the story of bottled water

Distilled facts on bottled water:

• An estimated 200 billion water bottles are consumed globally each year.
• Only 1 in 5 bottles are recycled. (The other 4 contribute to the 300 billion pounds of waste from plastic water bottles).
• 40% of bottled water is bottled tap water, sold at up to 10,000 times the price of tap water, and often containing chemical contaminants that exceed strict health standards.
• 3 bottles of water are required to produce 1 single bottle. 17 million barrels of oil are used globally to produce water bottles each year. That’s enough to fuel 1 million cars for a year.

Add this to the information you’ve already gleaned from our recent Water Knowledge Portal, where you can learn about the scarcity of water in many locations worldwide, and the environmental, health and economic impacts that follow.

While bottled water is a useful and vital solution in the aftermath of crises, where there is limited or no access to clean drinking water, in the developed world the trend toward expensive plastic bottled water is an increasing environmental and health hazard that must be addressed, as Anna Lenzer attempted in her 2009 controversial critique of pricey Fiji water–Obama’s favourite drinking habit.

Check out this terrific video on The Story of Water for a simple overview, or for a longer history, see the 2008 documentary Flow, which was the official selection of Sundance Film Festival.

And what can you do to make a difference?

• Drink tap water or, if you’re worried about chemicals, get a good water filter.
• Use stainless steel or reusable bottles to make your water portable.
• Campaign to remove bottled water from conferences, your workplace, or even your town.
• Request that your town restore drinking fountains

[caption id=”” align=”alignnone” width=”500” caption=”flickr cc: Klearchos Kapoutsis”] [/caption]

Note: the above facts were mostly taken from this bottled water infographic by Online Education.