Tapped

I finished watching this movie less than an hour ago and I'm deeply touched by the information presented in it. The documentary is well structured and presents an overwhelming amount of evidence which will change the way anyone thinks about bottled and municipal water. Both the "manufacture" of the water itself, and also where the bottles come from, where they go after use and how they influence our lives while they're with us. I see this movie has only had one review and a few votes since it came on this site. That is a crying shame because this movie needs to be seen by every single person alive. The willful absence of major companies such as Coke, Pepsi and Nestle is extremely telling in light of all the material presented. One can only hope that the small voice of this film will be heard over the huge booming commercial machine that these and other companies represent in the popular media. If you haven't seen this movie, simply watch it. It's that good and the information is something everyone should know.

Who would you trust: one single person boasting that billions of bottles of water are safe with no presentable proof, or municipalities who test cities' waters at least 300 times a month for safe drinking tap, water? This is the underlying question that Tapped, directed by Stephanie Soechtig, is forcing upon big water bottle production companies, such as Nestle, Coke, and Pepsi. The documentary follows a style of personal accounts and their experiences with big water bottle corporations and their negative impacts. For example, residents of Fryeburg, Maine experienced a sudden lack of water due to Nestle's monopolization of the local groundwater, and eventually selling it back to the community to make a profit. Soechtig highlights water bottle manufacturers as this being their sole purpose. Throughout the film, she also makes publicly embarrassing corporate heads an edge on her perspective, showing how even the people who represent Dasani, Fiji, and other big water bottle name brands lack water usage awareness. For example, during a court hearing about Nestle's draining of groundwater, they blamed beavers for the depletion instead of taking responsibility. Concurrently, a Nestle worker was not aware of the dozens of accounts of water bottle recalls even from their own company. Soechtig also shares the story of residents in Corpus Christi and the harmful respiratory effects it has had on their life. The use of statistics like plastic water bottle manufacturers using 714 million gallons of oil per year (enough to fuel 100,000 cars) emphasis the need for more regulations. Soechtig takes a scientific approach when testing 2 groups: one with water bottles from store shelves and the other with bottles left in the trunk of a car. Toxicologists, across both groups, found fatal chemicals such as Toluene (a constituent of gasoline), Styrene (a cancer causing agent), and Phthalates (adverse reproductive outputs to both genders). Towards the end of the film, embarrassing videos of trash lining the coast of Camilla Beach show the world how much garbage is put into the oceans. This is supported with a sample from the west coast of the U. S waters filled with 49% more plastic than plankton. The most significant sustainability aspects from the film reside in the importance of tap water. During the end credits, multiple sustainable actions are presented to the viewer like invest in our municipal water structure, stop promotion of bottled water, buy a reusable water bottle, buy a water filter, and demand bottled water manufacturers allow access for their reports. Using more tap water, in my opinion, is the strongest and overarching message of this film, and is presented strongly (40% of bottled water is just filtered tap water). This film not only made me rethink about how guilty I'll be next time I grab a plastic water bottle, but about how it will take a majority of the country to see it this way. Watching this film, with its importance of community and need to fight back against the greed of corporate water bottle companies, forever changed my view on plastic water bottles, in that, I feel as if they should go on a drought from themselves.

Documentary about water resources being stolen from a small town in Maine. It is incredibly sad to learn how awful this situation is for both the residents of the town and for conservation efforts in the area. Water mining affects the water table in local areas, and is free to do in Maine and other states, making it economically beneficial for companies to pump water and sell it for profit.... there should be better legislation to avoid this. No amount of strikes or protests will change anything. There needs to be structural changes in how companies take resources to account for environmental changes and how taking resources affects the local community.

Whether you drink bottled water, or not - I think that "Tapped" is a documentary that is well-worth a view. It certainly opens the viewer's eyes to the reality of what bottled water is all about.

From our general health, to massive pollution, to our dependence on oil - "Tapped" closely examines the role of the bottled water industry from an insider's perspective.

Yes, you do get mostly one side of the argument. Is this a bad thing? No! Bottled water companies have had YEARS AND YEARS and MULTIPLE PLATFORMS to spew their arguments about why their product is great, so what's so wrong about one little movie trying to counter their claims? People have a tendency to attack individuals rather than corporations, and its just not fair. This movie brings up MANY different arguments and reasons why bottled water is bad. You will most definitely learn something from watching it, and most likely, you will learn a lot. They hit on everything--chemical pollution, plastic pollution and the mile-wide plastic pools in the oceans, water privatization/community water rights, and so on. This isn't just about the environment, and it isn't just about people--it's about both. Great documentary hits on many issues surrounding bottled water, and is well filmed. Watch it!