Jackson Browne doesn’t appreciate the bottled water industry pumping millions of dollars into advertising to convince us that bottled water is better than tap water. He also happened to be sitting right behind me during the screening of Tapped Friday night at UCLA ^[1], one of the events organized by the new Plastic Pollution Coalition ^[2] this weekend. So after the film, I asked if he would mind saying a few words to Fake Plastic Fish readers about his stand on bottled water. He said he could only give me a minute, but as you’ll see in the video, once he got started, his passion kicked in and he gave a lot more.

If you’re unable to view the embedded video, please click here to view it on YouTube ^[3].

For those who are unable to hear the video, here’s a summary of his main points:

• Tap water is more highly regulated than bottled water.
• Often, bottled water is just tap water that bottlers extract, bottle, and sell back to us at an exhorbitant price.
• Jackson carries his own metal reusable water bottle wherever he goes.
• At the airport, he empties his bottle before going through security and then refills it at the water fountain inside the terminal.
• He has banned bottled water from his tours. Instead, he brings his own water coolers with him wherever he goes, and he, his band, and crew all carry their own reusable bottles.
• Jackson gave a nod to the Take Back The Filter ^[4] Brita recycling campaign (a nice surprise) because he carries a Brita filter in his suitcase and is glad the filters can be recycled.
• He thinks the only thing Fiji Water has going for it is a square bottle.
• His idea for a hotel action is to carry little paper tags that say “Refused from a member of a worldwide coalition of people to protect the planet” to hang around the necks of the water for sale in hotel rooms.
• He is very happy to be part of this movement of people who are standing up to bottled water companies, and in fact, he feels defiant about it.
• He believes that starving albatross chicks filled with plastic are a metaphor for our society that is starved for real food, real information, and an authentic life.

Do you know of other great bottled water rants on YouTube? Would you be willing to post your own? Leave a comment here and I’ll link to others venting their frustration with bottled water.

A few that I’ve found:

• Penn & Teller’s episode of Bullsh*t!: The Truth About Bottled Water ^[5]
• Lewis Black’s Unedited Rant on Bottled Water ^[6] (Not safe for work, unless the sound is off, and then what’s the point?)
• CHCH Mark Mark Hebscher’s Rant on bottled water ^[7]