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Survey Paper | Management | Ethiopia | Volume 3 Issue 9, September 2014
Trends in Bottled water Use Survey in Addis Ababa: Implication on Reverse Logistics of Bottled Water Manufacturing in Ethiopia
Abstract: The trend in the changing life style of the Ethiopian people in drinking bottled water at home, work place, recreation and travel in and outside the country provided another opportunity to sale bottled water as a product in the local market and sought its potential sale in the international market as far as international water quality standards are met. However, regardless of increasing trend in the distribution logistics of bottled water to the Ethiopian domestic market and the commencement of export of plastic packaged water to international market by few branded bottled water companies raised the issue of environmental regulation as a result of the existing plastic packaged branded water products are unfriendly to the environment. In the absence of green packaging of water products for commercial use in Ethiopia, it demands for reverse logistics for recycling of plastic packages for water use. Unlike soft drink companies which voluntarily apply reverse logistics for re use of bottle for their product packaging, water bottling companies in Ethiopia are not required by law to re use/recycle plastic packages for water regardless of their negative impact on the environment as plastics take thousands of years to decompose. As a result, it is not uncommon to observe in the streets of Addis Ababa and regional towns to find plastic packages of water dumped here and there regardless of increased use by residents at home, workplace or recreation centers in daily basis. Besides, the city government of Addis Ababa organized informal sectors at micro enterprise level to play the role of collectors to remove waste from the city as their regular day to day economic activity creating significant number of employment in the city. Besides, individual households pay for removing these plastic packages for bottled water and other solid wastes from their areas to the collectors. The study explored and described the water resources management of Ethiopia focusing on trends in bottled water use by residents of Addis Ababa as unit of analysis excluding irrigation and hydropower development capabilities on water resources of Ethiopia from this study. Based on the current trend in commercializing of bottled water in national and international market, manufacturers of bottled water in Ethiopia are tapping the opportunities in the increasing consumers demand and use style for bottled water at workplace, meeting, home, and recreation and hotel services centers without due consideration of wider impact on environment of the plastic packages of water use. Therefore, the study recommends the application of reveres logistics by bottled water manufacturing companies in Ethiopia for recycling plastic packages of bottled water that should be enforced legally for environmental sustainability
Keywords: Bottled water, plastic packages, reverses logistics, recycling
Edition: Volume 3 Issue 9, September 2014,
Pages: 934 - 942