Opportunities and challenges facing the global bottled water industry

With plastic packaging bottles under fire, plastics have become the frontier of policy and debate in countries, and the bottled water industry is under scrutiny.
At the same time, the bottled water industry is pushing for greater sustainability - particularly the French Alps' leading-edge "carbon neutral" bottling plant.
So what does the future look like for the bottled water industry?
Richard Hall, chairman of Zenith Global, a leading food and beverage consultancy, argues that sustainability and management co-ordination are the two most important areas of industry today, and that the dimensions of management co-ordination are becoming increasingly important.
Consider posterity
The concept of "sustainability" is broad and complex, but it is now generally accepted that sustainability is an important consideration for any brand or company.
Protecting the environment is an important pillar of its definition, so is protecting the safety and health of human beings in the whole supply chain.
The UN defines "sustainable development" as "development to meet current needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs".
Looking at the bottled water industry, sustainability must take into account the entire supply chain: from the source of the water to the materials used in each bottle, to the way packaging is collected and recycled.
The international bottled water association says bottled water USES the least water in all packaged beverages and leaves the smallest energy footprint.
According to the association, producing a liter of bottled water requires 1.32 liters of water (including finished water) and 240,000 joules of energy.
The association also noted that other beverage industries have relatively high intensification processes, such as flavor mixing, stirring, carbonation, fermentation, distillation, and so on.
But perhaps the biggest challenge for the bottled water industry is facing the question: "why don't you drink tap water?"
Hall, Zenith's chairman, argues that bottled water should not simply be used as a substitute for tap water, which more often ACTS as a substitute for carbonated soft drinks and other beverages.
"" first, it's not a simple substitute for tap water - it's a substitute for other flavored drinks.
All water consumption should be encouraged when we eat too much or don't drink enough water.
At the same time, bottled water plays a key role in developing countries where the safety of water supply is not guaranteed;
And in developed countries, especially on the road, bottled water offers a valuable alternative to calorie drinks.
"Packaging has many benefits: it reduces waste, it protects products, it looks good, it's easy to ship," Hall said. "packaging can be reused and recycled.
Bottled water is essential in many countries because of concerns about the availability and quality of public water.
But plastic bottles - or any container used to pack water - are as much a focus as any industry.
Hall believes the challenge is not just in the bottled water industry, because collection, recycling and reuse should not be as inefficient as they are now.
Still, the plastic recycling rate for bottled water is higher than for many other products.
On the one hand, recycling rates vary widely between countries (in Europe, PET bottle recycling rates are more than 90% in some countries and less than 20% in others).
Plastic bottles, on the other hand, differ greatly from other forms of packaging, such as cartons, cans or bottles.
There are already a number of brands seeking to increase the content of recycled materials in their packaging bottles (for example, the European bottled water alliance wants to use at least 25%rPET by 2025 for bottled water on the continent).
Evian has committed to 100% rPET by 2025;
Coke will use 50%rPET by 2030.
However, the availability of quality rPET is another challenge.
Other initiatives include plant-based plastics or biodegradable plastics, which have their own considerations, such as meeting food safety standards or how to get new packaging into existing recycling processes.
What is water management co-ordination?
Plastic bottles may be a top concern for consumers, but the concept of water management is also increasingly important in the bottled water industry.
Global ecosystems are dependent on fresh water, but water supplies are under increasing pressure as populations and pollution increase.
As the world wide fund for nature puts it: "water management co-ordination is about how companies understand the risks of water shortages and pollution they face and take action to help ensure that water is managed sustainably as a Shared public resource."
However, managing is not just about being an efficient water user.
This is a work of the private sector working with governments, other businesses, ngos, communities and others to protect Shared freshwater resources.
Danone's evian, a natural mineral water brand, has recently been certified in the us and Canada as a carbon neutral, marking a "significant milestone" in its global plan to become carbon neutral by 2020.
The company also pledged to increase rPET content in all packaging bottles from the current 25 per cent to 100 per cent by 2025.
Evian's water comes from the French Alps, and the brand is currently sold in more than 140 countries.

Its carbon neutral bottling plant in evian is a model for danone to show the world for euro280m.

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