Whether it comes from a bottle or tap, drinking water is vital to our lives to provide healthy hydration. People decide to buy bottled water for several reasons, including convenience, quality and taste. In 1977, Perrier introduced the first bottled water in the United States. Until then it was normal to drink from the fountains that were everywhere. Now that the situation has changed, it is no longer popular or considered normal to drink bottled water and public drinking fountains are a thing of the past. Bottled water is becoming more and more popular and is the icon of the health drink. How did this happen? Well, the bottled water industry is a multi-billion dollar industry that is growing every year. In 2012, bottled water sales increased 6.7 percent, selling nearly 9.7 billion gallons of water. This translates into sales of $11.8 billion. How has the bottled water industry transformed us from often offering water for free to purchasing bottled water? Most of it is related to creative marketing. Think about it, bottled water costs anywhere from 750 to almost 3,000 times more than tap water. Yet, millions of people still choose to drink it with tap water, even though it has been proven to be the same product. Manufacturers need a good marketing strategy to start sales and keep them going. Americans often go with the flow, even if a myth can be debunked. To convince the masses to drink bottled water at such an increased price and continue to use it, they must be convinced that it is the best choice. Water bottle manufacturers have spent millions to convince Americans to spend their hard-earned money on bottled water. Try to convince us that tap water is harmful with misleading advertisements showing that bottled water is better. They use scare tactics... middle of paper... with kindness. Unfortunately we don't hear the whole story. Many municipalities still don't want people to recycle the lids because they are made of less pure plastic. The other problem is that many water bottles are shipped overseas to be recycled. Most water bottles are not recycled into another water bottle. They are put into a process called downcycling, the plastic from the bottles is actually used for lower quality plastic products. These cheap plastic products usually end up in landfill, so they don't get us anywhere. The parts of the bottles that aren't recycled are thrown into landfills in someone else's yard. Oil is used to manufacture products and also in transportation of the product which also generates pollution. Additionally, the water bottle industry is one of the industries polluting our water supplies. Not what I call earth friendly.