An exploration of bottled water's impact on social justice and sustainability, and how diverse movements are fighting back.
In just four decades, bottled water has transformed from a luxury niche item into a ubiquitous consumer product, representing a $300 billion market dominated by global corporations. It sits at the convergence of a mounting ecological crisis of single-use plastic waste and climate change, a social crisis of affordable access to safe drinking water, and a struggle over the fate of public water systems. Unbottled examines the vibrant movements that have emerged to question the need for bottled water and challenge its growth in North America and worldwide.
Drawing on extensive interviews with activists, residents, public officials, and other participants in controversies ranging from bottled water's role in unsafe tap water crises to groundwater extraction for bottling in rural communities, Daniel Jaffee asks what this commodity's meteoric growth means for social inequality, sustainability, and the human right to water. Unbottled profiles campaigns to reclaim the tap and addresses the challenges of ending dependence on packaged water in places where safe water is not widely accessible. Clear and compelling, it assesses the prospects for the movements fighting plastic water and working to ensure water justice for all.
By:
Daniel Jaffee
Imprint: University of California Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions:
Height: 229mm,
Width: 152mm,
Spine: 30mm
Weight: 680g
ISBN: 9780520306615
ISBN 10: 0520306619
Pages: 384
Publication Date: 19 September 2023
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Contents List of Figures and Tables Preface Introduction 1. A More Perfect Commodity 2. Making a Market, Fearing the Tap, Building a Backlash 3. Flint: Corroding Pipes, Eroding Trust 4. Reclaiming the Tap 5. Cascade Locks: A Decade-Long Struggle 6. Guelph and Elora: Watching Water, Broadening the Movement 7. Empty Bottles: Water Justice and the Right to Drink Conclusion Acknowledgments Notes References Index
Daniel Jaffee is Associate Professor of Sociology at Portland State University. His previous book, Brewing Justice: Fair Trade Coffee, Sustainability, and Survival, received the C. Wright Mills Book Award.
Reviews for Unbottled: The Fight against Plastic Water and for Water Justice
"""In his new book, Unbottled, author Daniel Jaffee explores how bottled water’s meteoric rise has exacerbated inequality and intensified pollution."" * Fast Company *"
