Thirst growing for bottled water

The increasing reliance of Greeks on bottled water has boosted sales of the resource, reportedly retailed at 1,600 times the price of water sold by the Athens Water and Sewerage Company (EYDAP), and is becoming a real burden on the environment, still sullied by countless makeshift landfills. Recent figures show that Greeks drink more than a billion liters of bottled water annually, with consumption rising by some 10 percent each year. Production of bottled water skyrocketed from 40 million liters per year in 1981 to 278 million liters in 1993, then to 600 million liters in 2001. This rapidly growing consumption has benefited the bottlers of spring water in Greece but also supermarket chains and street kiosks, which sell bottled water for 50 cents and 1 euro per liter respectively. In restaurants, bottles of water, often... [read full story]                    

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