Bottled water is now an extremely popular choice for many people, either for convenience or as an alternative to fizzy drinks. Worldwide sales have rocketed in the last couple of decades: 2.2 billion gallons of bottled water were sold in 1990, while 8.8 billion were sold in 2007 [1]. The dramatic increase in production and consumption of bottled water is unsustainable, however, and the environment is being severely punished by this industry.

Environmental Impact of Bottled Water

Production and Transportation

A significant strain is being put on the environment by bottled water companies through their production and transportation of plastic bottles and their use of valuable resources. It is extremely ironic when these companies then market their products as clean and healthy, when their production causes so much unnecessary environmental degradation [2].

Huge amounts of oil are needed to manufacture plastic bottles. 15 million barrels of oil per year are used to make plastic water bottles in the US alone – that’s enough to power 250,000 homes or fuel 100,000 cars for a year [3]. In addition to the large quantities of oil used, millions of gallons of water are also used in the manufacturing process. In fact, twice as much water is used in the production process than that sold in the bottle [4]. Transporting these bottles to markets burns even more oil; consider the carbon footprint of bottled water brands that travel across continents to markets e.g. Fiji water. When considering the life-cycle of a water bottle, its energy costs are roughly equivalent to filling up a quarter of each bottle with oil [5].

Packaging and Recycling

Bottled water is commonly packaged in polyethylene terephthalate (PET), which requires a large amount of energy to produce. Although PET is recyclable, relatively few plastic bottles are actually recycled (~13%) [6]. The billions of plastic bottles thrown away end up in landfills where it takes thousands of years for the plastic to decompose [3].

The Container Recycling Institute (CRI) estimated that 52 billion plastic bottles were wasted (not recycled) in the US in 2005 and 2 million tons of plastic water bottles ended up clogging landfills instead of being recycled. Approximately 18 million barrels of crude oil equivalent were used to replace these plastic bottles [7].

Although the recycling of PET plastic bottles increased slightly between 1995 and 2005, the amount of PET bottles being wasted (going into landfills) nearly tripled (see figure below) [7]. This rate of increase is clearly not sustainable and drastic change is needed if we want to prevent landfills from becoming completely full.

Why Else Should We Ditch Bottled Water?

Aside from environmental impacts, there are other reasons why we should reduce our consumption of bottled water.

A clear reason for ditching bottled water is the cost. Bottled water can cost up to 10,000 times more per gallon than tap water [4]. You should also remember that it is the packaging, transporting and marketing of bottled water that is expensive, not the water itself [8].

Secondly, it is a common belief that bottled water is purer and safer than tap water. In reality, however, tap water actually has more stringent quality standards than bottled water [4] and various blind taste tests have shown that people actually prefer the taste of tap water [1].

What Can You Do To Help?

The best thing you can do is reduce your consumption of bottled water. You should also reuse any bottles that you do already have by refilling with tap water. And if you are going to throw a bottle away then be sure to recycle. If you are worried about the taste or quality of your tap water then a water filter is your answer. There are even travel bottles with built-in filters that are available if you are away from home!

References

[1] http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/environment/2008-06-07-bottled-water_N.htm

[2] http://www.allaboutwater.org/environment.html

[3] http://www.container-recycling.org/media/newsarticles/plastic/2006/5-WMW-DownDrain.htm

[4] http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/07/reasons_to_ditch_bottled_water.php

[5] http://www.bottledwaterfreeday.ca/index2.php?section_id=16

[6] http://www.nrdc.org/water/drinking/qbw.asp#environment

[7] http://www.container-recycling.org/assets/pdfs/reports/2007-waterwater.pdf

[8] http://www.fitsugar.com/Plastic-Water-Bottles-Really-Bad-Environment-256406

For a detailed review of the carbon footprint of bottled water, please refer to:

Gleick, P.H. & Cooley, H.S. (2009) Energy implications of bottled water. Environmental Research Letters, 4, p. 1-6.

Available at: http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-9326/4/1/014009/pdf/1748-9326_4_1_014009.pdf