So What about the Environment..

Plastics swept off streets and into sewers, end up in  waterways

So what is the environmental impact of bottled water? Bottled water is an unjustified luxury that, except for essential safety or medical reasons, is simply a fashion statement roaming free of environmental responsibility. Yes, it is true that in some countries, it is essential to drink bottled water because of the poor tap water quality, but that is no excuse for a country like Australia. We have such good, fresh water available on tap for free, so why are we paying so much for something that is essentially a human right? And why, may I ask, are we happy to risk the environment for something we don’t have to have!

The worldwide packaging for bottled water requires 2.7 million tonnes of plastic each year, with growing concerns about the environmental costs, such as the pollution and resource depletion from the oil, gas and coal used in the production process. Not only this, but to make each individual plastic bottle, it requires 7 times more water than what will be eventually packaged.

 The most devastating cost to the environment is the disposal of used bottles. Whether dumped into landfill or dropped as litter, the increasing number of water bottles is a growing problem. Approximately 70% of plastic drink bottles end up in landfill and take up to 1000 years to biodegrade. While not being the most numerous litter items, they do take up a lot of space compared to other types of waste, comprising 38% of the total volume of litter. The plastic bottles not recycled pose a serious threat to the environment, because of the toxins used to make it; they do not break down for hundreds of years.  There are an estimated 13,000 pieces of plastic on every square kilometre of the ocean surface. Not only this, but plastic disposed of correctly or incorrectly can clog up waterways, no matter how big or small the pieces. These tiny pieces are easily swallowed by marine life and can have a deadly effect. More than one million seabirds and 100,000 marine mammals are killed as a result every year. And it’s not just bottles tossed overboard; any bottle dropped anywhere can eventually make its way into the ocean.

I have to say, I am a huge culprit in buying bottled water and just getting rid of the empty bottle in the nearest convenient bin. Because we can’t see the effects first hand, we don’t think about the environmental costs. Maybe we should all think twice when buying bottled water, and try and think about where it eventually ends up.

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The True Cost of Bottled Water...

Since world consumption of bottled water has increased by 70% since 2001 to 200 billion litres in 2007, some people have become concerned about the environmental, economical, and social impacts of bottled water. Combining all the energy input totals, producing bottled water requires between 5.6 and 10.2 million joules of energy per litre, depending on transportation factors (a typical personal-sized water bottle is about 0.5 litres). That’s up to 2,000 times the energy required to produce tap water, which costs about 0.005 million joules per litre for treatment and distribution. 
 
In 2007, US consumers purchased more than 33 billion litres of bottled water per person. The total energy required to produce 33 billion litres is equivalent to 32-54 million barrels of oil. Energy to produce bottled water accounts for about one-third of one percent of total US energy consumption.

Besides the extravagant amount of oil used to make the bottles and large volumes of water used in the bottling process, there are of course, several other considerations. Firstly, there are the transport costs - by the time you transport every bottle by rail or truck and keep it cool, you may as well have filled it one-fourth of the way with oil. Also let’s not forget the operating costs of the factories themselves and the profit the bottled water companies have to make for their shareholders. Therefore, purely from an economic standpoint, if you only drink bottled water, you’re an environment killer.

Further more, there is also an environmental impact from production. This in fact, is quite simple to calculate: every tonne of PET plastic for the bottles produces 3 tonnes of carbon--adding 2.5 Million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions to the 17 million barrels of oil.

Check out some more sites:

Here,

 Here and

 Here     

Cheers!!

Some Fun Facts...

• Americans pitch 38 billion water bottles a year into landfills -- in excess of $1 billion worth of plastic. And 24% of the bottled water we buy is tap water repackaged by Coca-Cola

• The global rate of consumption more than quadrupled between 1990 and 2005
• Bottled water processed with distillation or reverse osmosis lacks fluoride ions which are sometimes naturally present in ground water. The drinking of distilled water may conceivably increase the risk of tooth decay due to a lack of this element
• Australians spend more than half a billion dollars a year on bottled water. Australia produced 582.9 million litres of bottled water in 2009-10¹.

• Producing and delivering a litre of bottled water can emit hundreds of times moregreenhouse gases than a litre of tap water.
• In many cases, a litre of bottled water is more expensive than a litre of petrol.
• Australia recycles only 36% of PET plastic drink bottles². Assuming the 582.9 million litres of bottled water produced in 2009-10 is in litre bottles, according to these figures,373 million of those bottles will end up as waste.
• Australia’s annual use of bottled water generates more than 60,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions - the same amount that 13,000 cars generate over the course of a year.
• Approximately 15,253.79 tonnes of PET³ was used in the packaging of bottled water in 2009-10⁴

^{To learn more... CLICK HERE!} 

Some History for You...

Bottled water consumption has increased rapidly over the last two decades. The consumption of bottled water in the world increases by an average of 12% each year, particularly in Europe and North America. One possible explanation is the severely polluted water in Europe caused by agricultural and industrial development. According to Earth Policy Institute, the consumption of bottled water in the U.S. increased from 4.725 million gallons in 2000 to 8,254 million gallons in 2006. Along with the growing popularity of drinking bottled water, environmental and health concerned institutions did researches on the safety and consequences of drinking bottled water. One of the foremost study was released from the Natural Resources Defense Council in 1999, which is called “Bottled Water, Pure Drink pr Pure Hype?”. The results were remarkable: almost 40% of all bottled water actually comes from the tap, 60% to 70% of bottled water sold in U.S. is exempt from the FDA's bottled water standards. The findings raised the public's awareness of the defects of bottled water.

Since then, ban-bottled-water campaigns began to launch around the world. In 2007, the San Francisco Government prohibited the use of city money to purchase bottled water. In 2008, TapIt in New York successfully pulled a good few of restaurants and cafes together to provide drinking water to the public, so as to minimize the purchase of bottled water. In Australia, Bundanoon was the first town in NSW that voted to ban bottled water by the locals in 2009. In addition, Massachusetts and Toronto both voted to ban the sale of all bottled water by 2011. There were also smaller scale bottled water bans in schools. Schools in several countries have banned bottled water and launched water stations.

Find out more:

NRDC:            

Earth Policy Institute          

Food and Water Watch:

See you soon!!!                     

An example to follow?

Bundanoon is not just awesome because of its super name...

Check this out!

The Story of Bottled Water...

Since when has bottled water become a normal part of our daily consumption? Why and when did we stop drinking from the tap and turn to the bottle? And what environmental and social impacts is this having? The Story of Stuff Project has compiled this easy-to-understand and informative 15 minute animation which explains the origin, process and impact of bottled water. Take a few minutes to watch and learn…

A nice cheesy introduction…

It’s been a long day at uni, you’re totally parched after trekking up the mountain of stairs that connect the lower and upper campuses, there’s not a bubbler in sight along any of the main walkways… so what do you do? Buy a bottle of water. It’s easy, bottled water is everywhere, and I personally cannot be bothered to bring in a bottle every day and fill it up at the manky bathroom taps. I don’t know about you, but by the end of the week, I often have to purge my bag of all the empty Mount Franklin bottles I have accumulated.

If I’m honest with myself, it’s a big waste of money, spending $3 on a bottle of water which I could get free from the tap. It’s also pretty selfish, and sickening to think that I’m paying for something that is essentially free, when in other parts of the world, access to clean water is a luxury. So what to do about this dilemma?   

Our campaign aims to reduce (and eventually completely eradicate) the consumption of bottled water on our UNSW uni campus. We are campaigning for the uni management to firstly install 15 bubblers along the main campus walkways, and secondly to ban the retail of bottled water on campus. This will reduce the levels of plastic waste at the uni, as well as give individuals the means to be more environmentally friendly in a simple everyday way.

Here on our campaign website is everything you need to become more aware about the environmental issues around bottled water, and how you can take positive action to reduce the use of bottled water on the UNSW uni campus.

Cheers!