On February 17, 2011, Nestle Waters North America announced it had hired a new Director of Sustainability. We wish Michael Washburn well in his new role and in his efforts “To increase recycling rates in the United States.” We applaud Nestle for hiring someone who has worked in the nonprofit sector, and held a senior position at The Wilderness Society working on public lands advocacy.
Here at Maxi Container, however, we still hold Nestle responsible for two of the most egregious environmental policies and practices of this era.
First, they sell millions of plastic water bottles, consuming inordinate amounts of energy and raw materials to deliver a product that most of us in the U.S. has at our fingertips, potable water.
Second, they are one of the largest companies diverting a precious resource from our home state of Michigan, paying little or nothing for it, and making a large profit by selling it at a ridiculous mark up.
Nestle Waters U.S. brands include, Arrowhead, Calistoga, Deep Park, Ice Mountain, Nestle Pure Life, Ozarka, Poland Spring and Zepherhills. Nestle has had a series of battles in and out of court in both Mecosta and Osceola, MI regarding its plans for its bottling plant to bottle over 720,000 gallons of water pumped from the Great Lakes Basin and aquifer per day. Water which is never replaced and has led to drying of wetlands and streams and lowering of lake levels. It has also severly affected nearby homeowners and farmers who depend on the aquifer for their drinking water and irrigation.
In 2009, after 9 years of litigation, Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation reached an out of court settlement with Nestle to reduce Nestle’s pumping to 218 gallons per minute. Over an 8 hour day that is still 104,640 gallons. Over 24 hours, that is 313,920 gallons of water per day taken from our precious Great Lakes and never returned. Add to that the cost of the resources used to bottle and truck that water all over the country and you now have the makings of one of the greatest environmental villains ever!
To learn more, see our Oprep article and watch The Story of Bottled Water (2010)
