[Vision2020] resources down the drain

[Mark Solomon]

The following is about the cost of one of the 
world's newest habits: drinking bottled water.

It's the same disease as big box stores, fast 
food franchises, chain motels, etc.: Package, 
homogenize and sanitize everything until it is 
stripped of all "surprises" (no matter how remote 
a possibility), can be found anywhere and local 
goods and services are relegated to tourism.

How boring. There certainly are places where 
drinking tap water is dangerous to one's health 
unless you have developed the intestinal flora 
suited to the region. If we spent the amount of 
money we now spend on bottled water on improving 
water supply systems instead, this problem would 
diminish rapidly.

But there's no ongoing cash flow in that approach, just a better world.

m.

http://www.earth-policy.org/Updates/2006/Update51.htm
BOTTLED WATER:
Pouring Resources Down the Drain

Emily Arnold and Janet Larsen

The global consumption of bottled water reached 154 billion liters (41
billion gallons) in 2004, up 57 percent from the 98 billion liters consumed
five years earlier. Even in areas where tap water is safe to drink, demand
for bottled water is increasing-producing unnecessary garbage and consuming
vast quantities of energy. Although in the industrial world bottled water
is often no healthier than tap water, it can cost up to 10,000 times more.
At as much as $2.50 per liter ($10 per gallon), bottled water costs more
than gasoline.
The United States is the world's leading consumer of bottled water, with
Americans drinking 26 billion liters in 2004, or approximately one 8-ounce
glass per person every day. Mexico has the second highest consumption, at
18 billion liters. China and Brazil follow, at close to 12 billion liters
each. Ranking fifth and sixth in consumption are Italy and Germany, using
just over 10 billion liters of bottled water each. (See data.)
Italians drink the most bottled water per person, at nearly 184 liters in
2004-more than two glasses a day. Mexico and the United Arab Emirates
consume 169 and 164 liters per person. Belgium and France follow close
behind, with per capita consumption near 145 liters annually. Spain ranks
sixth, at 137 liters each year.
Some of the largest increases in bottled water consumption have occurred in
developing countries. Of the top 15 per capita consumers of bottled water,
Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates, and Mexico have the fastest growth
rates, with consumption per person increasing by 44-50 percent between 1999
and 2004. While per capita rates in India and China are not as high, total
consumption in these populous countries has risen swiftly-tripling in India
and more than doubling in China in that five-year period. And there is
great potential for further growth. If everyone in China drank 100 8-ounce
glasses of bottled water a year (slightly more than one fourth the amount
consumed by the average American in 2004), China would go through some 31
billion liters of bottled water, quickly becoming the world's leading
consumer.
In contrast to tap water, which is distributed through an energy-efficient
infrastructure, transporting bottled water long distances involves burning
massive quantities of fossil fuels. Nearly a quarter of all bottled water
crosses national borders to reach consumers, transported by boat, train,
and truck. In 2004, for example, Nord Water of Finland bottled and shipped
1.4 million bottles of Finnish tap water 4,300 kilometers (2,700 miles)
from its bottling plant in Helsinki to Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia can afford to import the water it needs, but bottled water is
not just sold to water-scarce countries. While some 94 percent of the
bottled water sold in the United States is produced domestically, Americans
also import water shipped some 9,000 kilometers from Fiji and other faraway
places to satisfy the demand for chic and exotic bottled water.
Fossil fuels are also used in the packaging of water. The most commonly
used plastic for making water bottles is polyethylene terephthalate (PET),
which is derived from crude oil. Making bottles to meet Americans' demand
for bottled water requires more than 1.5 million barrels of oil annually,
enough to fuel some 100,000 U.S. cars for a year. Worldwide, some 2.7
million tons of plastic are used to bottle water each year.
After the water has been consumed, the plastic bottle must be disposed of.
According to the Container Recycling Institute, 86 percent of plastic water
bottles used in the United States become garbage or litter. Incinerating
used bottles produces toxic byproducts such as chlorine gas and ash
containing heavy metals. Buried water bottles can take up to 1,000 years to
biodegrade. Almost 40 percent of the PET bottles that were deposited for
recycling in the United States in 2004 were actually exported, sometimes to
as far away as China-adding to the resources used by this product.
In addition to the strains bottled water puts on our ecosystem through its
production and transport, the rapid growth in this industry means that
water extraction is concentrated in communities where bottling plants are
located. For example, water shortages near beverage bottling plants have
been reported in Texas and in the Great Lakes region of North America.
Farmers, fishers, and others who depend on water for their livelihoods
suffer from the concentrated water extraction when water tables drop
quickly.
Studies show that consumers associate bottled water with healthy living.
But bottled water is not guaranteed to be any healthier than tap water. In
fact, roughly 40 percent of bottled water begins as tap water; often the
only difference is added minerals that have no marked health benefit. The
French Senate even advises people who drink bottled mineral water to change
brands frequently because the added minerals are helpful in small amounts
but may be dangerous in higher doses.
The French Senate also noted that small, localized problems with tap water
can cause a widespread loss of confidence in municipal supplies. In fact,
in a number of places, including Europe and the United States, there are
more regulations governing the quality of tap water than bottled water.
U.S. water quality standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency for
tap water, for instance, are more stringent than the Food and Drug
Administration's standards for bottled water.
There is no question that clean, affordable drinking water is essential to
the health of our global community. But bottled water is not the answer in
the developed world, nor does it solve problems for the 1.1 billion people
who lack a secure water supply. Improving and expanding existing water
treatment and sanitation systems is more likely to provide safe and
sustainable sources of water over the long term. In villages, rainwater
harvesting and digging new wells can create more affordable sources of
water.
The United Nations Millennium Development Goal for environmental
sustainability calls for halving the proportion of people lacking
sustainable access to safe drinking water by 2015. Meeting this goal would
require doubling the $15 billion a year that the world currently spends on
water supply and sanitation. While this amount may seem large, it pales in
comparison to the estimated $100 billion spent each year on bottled water.
© 2006 Earth Policy Institute