More Bottled Water Coming From the Tap, 47.8%

As U.S. sales of bottled water decline, a report Thursday finds that almost half of those in polyethylene terephthalate plastic bottles, better known by the initials PET, now come from municipal tap water.

Filtered tap water makes up an increasing share of bottled water - rising from 32.7 percent in 2000 to 47.8 percent in 2009 - as the share of spring-sourced water declines, according to analysis of industry data by the nonprofit consumer advocacy group Food & Water Watch."These are the numbers the bottled water industry doesn't want you to see," Wenonah Hauter, the group's executive director says in a statement.

"More and more bottled water is basically the same product that flows from consumer taps, subsidized by taxpayer dollars then poured into an environmentally destructive package and sold for thousands of times its actual value," she says.

The industry's International Bottled Water Association did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

The data, which come from the Beverage Marketing Corp's annual report on bottled water, attribute the increase in tap-sourced water to Nestle Pure Life's switch from spring water to tap water in 2005. They also show that U.S. sales of bottled water increased sharply from 2002 to 2007 but have since fallen.

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