Bottled Water

Nolan O’Brien

Environmental impact of bottled waterMost bottled water

is in plastic bottlesWhen burned, these

bottles release toxic chemicals

When buried (put in landfills) it can take them over 1000 years to decompose

http://blogs.citypages.com/food/bottled-water.jpg

There are a lot of bottles…200 billion liters sold

worldwide in 200733 billion sold in the

USA86 percent of bottles in

the USA become garbage or litter

If the average bottle is estimated to hold .5 liters, that means 56.76 billion bottles become garbage or litter http://www.vcuinsight.vcu.edu/stories/fall07_archive_.htm

Energy used for bottled waterEnergy is required for: Treatment Bottle manufacturing Transport Cooling prior to consumption

A 2009 study by the Pacific Institute concluded bottled water consumes 1000-2000 times as much energy as tap water

The bottled water industry consumes the equivalent of about 50 million barrels of oil per year,

This could instead be used to fuel 3 million cars http://www.treehugger.com/coal-plants-waste.jpg

Why drink bottled water?Bottled water can cost up to 1000-1900 times

the cost of tap waterWhat are the benefits that offset this cost?The International Bottled Water Association

(IBWA) claims that “Bottled water is a great beverage choice for hydration and refreshment because of its consistent safety, quality, good taste and convenience.”

In a survey conducted by the University of Birmingham most people believed that bottled water was healthier than tap water

Why drink bottled water?

http://maryt.wordpress.com/2007/07/27/tap-waters-best/http://www.sodabuzz.com/osc/10valve-fountain-soda-dispenser-icebeverage-postmix-p-559.html

vs.

Differences in water treatmentBottled water is regulated by the FDATap water is regulated by the EPABottled water is required to meet the same

standards that the EPA sets for tap water

EPA water testingThe Safe Drinking Water act provides standards

for over 90 contaminantsEvery state except Wyoming has been given

enforcement authorityIn Maryland, water standards are enforced by the

Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE)Every community water system is required to

send letters annually to its users detailing “information on the source water, the levels of any detected contaminants, and compliance with drinking water regulations”

Water report for the DC Areahttp://www.wssc.dst.md.us/info/wssc_Final20

08.pdf

FDA Water TestingThe FDA is responsible for testing bottled

water plantsAccording to the FDA’s website, “bottled

water plants generally are assigned low priority for inspection”.

Bottled water companies are not required to disclose information about their water such as:

The source of the water How the water was treated Quality reports detailing levels of pollutants

Independent bottled water testingThe Environmental Working Group surveyed

155 brands and 38 states.Only 18% disclosed contaminant testing

results.  33% did not provide treatment information

on labels or their website30% of did not provide any information on

the source of the water

Independent bottled water testingThe Environmental

Working Group (EWG) had 10 brands tested

Sam’s Choice water and Giant’s Acadia water had levels of trihalomethanes (carcinogenic chemicals) higher than the legal limit in the strictest state (California)

The National Resources Defense council tested 103 bottled water brands

23 of these brands had contaminant levels that violated California law (where they were purchased)

It’s a thermos!Provides the

convenience of bottled water

Also insulates your beverage and prevents it from temperature change

Reusable indefinitely

http://www.thermos.com/product_catalog.aspx?CatCode=BEVG

Summary

The bottled water industry has a negative environmental impact

Bottled water is not safer than tap waterThe convenience of having water in a bottle

can be achieved through buying reusable bottles

Bottled water is much more expensive than tap water

There is no valid reason whatsoever to justify the consumption of bottled water

Eliminating bottled waterUltimately a supply/demand issue; demand must

be reducedIncrease public awareness about the illogicality

of spending money on bottled waterLocal governments can not spend money on

bottled waterBusinesses and other organizations can refuse to

spend money on or sell bottled waterSan Francisco, St. Louis, Salt Lake City, and Los

Angeles have banned using government funds for bottled water

Action Plan for UMDDon’t sell any bottled water Vending machines Athletic events Dining service operated convenience stores

• Do not allow use of UMD funds to buy bottled water

• Raise awareness about the issues with bottled water

• Provide clean filtered tap water to replace bottled water

• Promote the use of reusable water containers

Anti-bottled water marketing to use at UMD

http://duke.raycomsports.com/blog/2009/12/16/a-look-at-duke/http://elizabethcarroll.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/bottled-water.jpg

Literature Cited 1. Cooley, H, and Gleick, P. “Energy implications of bottled water”. 2009. IOP science. Accessed 26 February 2010. http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-9326/4/1/014009/fulltext?ejredirect=.iopscience   2. Arnold, Emily. “Bottled water: Pourinng resourses down the drain.” 2006. Earth policy institute. Accessed 26 February 2010. http://www.bvsde.paho.org/bvsacd/cd47/bottled.pdf   3. Wilk, Richard. “Bottled water: The pure commodity in the age of branding.” 2006. Journal of Consumer Culture. Accessed 26 February 2010. http://joc.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/6/3/303   4. Ward, L, Cain, O, Mullally, R, Holliday, K, Wernham, A, Baillie, P, and Greenfield, S. “Health beliefs about bottled water: a qualitative study. 2009. University of Birmingham. Accessed 26

February 2010. http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/9/196/   5. Posnick, L and Kim, H. “Bottled water regulation and the FDA”. 2002. Food and Drug administration. Accessed 26 February 2010. http://www.fda.gov/Food/FoodSafety/Product-SpecificInformation/BottledWaterCarbonatedSoftDrinks/ucm077079.htm#authors   6. Environmental Working Group. “Is your bottled water worth it?” Accessed 26 February 2010. Accessed 26 February 2010. http://www.ewg.org/health/report/bottledwater-scorecard   7. Office of water. “Drinking water monitoring, compliance, and enforcement.” 2004. Environmental Protection Agency. Accessed 26 February 2010. http://www.epa.gov/safewater/sdwa/pdfs/fs_30ann_monitoring_web.pdf

8. Naidenko, O, Leiba, N, Sharp, R, and Houlihan, J. “Bottled water contains disinfection byproducts, fertilizer residue, and pain medication.” 2008. Environmental working group. Accessed 26 February 2010.

http://www.ewg.org/reports/bottledwater   9. Maryland Department of the Environment. “Safe drinking act annual compliance report for calander year 2008.” 2009. MDE. Accessed 26 February 2010. http://www.mde.state.md.us/assets/document/WSP-ACR2009for2008.pdf   10. Olsen, Erik. “Bottled water: Pure drink or pure hype?” 1999. National Resources Defense Council. Accessed 26 February 2010. http://www.nrdc.org/water/drinking/bw/bwinx.asp   11. Gleick, Peter.”The myth and reality of bottled water”. 2004. The Pacific institute. Accessed 26 February 2010. http://www.pacinst.org/topics/water_and_sustainability/bottled_water/myth_and_reality.pdf   12. Brown, Lester. “Plan B 4.0: Mobilizing to save civilization.” 2009. Earth policy institute. Accessed 26 February 2010. http://www.earth-policy.org/index.php?/books/pb4/pb4_table_of_contents

13. International bottled water association. “What is bottled water?” Accessed 26 February 2010. http://www.bottledwater.org/content/what-bottled-water