where? a place where drinking water is practically free. the united states of america.
what? bottled water industry.
why? because it’s a huge waste.
in 2007, americans consumed 8,823,000,000 gallons of bottled water that cost $11,705,900,000. and it is estimated in 2008 that americans will consume 9,418,000,000 gallons of bottled water that will cost $12,573,500,000.
we have a clean public water system.
mexico is the next largest consumer of bottled water. mexico has a contaminated public water system; however, they only consumed 5,885,200,000 gallons of bottle water in 2007. let me reemphasize the initial statement…mexico has a contaminated public water system. on top of that, one out of six people in the world has no dependable, safe drinking water. so as of right now, that would put about 1,134,627,498 people out of luck.
in the united states, we are moving one billion bottles of water around a week in ships, trains, and trucks. well with gas prices around $3.50, i can only imagine how much gas is being wasted carrying around something that is pumped into all of our homes and businesses for a very minimal cost, practically free.
put another way, if the water we use at home cost what even cheap bottled water costs, our monthly water bills would run $9,000.
what about the wasted energy to make and dispose of these water bottles. over nine billion gallons of bottled water will be sold this year in the united states. most people aren’t buying it in gallon jugs, try 16.9 ounce bottles. that’s a lot of plastic.
our recycling rate for polyethylene terephthalate (pet) is only 23%, which means we pitch into landfills 38 billion water bottles a year–more than $1 billion worth of plastic.
by the way, drinking bottled water has also caused a growth in tooth decay problems among the american population. most bottled water does not have fluoride added to it. most public water sources do.
to sum it up. bottled water is for the lazy (remember, we’re talking about in the united states of america). surely your imagination is big enough to wonder about what we could do with the approximately $12.5 billion that will be spent on bottled water this year.
references:
http://www.bottledwater.org/public/Stats_2007.doc
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/117/features-message-in-a-bottle.html
http://www.ibiblio.org/lunarbin/worldpop
