The Park Slope Food Co-Op, one of the nation's oldest such community-based groceries, recently banned bottled water from its shelves, a move the majority of the store's 12,000 members supported due to the growing controversies that surround what was once on a par with polo shirts and car phones as a status symbol of the yuppie class. No more, at least in this earnest, tony enclave in Brooklyn.

Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, where bottled water is consumed in massive quantities, a movement is afoot to process raw sewage into tap water, England recently banned bottled water from all of its government meetings, and in March, Scotland announced that the whole country would ban bottled water altogether.

So how did such a massive trend that began back in the 1980s with Perrier and Evian -- three-syllable words that quickly became synonymous with privilege and leisure -- and evolved through the likes of Poland Spring, Desani, and Fiji, become the latest target in our push for a greener world?

Elizabeth Royte, an author and journalist, has just published a book explaining just that. Bottlemania: How Water Went on Sale and Why We Bought It tracks the people, machines, economies, and cultural trends that bring it from nature to the supermarkets. And like Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation, the book lays bare some of the industry's dark secrets that might just turn you off the stuff for good.

To read an excerpt of Royte's book, visit this entry on AlterNet.