Bottled water has been getting a bad rap lately with pictures of oceans and beaches littered with empty plastic bottles. But how bad is bottled water really?
The Costs
We're all about saving money, so of course we'll be comparing the costs of bottled water against tap. Bottled water is estimated to be 100 to 3000 times more expensive than tap water depending on the brand of water, and depending on where you live. Buying bottled water is really convenient sometimes, but think about the cost difference the next time you reach for a bottle at the shop.
Bottled Water Is Often No Cleaner Than Tap Water
In developed countries, tap water is routinely tested for toxins and heavy metals. Although there are cases where pollution is present, a filter will help solve these issues and provide your home with clean, cheap, drink water. On the other hand, bottled water often contains a sizeable amount of microplastics. A study in 2018, published in Frontiers in Chemistry, 259 bottled waters in several countries and found microplastics in 93% of them. In some cases bottled water may also be contaminated with trace toxins and heavy metals.
The Environmental Impact of Bottled Water
Here's where most of the criticism of bottled water comes from. Every year about 1.3 million tons of plastic is used to manufacture plastic water bottles. It is estimated that only 30% is recycled, and the rest dumped or incinerated. That's 910,000 tons of plastic that is either burnt or thrown into our oceans.
It's not just the plastic waste that makes bottled water. In 2013, the International Bottled Water Association did a study on how much water is used to make 1 liter of bottled water. They found that for every 1 liter of bottled water, 1.39 liters of water was used, and that doesn't include all the water used throughout the supply chain so the number is likely higher.
Now, the Carbon Footprint of bottled water, which is sometimes not known by many. 480 billion plastic bottles were consumed in 2018 with an average size of 1 liter this means that the CO2 footprint was between 67 billion and 192 billion kg of CO2 per year. That's about 1/3 of the entire aviation industry that year (543 billion kg)
Always Go For Tap If You Can!
There you have it. We're unable to go through the entire list of the cons of bottled water, but we hope the information here is sufficient to help you make the conscious decision to change the way you consume water. If everyone can cut their bottled water usage, we can greatly reduce the pollution on our world. Always choose tap! It's cheaper especially when making your own sparkling water at home. To save even more, make the switch from Sodastream and join our cylinder refill program