As a member of the #Blogher09 Green Team, I had the privilege of participating in a conference call with one of the Blogher Conference’s largest sponsors: PepsiCo. Why did the Green Team want to speak with Pepsi? Because in addition to peddling sodas and other flavored drinks, Pepsi has gotten into the bottled water business. Its brand is Aquafina. And we felt that Pepsi’s bringing Aquafina bottled water to the BlogHer conference would undermine the steps the Green Team had taken to encourage attendees to carry their own reusable bottles and to drink the local tap water.

In preparation for our meeting with Pepsi, the members of the Green Team as well as several members of the Green Moms Carnival wrote posts about the problems with bottled water. The conference is over, but bottled water will continue to be an ongoing issue, so I thought I would share with you the other posts these highly intelligent and articulate women came up with.

Green Team Members:

Anna Hackman from Green Talk asks, Are Recycled Plastic Bottle Products Really Eco Friendly? For years, she thought that recycling was the simple answer to the bottled beverages problem. After some research into the chemicals that could leach from the bottles into recycled products, she wonders if avoiding the bottles in the first place is the better answer.

Diane from Big Green Purse offers two posts. In Bottled Water Not as Safe as Tap Water, says GAO she reiterates the findings of the Government Accountability Office, that bottled water is actually less regulated than tap water. She then goes on to ask, “Can Pepsi Learn From 7-11?” She says, “Every day, millions of people make their own Slurpees at 7-11 with nary a complaint. I haven’t met a person yet who is not capable of putting a cup underneath the Slurpee faucet and filling up. Why not figure out a way for people to bottle their own Eco-Fina water in the same way?”

Lisa from Condo Blues gives us 6 Bottled Water Alternatives, proving that drinking from the tap can be every bit as convenient as drinking from a disposable bottle, with less waste.

Sommer from Green & Clean Mom wants us to Say No to Bottled Water and to ask ourselves a few questions before grabbing that next bottle of water from the supermarket shelf.

And if you’ll recall, my own post was Bottled Water Problem: It’s Not Just the Bottle! in which I ranted about water bottlers and how they’d like us to believe the only issue is the plastic bottle.

And finally, Alicia from The Soft Landing presents 3 Myths About Bottled Water Exposed, challenging the notions that bottled water is cleaner, more affordable, and more convenient.

So, what was the result of that conference call? Pepsi listened and agreed to the letter of our request. They did not bring Aquafina to BlogHer. The Green Team was elated! Unfortunately, Pepsi did bring all kinds of sugary flavored waters instead, Sobe Life Water being the sponsor for one of the cocktail parties. *Sigh* Should I console myself that progress is made in baby steps? Or is this naive? Either way, we have our work cut out for us.

Water. It’s a huge issue and will be more so in the coming years as clean sources of drinking water become scarce. Do we really want to put the safety of this precious resource into the hands of a few private bottlers? Or is clean water a public trust and right for all people, rich or poor?