Recently I heard a news report about a gas station owner who revealed that, like most gas station owners, he makes hardly any money on the gasoline he sells; the cash cow is the merchandise inside the store. His biggest money maker? Bottled water. While there is ever-present speculation about whether or not my bottle of Poland Spring water came from a tap or a hole in the ground, it’s cold, it tastes good, it’s portable and it’s disposable. For these reasons, along with brilliant marketing that allows for a low to high end spectrum of packaged water, bottled water is everywhere these days.

It is exciting to see statistics that show that Americans will soon consume more bottled water than soda, but underneath the trend toward healthier hydration lies the reality that a massive amount of packaged water exists where none did before. So, my question: What sort of impact does the production and distribution of disposable bottled water have on the volume of American waste and, ultimately, climate change?

A few water consumption statistics:

• Americans buy about 215 billion beverage containers every year, more than quadruple those bought in 1971¹
• Thirty years ago, bottled water barely existed as a business in the United States. In 2006, we spent more on bottled water than we spent on iPods or movie tickets–$15 billion²
• This year, the average American will drink 82 gallons of bottled water, nearly all of it from polyethylene terephthalate, or PET, plastic bottles¹
• 8 out of 10 plastic water bottles used in the United States become garbage or end up in a landfill³
• Producing plastic bottles for US consumers requires more than 1.5 million barrels of oil annually (enough to fill 100,000 cars for a year)³
• “We’re moving 1 billion bottles of water around a week in ships, trains, and trucks in the United States alone. That’s a weekly convoy equivalent to 37,800 18-wheelers delivering water.”²

A brief history of bottled beverages in the U.S.:
Sixty years ago, almost all beverages were sold in glass bottles that were expensive to produce. Bottlers across the country required the buyer to pay an extra few cents for the bottle, with the understanding that most buyers returned the bottles, received their deposit back, and the bottle was sterilized and reused. The material that changed all of that was aluminum. Much less expensive to produce, folks called these containers “one ways,” referring to the can’s journey from bottler to buyer to trash can. Eleven states passed bills in the 1970’s requiring a deposit system that would encourage consumers to return cans for a few cents a piece, but the trend toward throw aways had begun. By 1970 over half of beverages came in disposable containers. PET plastic bottles (polyethylene terephthalate) now provide the cheapest and therefore most disposable container of all, and they are everywhere holding everything.¹

Why pick on water?
I agree with most that, if you’re going to be drinking, water is better than soda. I wanted to explore bottled water, though, because it has become such a huge market, and with that, a huge source of waste. Consider the process. Creating and recycling PET bottles requires a fair amount of petroleum (see statistics above). We’re trucking and shipping one billion bottles of water a week in the U.S. Once consumed, eight out of ten people throw their water bottles away, creating massive amounts of non-biodegradable trash.

This process begs the question: What’s so bad about the water that runs from our taps? Is it unfilterable, even? (more on that coming soon)

For all its impurities, most tap water in the U.S. is potable, drinkable. Compare it with Fiji Artesan water, though, and it seems to come in a distant second. I have chuckled at recent Fiji water tag lines: “What ecosystem does your water come from?,” “Taste a cumulus,” and “Untouched by man.” The unfortunate reality is that this artesan water is being flown and driven halfway across the world while many Fiji residents are left thirsty: “In Fiji, a state-of-the-art factory spins out more than a million bottles a day of the hippest bottled water on the U.S. market today, while more than half the people in Fiji do not have safe, reliable drinking water. Which means it is easier for the typical American in Beverly Hills or Baltimore to get a drink of safe, pure, refreshing Fiji water than it is for most people in Fiji.”²

1. ”The Unintended Consequences of Hyperhydration” by Jon Mooallem, New York Times Magazine, 5/27/2007 http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/27/magazine/27Bottle-t.html?_r=1&ref=magazine&oref=slogin [↩] [↩] [↩]
2. http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/117/features-message-in-a-bottle.html [↩] [↩] [↩]
3. http://www.refillnotlandfill.org [↩] [↩]