Found this article
pretty interesting!
Did you know it takes about 3 liters of water to produce 1 liter of bottled water!
Or that it currently takes about 17 million barrels of oil to produce the plastic bottles that water comes in!
Bottled Water and Energy
The growing consumption of bottled water raises questions about the product’s economic and environmental costs. Among the most significant concerns
are the resources required to produce the plastic bottles and to deliver filled bottles to consumers, including both energy and water.
The Pacific Institute estimates that in 2006:
* Producing the bottles for American consumption required
the equivalent of more than 17 million barrels of oil, not including the energy
for transportation
* Bottling water produced
more than 2.5 million tons of carbon dioxide
*
It took 3 liters of water to produce 1 liter of bottled water
Transporting and Recycling Bottled Water
More energy is needed to fill the bottles with water at the factory, move it by truck, train, ship, or air freight to the user, cool it in grocery
stores or home refrigerators, and recover, recycle, or throw away the empty bottles. The Pacific Institute estimates that
the total amount of
energy embedded in our use of bottled water can be as high as the equivalent of filling a plastic bottle one quarter full with oil.
Seems kind of ridiculous to be drinking bottled water now, doesn't it?
Not only is
bottled water almost unregulated by the FDA, it's also wasting the
precious water on our planet, producing millions of tons of carbon dioxide, and, if it takes 1/4 of the bottle filled with oil to make its trip from
being produced to being recycled, seems pretty wasteful there too!
Tap water is tested regularly by Utility Dept.'s where bottled water companies
MIGHT get tested once a year (sometimes less than that!
Tap water is actually safer than bottled water (in MOST cases) and sure is a lot more environmentally friendly to produce!
[edit on 5/5/2008 by Keyhole]
