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Researcher(s):
Melanie Frank
ENVS course(s): 400 Initiated: September 2010 Completed: May 2011 Go to project site
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In my research I aim to identify and analyze consumer motivation for the continued demand for the environmentally harmful and wasteful product of plastic bottled water. Since the need in third world countries is obvious, I chose to address the unnecessary purchasing habits of highly industrialized countries with regulated, affordable, clean tap water alternatives. I focus my research on the United States and Australia because they are comparable late industrialized societies that have a clear choice between their tap versus purchasing bottled water. Both countries are equally industrialized, yet Australia consumes significantly less bottled water per person than the United States. The first half of my research was conducted while studying abroad in Australia in the spring semester of 2011. While there, I was able to research and collect data through interviews, online surveys, advertisement analysis, and personal observation. With a collection of data gathered in Australia, upon returning to the United States, I employed the same methodologies here. Using a specific, critical look at bottled water advertisements in addition to online survey data that I gathered from both countries, focused around bottled water consumption habits and anti-bottled water awareness, I extracted from my research that Australia is significantly more aware of anti-bottled water campaigns than compared to the United States. Given their environmental contexts that have impacted their consumption characteristics, I touch on the possibility that the histories of the different countries may have affected their underlying ideologies regarding consumption and waste. The mass amount of natural resources in the United States has allowed the country to evolve to encourage mass consumption. On the other hand, Australia has not been socialized to value mass consumption as much as the United States due to their lack of abundant natural resources. As a result, Australians are not as influenced by peripheral bottled water advertisement as much as Americans are. This lack of desire to over consume is what allows Australia to take proactive and highly influential action against bottled water consumption. As a result, Australia is home to the first town in the world to ban bottled water from being sold while the United States stands as the biggest consumer of bottled water in the world, consuming far more bottled water than other industrialized countries, especially Australia.