Separation of church and bottled water

Every once in a while I see critical coverage of plastics from an unexpected place. That happened today, when I spotted a story from the National Catholic Reporter newsweekly that slams the bottled water industry.

The story, by freelance writer Laura Lloyd, pulls together a variety of threads about various religious leaders and groups -- most of them Catholic, of course -- that are "spreading the gospel that bottled water, however convenient to tote around, is environmentally, economically and politically wrong."

Where is the push coming from? According to the story, "Some Catholic groups have borrowed information and ideas from Think Outside the Bottle, a major non-religious player in the anti-bottled water movement. The organization has launched a Web-based campaign that provides information and support. In addition to inviting individuals to sign a pledge to boycott bottled water, the program urges people to send postcards to corporations challenging corporate control of water, to attend stockholders’ meetings and mount other forms of pressure on corporate executives. Think Outside the Bottle (www.thinkoutsidethebottle.org) is part of a larger organization called Corporate Accountability International (www.stopcorporateabuse.org)."

The church has a long history of activism, often on environmental issues. Still, it's a bit surprising to see this so many religious leaders taking a stand against bottled water. It will be interesting to see how many parishioners listen to the message.