Bottled Water – WHY?

www.OceanCrusaders.org

What’s this?

A closer look

Even Closer

Introduction

Today we are looking at Bottled Water. That is the water you buy in the shops that comes in plastic bottles.

Today the world consumes 200 BILLION litres of

bottled water annually.

Did you know that to count to 1 million would take you 11 days. So imagine how long it would take to count to

200,000,000,000

More than a billion people around the world do not have access to safe drinking water. In most countries that have bottled drinking water for sale, they have the luxury of quality tap water.

So why do we drink bottled water?

Global Corporations

In the 1970’s, the large soft drink manufacturers saw that their sales of soft drink were not growing as much as they liked. After all we can only drink so much soft drink.

So they started bottling water and went on a campaign to scare people into drinking bottled water rather than water from the tap. They stated that water from the tap was not good for you and that the water they had was pure and fresh, straight from a natural spring or from the mountains.

People started taking note and the Bottled Water industry started to grow.

• Producing and delivering a litre (34oz) of bottled water can emit hundreds of times more greenhouse gases than a litre of tap water.

• The world recycles only 30% of PET plastic drink bottles. Assuming the 200 billion litres (34oz) of bottled water produced in 2009­10 is in one litre (34oz) bottles, according to these figures, 140 billion of those bottles will end up as waste.

That’s 140,000,000,000

The Statistics

To produce a 600ml (20oz) bottle of 

water it actually takes 1,800ml (60oz) of 

water.  The additional water is because 

of waste and manufacturing of the 

bottle. 

So in effect, in times when we are on 

water restrictions, drinking bottled water 

is not actually helping our water levels. 

‘But it comes from natural springs and 

mountains’ I hear you say.

Did you know that 40% of the world’s 

bottled water is actually filtered water 

from a tap!

In fact whilst water from a tap has to 

adhere to strict Government standards 

for clean water, 0% of the worlds 

bottled water has to adhere to the 

same standard.

So is bottled water actually better for 

us or are we best to drink out of the 

tap?

That comes down to where you live 

and what bottled water you drink but 

in the majority of places drinking water 

out of your tap is perfectly safe. If you 

are worried, you can buy a filter for 

your tap.

If you take into account the production, transport, refrigeration and recycling, the 

world’s annual use of bottled water generates more than 20.5 million tonnes of 

greenhouse gas emissions.

This is the same amount that 4.5 million cars generate over the course of a year.

Increase in Greenhouse 

gases means our earth 

warms up as heat is 

retained in the earth’s 

atmosphere.  

So drinking bottled water 

increases global warming 

issues.  For instance if the 

oceans get too hot, our 

corals will die because of 

coral bleaching.

Greenhouse Gases

There are other dangers with water that 

comes in plastic.  These are known as 

BPA’s (Bisphenol_A).  These are toxic 

chemicals in plastic that can be absorbed 

into the drinking water or your lunch if 

you have a plastic lunch box.  

These toxins break down your immune 

system slowly and you can get sick from it.  

It can also cause cancerous cells in your 

body as well as many other diseases.

Have you ever tasted water from a bottle 

that has been left in the sun.  It tastes 

really bad and it isn’t good for you so be 

careful, you could be drinking BPA’s.

BPA’s

The cost

$1.50

per litre

$6 per

gallon

$2.30 per

litre

$9.20 per

gallon

$0.02 per

litre

$0.08 per

gallon

$4.00

per litre

$16 per

gallon

So what can I do?

It’s really easy to make a difference on this one and you can start right now.

Use the tap?

Buy a bottle?

You saying no will make a world of difference.

• Less Greenhouse gases – reduces global warming

• Less Rubbish – no plastics in our ocean for animals to eat

• More money in your pocket – to spend on fun things