How does bottled water cause pollution

To meet the demand for American consumption, approximately 17 million barrels of oil are required to produce PET alone. Unlike tap water which is distributed through energy efficient infrastructure, producing bottled water involves burning vast quantities of fossil fuels. Raw materials like petroleum and gas have to be transported to plastic manufacturers to create the plastic resin, producing carbon emissions and expanding the water bottles carbon footprint in the process.

Once the plastic is produced, pressurized air is used to stretch the plastic into the shape of a water bottle. Afterward, the bottles are cooled by being placed near pipes that have cold water running through them.

By the time a bottle of water makes it to a store near you, it has a total carbon footprint equal to 82 grams or 3 ounces of carbon dioxide.

Producing plastic water bottles also exhausts water resources, taking over three times as much water to produce a bottle of water than the contents of the container itself. The UN estimates that 1. Even if polluting the oceans was a worthy tradeoff for offering clean water to these nations, for the most part, plastic water bottles are not helping these countries address the appropriate issues.

In rural communities, women and children are often walking miles every day to collect water for their families, usually from streams and ponds that are full of pollutants.

This limits the time they have to work, earn an income or receive an education, contributing to a cycle of poverty and illness. Those who cannot afford to feed their children or provide healthcare, cannot afford the high costs of bottled water.

Adding waste from plastic water bottles is only compounding their problems. So why do people purchase plastic bottled water? Many people prefer the taste of plastic bottled water to tap water.

The irony of it is that many water bottle distributors use tap water to fill their bottles, and the truth is, tap water is better regulated than bottled water in terms of safety requirements read this article to learn what's in your local tap water. So it seems we are letting an industry package and sell us a product that in most developed nations, we get for free.

To make matters worse, these companies are producing an enormous amount of waste while selling water that is readily available in the municipal line. Globally, we go through one million plastic water bottles per minute. Of that figure, some countries are consuming significantly more water bottles than others. The US, for example, goes through 1, plastic water bottles every second , whereas China consumes 2, bottles per second. The glaring problem here is when you consider our respective populations: China is roughly 1.

Per capita, the US is consuming far more. To no surprise, the countries that consume the most bottled water, with the highest rates of pollution, also have the lowest recycling rates.

In England, for example, free water bottle refill locations are being installed in local businesses, with the goal of having refill zones in every English town and city by Meanwhile, San Francisco has put itself on the map by becoming the first American city to ban the sale of plastic water bottles.

People love the convenience of bottled water. But maybe if they realized the problems it causes, they would try drinking from a glass at home or carrying water in a refillable steel container instead of plastic.

Plastic bottle recycling can help—instead of going out with the trash, plastic bottles can be turned into items like carpeting or cozy fleece clothing. Unfortunately, for every six water bottles we use, only one makes it to the recycling bin. The rest are sent to landfills. Or, even worse, they end up as trash on the land and in rivers, lakes, and the ocean.

Plastic bottles take many hundreds of years to disintegrate. Water is good for you, so keep drinking it.

But think about how often you use water bottles, and see if you can make a change. Personally, the first problem with bottled water that comes to my mind is the plastic bottles that they are sold in. The industry likes to tell us that PET plastic is completely recyclable. Here it is used to make fabric, rugs and clothing. This means that in order to make more bottles, they need more crude oil, the source of raw material to create plastic. Oil extraction releases greenhouse gases that are a leading causing of climate change, and plastics production releases additional toxics into the environment.

It is also estimated that approximately one in four bottles of water crosses at least one international border in route to its final destination. In addition to the plastic from the bottles themselves being harmful to the environment, the water itself can cause harm. Quick Tip: Stop adding plastic to landfills today by purchasing a refillable water bottle.

Learn the pros and cons of every reusable water bottle type in our free, definitive guide. The production of bottled water uses 17 million barrels of oil a year. People in the U. It takes up to 1, years for every single bottle to decompose. Toss your plastic bottled water habit for good! A cultural shift can change the way plastic water bottles affect our environment. Plastic water bottle pollution is worse than you think. Here are 15 ways plastic water bottles are destroying our environment.

Plastic water bottle production. It takes 3 times the amount of water in a bottle of water to make it as it does to fill it.