuels, and transported hundreds of kilometers be classified as ‘Carbon neutral’?