How would You Like Some Organic 5,000-Year-Old Swedish Malmberg Bottled Water? (Treehugger)

Jan.25, 2009 in Water Industry

(Jan. 25, 2009, Treehugger)

In the battle of the bottle versus the tap, tap water clearly wins out as a more environmentally-friendly (and cheaper) choice. Thus it’s a little hard to know what to do with this new organically-certified bottled water by Swedish company Malmberg. On the one hand, the company’s got their priorities in the right place – they are using organic fruit essences to flavor their lemon and orange waters. When you look into the vast amount of chemically-created flavorings we’ve all been accustomed to, this is definitely a plus. And Malmberg’s flavored waters come in glass bottles, which are not only highly recyclable but frequently recycled in Sweden where the return system is ingrained. On the other hand, we thought it was dumb when Safeway offered organic water, and it’s pretty dumb here.

Impeccable water source still can’t beat municipal tap
Malmberg says their water source fell as rain 3,000 years B.C., which makes it about 5,500 years old, and purportedly Sweden’s oldest bottled water – Malmberg says its source has been protected from modern pollution. What they don’t tell you is that many tap water sources in Sweden especially are also from deep aquifers with impeccable water quality – the Swedes claim that tap water is “the most environmentally-friendly drink available.” A Swedish study in 2007 found that 5 of 13 of the most popular bottled water brands (Malmberg wasn’t included) wouldn’t pass Swedish criteria for tap water.

1,000 to 3,000 times more expensive
In Sweden a liter of water from the tap costs about .01 öre (U.S.$.001), which makes a bottle of water between 1 – 3,000 times more expensive. Plus Swedes have already run many big campaigns to get people to drink tap water – including putting tap water machines (it’s the old water fountain, only new fangled!) into 130 schools and follow up with training materials to shift teens especially from their bottle habits. Scandic Hotels has dropped bottled water completely. In the past year, Swedish bottled water habits have dropped only about 10 percent, according to Swedish Radio. Via: Malmbergs

(Original Article Here)

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