Should We Ban Water Bottles? Pt. 2

Last time we looked at the reasons plastic bottles are probably a waste of space from water quality to chemical contaminants, but what about the use of water itself? Where does it come from and how is it processed? Is this an efficient system?

There are several different common sources for bottled water. One, as we mentioned, is literally tap water or Publically Source Water like what’s still used by Aquafina. Another is spring water. This water is taken from a natural source where water flows to the earth’s surface from deep underground. In slight contrast, well water is a manmade structure that taps a deep aquifer and creates access to this stored water. 

Water bottle companies usually source their water from one of the above and and then siphon off millions of gallons of water for bottling. The bottles themselves required oil to be extracted for their production and the amount of oil could power hundreds of thousands of homes. Add to that the facts that water is also used in the production of water bottles and the processing of water and the true the amount of water used by water bottle companies is staggering. For example, it take 6 liters of water to produce and cool 1.5 liters of bottled water. That means that not only are bottled water companies taking the millions of liters of water actually sold in store from springs and aquifers around the country, but they are also taking 4 times that amount just to process the water that is sold. The efficiency of this process is not only sorely lacking, but the environmental toll is staggering. 

Now, you may have heard a little about Nestle and their own water practices recently. Nestle owns one of the biggest water bottle companies in the country and they siphon water even from places that are suffering from a resource shortage. For example, in California, there have been several years of drought and fires and while communities are limiting their own water usage, Nestle is still pumping away millions of liters. It would still be bad if Nestle was paying back the communities it was taking from but as if to add injury to insult, in many cases, Nestle is paying a couple hundred dollars annually to pump millions of gallons of water from natural resources. In San Bernardino, CA for example, Nestle has been paying $524 for roughly 30 million gallons of water. That is a little over 5 dollars for 300,000 gallon. A dollar for 60,000 gallons. A penny for 600 gallons. How much is a bottle of water? $2 for something cheap. More if there is any kind of “enhancement.” For a penny, at the rate Nestle pays, you could fill 3,720 water bottles. I think it’s safe to say that we are all over paying for bottled water to an astronomical extent. 

So, at the end of the day, water bottles require huge amounts of water in addition to the water sold to be made. They require millions of barrels of fossil fuels and their cost is staggeringly disproportionate to the cost of producing them. All of that on top of the fact that disposing of plastic bottles takes a devastating toll on the environment and is one the the larger contributors to atmospheric pollution. 

So, should we ditch the plastic bottle? What do you think?

Should We Ban Water Bottles? Pt. 1

If you were offered a brand new bottle of water or a glass of water from the tap, which one would you reach for? We’ve talked before about how “enhanced” bottled waters are pretty gimmick-filled and may be more of an issue than a boon. We’ve also touched on the current water crisis as well as some of the current complications with tap water today. Any mention of Flint, Michigan will probably bring the dangers of water contamination and an overall shortage to mind for years to come. What about plain, bottled water? 

Bottled water has had a chokehold on the American preference for decades. Many of us grew up believing that bottled water was just cleaner and more heavily filtered than what came out of the tap. Even as we drank from hoses and accidentally swallowed lake water, we knew that just based on the cost alone, there had to be something special about that plastic-encapsulated H20. That’s one reason many of us were up in arms when it came out that Aquafina was literally straight from the tap. So, besides the possibility that they are identical to what comes from your kitchen faucet, what are the other big reasons that bottled water might be a bust?

The most obvious reason is right in the name: Plastic. Plastic waste is one of the biggest contributors to global warming and we, as a global community, need to be doing our utmost to combat such an unnecessary strain. More than 17 million barrels of oil are required to produce enough bottled water to meet America’s current demand. Even though some plastic bottles can technically be recycled, less than 1 in 5 are eligible. Even fewer make it into the recycling process. Most end up in a landfill or the ocean. Millions of tons of plastic bottles are currently floating in the Great Pacific Garbage Island. In addition, plastic often carries several chemical contaminants. Have you ever left a water bottle in your car and wondered if it was still okay to drink? The simple answer is, probably not. The longer answer is that the integrity of the plastic used for most bottles (roughly 93% of them) holds up until about 70 degrees. At that point, you are likely ingesting a significant amount of microplastics and heavy metals as well as an unknown cocktail of chemical contaminants that differs slightly between brands. So again, if you are considering drinking that hot, bottled water from the backseat, maybe just don’t!

Below we’ve included some additional reading resources and next time we will talk a little more about how the production of bottled water is ironically wasting a precious, limited resource: water. 

Resources:

The Real Reason You Should Stop Buying Bottled Water

The real cost of bottled water - Sustainability - University of Que    ensland

Reasons to Avoid Bottled Water | Sustainability at Harvard 

Did You Know About the Garbage Island?

It is wild to think about the amount of plastic waste we create in this country and around the world. We’ve discussed how we produce about 380 million tons of plastic and a sizable chunk of that is dumped into the ocean each year and how as human beings we inadvertently eat a surprisingly high amount of plastic as a result. Microplastics are pervasive and small enough that they are consumed in our food, found in our drinking water and even in the air. We’ve talked about this before but did you know about the garbage island? 

The garbage island, known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch located in the pacific ocean between California and Hawaii and spans an area about three times the size of texas. You can only imagine how many marine creatures are impacted by a mass of plastic waste that large. Even more eye opening is that while the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is the largest plastic waste site in the ocean, it is not the only one. It’s actually one of 5 very large sites of plastic waste contamination. It is estimated that in this one patch alone there are more than 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic waste weighing over 80,000 tonnes. 

Recently, groups like The Ocean Cleanup have begun trying to clean up this disastrous by-product of consumerism. Many are of the opinion that unless we turn plastic waste off at the source, there is little hope that we will be able to catch up with production and waste. One researcher speculated that if we stay on our current trajectory, in about 25 years, there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish. While that may seem crazy, think again about how much waste is in this one garbage patch and how we are adding to it everyday. It’s thought that the patches are created by a vortex of currents that collects and holds the garbage together. As the bigger pieces break down, they create millions of smaller pieces that are consumed and often kill the wildlife around the patch. The wildlife that doesn’t die often becomes food for larger sea creatures, spreading the overall effect of this floating trash heap. 

We know that plastic waste is a problem. We know that we have a finite amount of water on this planet. We know that plastic in our blood, lungs and air is not sustainable. We know that we are now passing these problems one directly to babies just born and the cycle is getting more and more dire. We also know that we have a small window of time in which to implement changes that will have a real impact. We are perched on the edge of a point of no return. It’s time to act and protect our resources before we run out. 

Resources:

https://theoceancleanup.com/great-pacific-garbage-patch/

https://plasticoceans.org/the-facts/