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H o w m u ch d o w e d r i n k ?

Bot t led wat er companies want you to t h ink thei r water is special , but they cont inue t o hide essent ia l fact s about

their products, such as the geographic locat ion of the water 's source, puri f icat ion and test resul ts.

Here are some other l i t t le known facts that t he bot t led water indust ry would rat her thei r consumers not ponder :

•  Every 27 hours Amer icans consume enough bot t led wat er t o c i rc le t he ent i re equator w i th plast ic bot t lesstacked end t o end. 1 

•  In just a single week, t hose bott les would st ret ch more t han hal fway t o the m oon — 155,400 mi le s. 1 

•  Between 2004 and 2009, US consumption of bott led water increased by 24 percent. Bott led water saleshave more t han quadrupl ed in t he last 20 years (BMC 2010).

•  The federal government does not mandate t hat bot t led w ater be any safer t han tap water – the chemicalpol lut ion standards are nearly ident ical (EWG 2008). In fact, bott led water is less regulated than tapwater .

•  Close t o hal f of al l b ott led wat er is sourced fr om munici pal t ap wat er (BMC 2010, Food and Wat er Watch2010).

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•  I t t akes an est im ated 2,000 t imes more energy to produce bot t led wat er than t o produce an equivalentamount of tap w ater (Gleick 2009) .

•  Bot t led w ater pr oduct ion and t r anspor tat ion for the U.S. m arket consumes more than 30 mi l l ion barrels of

oi l each year and produces as much carbon dioxide as 2 mi l l i on cars (Gleick 2009).

•  Plast ic wat er bot t les are th e fast est grow ing form of municipal sol id waste in t he United Stat es. Each yearmore t han 4 bi l l ion pounds of PET plast i c bott les end up in landf i l ls or as roadside l i t t er (CorporateAccountabi l i ty Internat ional 2010) .

•  Whi le plast ic bot t les can be recycled, t he maj or i ty are not . Moreover , p last ic never actual ly degrades; i t j ust breaks d ow n in t o smal ler and smal l er p iec es. In som e par t s o f t he oc ea n, plast ic ou t w ei ghs p lan kt onby a six-to-one r at io (Moore 2001).

•  Bott led water has indirect economic costs. Disposing of plast ic water bott le waste, for example, costsci t ies nat ionwide an est imated $70 mi l l ion in landf i l l t ipping fees each year (Corporate Accountabi l i tyInternat ional 2010).

Footnotes.

1 Calculati on assumes the wat er f i l ls 16.9 fluid ounce bott les, 8 inches in height. Calculation is based on 8.4 bi l l ion gal lons of bott led

wat er consumed annual ly in t he U.S. (23 mil l ion gal lons per day) (BMC 2010); and t he Eart h's circumference at the equator, 24,901 miles.  

REFERENCES

BMC (Beverage Market ing Corporat ion). 2010. Bott led Wat er in t he U.S.: 2010 Edit ion. Avai lable:

htt p:/ /www. beveragemarket ing.com  

Corporate Accountabi l i ty Internat ional. 2010. Gett ing States Off the Bott le, Second Edit ion. Avai lable:

htt p:/ /www. st opcorpor at eabuse.org/Gett ingSt at esOff TheBott le  [acc essed May 10 2010] .

EWG (Environment al Working Group). 2008. Bott led Wat er Qual i ty Invest igat ion: 10 Major Brands, 38 Pol lut ants.

Avai lable:  http://www.ewg.org/reports/bottledwater  [accessed November 12 2010].

Food and Water Watch. 2010. Bott l ing Our Cit ies' Tap Water. Avai lable:

http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/water/bottled/bottling-our-cities-tap-water/  [accessed Sept ember 21

2010].

Gleick PH, Cooley HS. 2009. Energy impl icat ions of b ott led w ater . Environment al Research Lett ers. January-March

2009. Volume 4, Issue 1.

Moore CJ, Moore SL, Leecast er MK, Weisberg SB. 2001. A comparison of plast ic and plankt on in th e Nort h Paci f ic

cent ral gyre. Marine Pol lut ion Bul let in 42: 1297-1300.