Is Bottled Water Harmful To The Environment?

Over the last ten years, bottled water sales have been steadily growing at an average rate of 7 – 8% each year. The amount of bottled water consumed globally has doubled in the period from 1997 to 2005.

200 billion bottles of water are consumed worldwide every year. The USA accounts for the lion’s share, with 25% of global sales.

However, there has been a recent backlash against the use of bottled water. One area of concern is bottled water’s environmental impact. The actual bottles are usually manufactured from Polyethylene terephthalate (PET), which is a recyclable material – but the actual level of recycling is held to be lower than 25%.

The manufacturing process, shipping and end of life disposal of the bottles also requires energy, another source of concern for environmentalists. The carbon emissions generated by the production and delivery of one litre of bottled water are 5,000 times higher than those produced for the delivery of a litre of ordinary tap water.

There is no evidence, despite some very clever marketing by bottled water suppliers, that bottled water is any better for your health than common or garden tap water. Some bottled waters have been found to contain estrogenic chemicals and uranium! The majority of bottled mineral waters also contain salt, which can be bad for your blood pressure.

Likewise, when it comes to the taste of the water, there is little evidence to support the notion that bottled water is better than tap water. In the USA, a 2007 episode of Penn and Teller clearly demonstrated that restaurant diners couldn’t differentiate between water drawn from a hose at the back of the restaurant and bottled water. Over in the UK, London tap water (hardly famed for its flavor) came third in a blind taste test of 24 different varieties of water – some of which were expensive bottled brands.

The variation in cost between bottled and tap water will vary from brand to brand. However, as a rule, bottled water will cost several hundred times more per litre than ordinary tap water.

It doesn’t matter whether you look at it from the point of view of cost, taste, health or environmental impact. Bottled water doesn’t really have much to recommend it. If you really don’t like the taste of the water from your tap, you could always try using some home filtration system. It will be a lot cheaper than buying bottled water.

A home filtration system is a good solution for when you’re at home of course – but if you want to carry water to drink with you when you’re out and about, then you could use, and reuse, a bottle which you fill at home, or the office, before you set off. You could use something like the Wottle, which claims to be the world’s first designer reusable bottle and is manufactured from recycled material. Or just do some recycling of your own and use an old soda bottle.

Save money with a Brita jug filter – and you can also economise by buying Brita replacement filters online too.