Bottled Beverages (Water)

British Bottled Water Producers Ltd. boasts that the U.K. bottled water market, including water coolers, has grown from 580 million liters in 1993 to almost 2.2 billion liters in 2007, or approximately 40 liters per person per year. In the United States, total annual sales of bottled water in 2008 were over 30 billion liters, having more than doubled in only a decade. Averaged out, each man, woman, and child in the United States consumes approximately 100 liters of bottled water, costing more per unit volume than gasoline. Worldwide growth has been even more explosive, posting yearly growth of more than 7 percent per year, and more than a dozen countries, including Mexico, France, and Italy, consume even more per capita. This makes bottled water ...