The Environmental Impact Of Bottled Water
Nowadays, most people probably agree that we need to drink plenty of water in order to stay healthy, avoid dehydration and to function efficiently. The exact quantity of water that you need will vary according to your body mass and size, climatic conditions you find yourself in and the level of physical activity in which you are engaged. However, most medical bodies currently recommend that you should, on average, be drinking six to eight large glasses of water daily.
This perfectly sound medical advice has been one factor used in the advertising campaigns of bottled water suppliers to very effectively market their product. The market for bottled water is relatively new – but it is huge. The level of demand for bottled water more than doubled in the years between 1997 and 2005, and in excess of 200 billion bottles of water are sold worldwide annually.
That’s a massive amount of empty bottles being thrown away. Some – a little less than a quarter of the total according to current statistics – are recycled. The rest end up as landfill. The environmental impact is enormous. It’s estimated that if all those empty bottles were lined up end to end, the distance covered would be enough to get to the moon and back – 56 times!
The amount of carbon emissions involved, both in the production of the bottles and the transportation of the finished product, is also worthy of consideration. It’s an amazing fact that the production of the bottles uses three times as much water as the bottles contain when they are shipped.
Bottled water is, simply put, an environmental disaster. Of course, it’s just possible that you may be more concerned with your own health than that of the planet’s – which might be understandable in some cases. The problem with this logic is that there is absolutely no evidence that bottled water is better for your health than common or garden tap water.
Tap water in North America and Europe is perfectly safe to drink and is subject to stringent checks. Bottled water has been found to contain uranium and estrogen chemicals. Some of the chemicals found in bottled water are as a result of “leeching” from the plastic (PET) bottles. It’s also established that many bottled waters contain, along with other minerals, salt – which is not very good for your blood pressure.
The only reason you might conceivably be tempted to use bottled water would be the taste. However, in blind taste tests the majority of people are unable to distinguish between tap water and bottled water. Of course, if you live in a hard water area, or if you really don’t like the taste of your tap water (possibly due to chlorine added by the water authority to kill bacteria) you may wish to review your alternatives.
You could consider using a home filtration system – which will be better for the environment, better for your health and very much cheaper than bottled water. You can install whole house filtration systems, under sink filters or even just use something as simple as a Brita filter jug. All of these solutions will treat any contaminants, improve taste and reduce water hardness in an environmentally friendly manner.