BOTTLED WATER: PERCEIVED SCARCITY AND REAL NECESSITY

The focus of this paper is the commercial packaging of the most essential ecological resource on earth, water. Water is an indispensable part of life on this planet and the most basic of necessities. The process of bottling water for sale to the consumer represents an industrial practice which has market success. Product success in the market demonstrates a public desire or need for said product, so we can reasonably assume that people not only do drink bottled water but they do so for reasons that can be explained in terms of the desire for an alternative to mu-nicipal water. The role that bottled water has taken in our society and the folk beliefs which maintain that role are based on concerns of an ecology which has become toxic due to the negative effects of industrial processes. In many senses bottled water is an example of the perfect post-industrial product. The product uses ex-isting industry to create a commodity that can be sold with an incredible profit margin because it utilizes cheap natural resources and processes, with the result-ing product having a cultural association which involves a perceived value tha