Nestle Installs Wastewater Filtration System

Nestle is working to improve its industrial wastewater reuse practices in drought-plagued California.

"The U.S.’s largest water bottler is installing new filtration systems at a plant in Modesto, 90 miles east of San Francisco, so it can reuse waste left over from making Carnation condensed milk rather than pour it down the drain. The treated liquid will be used for cleaning and cooling instead of local freshwater," Bloomberg reported, citing the company. The plant will save over 60 million gallons of water a year.

This initiative comes as Nestle faces complaints for exporting water away from California during the state's water crisis to fuel its bottled-water business. "The move bolsters Nestle against criticism as California endures a fourth year of drought," Bloomberg reported.

Jose Lopez, a Nestle executive, defended the basis for the project. “We’re not going to greenwash you,” Lopez said, per Bloomberg. “It doesn’t make economic sense to do this, obviously. The drought this year is teaching us you have to think of ways to adapt. What seems today not fully advisable from an economic standpoint will become a necessity.”

Lopez said it is inaccurate to blame industry for the state's water challenges. “In California, the infrastructure is not there,” Lopez said. “You’re not going to look at me and make me responsible for that the infrastructure is not there to cope with the situation today, are you? It’s easy to demonize something like that.”

The company says on its website that shutting down its California facilities "won't fix the drought." The company's five bottled water plants and four food factories in the state "collectively consume about 1 billion gallons of water each year, which amounts to 0.008 percent of the 13 trillion gallons of annual water use in the state," NBC News reported.

Eddie Kurtz, executive director of the California-based Courage Campaign, is among the most outspoken critics, calling for regulators to shut down bottled-water facilities.

"In a historic drought like we are having, it just seems like a really, really poor use of a scarce resource," he said, per NBC News.

Nestle is pushing infrastructure and policy improvements as solutions to water crises, "urging governments to improve aqueducts and reduce incentives to waste water. Big water users are likely to increase pumping if they expect mandatory cuts are coming, which is a counter-incentive," Bloomberg reported, citing Lopez.

To read more on the latest drought solutions, visit Water Online’s Water Scarcity Solution Center.