Core77

Guest post from Xanthe Matychak:

I think that Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) is a must-have skill for the twenty-first century designer. And no better way to develop that skill than to track the LCA of a seemingly simple product like, let's say, bottled water.

Of all of the critiques on bottled water that I've seen in mainstream media this past year, Charles Fishman at FastCompany lays it out most clearly. Chock full of facts that will, hopefully, inspire you to kiss and make up with your tap.

Here's a bit:

Bottled water is the food phenomenon of our times. We--a generation raised on tap water and water fountains--drink a billion bottles of water a week, and we're raising a generation that views tap water with disdain and water fountains with suspicion. We've come to pay good money--two or three or four times the cost of gasoline--for a product we have always gotten, and can still get, for free, from taps in our homes.

And another:

In Fiji, a state-of-the-art factory spins out more than a million bottles a day of the hippest bottled water on the U.S. market today, while more than half the people in Fiji do not have safe, reliable drinking water. Which means it is easier for the typical American in Beverly Hills or Baltimore to get a drink of safe, pure, refreshing Fiji water than it is for most people in Fiji.

Read the full article here.