Contaminated Water Supplies Encourages Bottled Water Use

If tap water was better quality and not so filled with contaminants and carcinogens, people would be more inclined to drink it and maybe be less dependent on coffee and carbonated soft drinks to try to quench their thirst. The cost to the environment is huge and probably not in the way you would think. Plastic water bottles from bottled beverages not only pollute the environment, they deplete some of our most precious resources. With more people drinking bottled water to stay healthy, the cost is rising astronomically.
The trend in water and other beverage bottles is to use crystal clear polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastics. The water companies use what will hold, transport and display their product as inexpensively and conveniently as possible. PET plastic is manufactured using a combination of natural gas and petroleum. More than 17 billion barrels of oil annually are used to make the bottles that are demanded by a thirsty public. One million cars can go without gas for a whole year to satisfy the plastic water bottle industry.
To get those plastic bottles to market requires transportation too. The weight of cases of bottled water amount to millions of tons per year and that takes a lot of fuel. If the empty bottles are lucky enough to reach the recycling station to be reused, more oil and lots of clean water are needed to operate the plant and recycle the plastic. Although it doesn’t require quite as much water and oil to make a new plastic bottle, recycling still depletes resources that will someday run out.
Since people are taking more responsibility for their health by drinking more water the price of gas has increased as dramatically as bottled water consumption. The Beverage Marketing Group has released statistics showing that the average American’s consumption of bottled water has risen from 1.6 gallons per person per year in 1976 to over 30.2 gallons per person in 2007.
Recycling is beginning to catch on but only about 15 to 20 percent of plastic bottles used ever gets to the recycling depot. Most of it ends up in the landfill or as litter. Some of it is unfortunate enough to land in the oceans and becomes part of the giant plastic continents like the one floating out in the Pacific Ocean between here and Hawaii or the one in the North Atlantic. Unsuspecting sea life and birds can end up swallowing the plastic bits as they break down, assuming they are food. Plastic contamination in the food chain is becoming an alarming concern.
It would be a much better world if people knew about recent water technologies like the Cerra Water Pitcher which would answer a lot of these problems. By using a glass bottle and filling it with the pollution-free alkaline, antioxidant water than the pitcher produces, you get the hydration you need and you aren’t depleting the oil reserves or polluting the environment. It’s a win-win.