Times Herald-Record
Sustainable Living: Bottled water’s environmental ills
by Shawn Dell Joyce
October 14, 2007
Many of us choose bottled water because we think it is the healthier choice.
Americans are the world’s leading consumers of bottled water, downing about 4 billion gallons per year in little plastic bottles. This is roughly equal to one 8-ounce bottle per person per day. While it certainly is healthier to drink water than soda, bottled water is actually very bad for the planet’s health.
There is much more to the ubiquitous water bottle than meets the lips. It actually takes three to five times more water to make and fill one plastic water bottle than the bottle contains. (Water is used in the production of the plastic in water bottles, then also to rinse those bottles.) If you add to that the average energy cost of making the plastic, filling the bottle, transporting it to market and then processing the empty bottle, you begin to see the hidden environmental costs.
“It would be like filling up a quarter of every (water) bottle with oil,” says Peter Gleik, a water policy expert and director at the Oakland, Calif.-based Pacific Institute, which studies “real life solutions to water crises.”
WATER BOTTLES, like other plastic containers, are made from natural gas and petroleum, which are both nonrenewable resources. More than 1.5 million tons of plastic are used to produce PET, the plastic in water bottles. The manufacturing processes that produce PET cause serious emissions, affecting both the environment and human health. The Pacific Institute calculates that the process of making the plastic bottles consumed in the U.S. uses approximately 17 million barrels of oil per year.
Instead of being made into bottles, that oil could fuel more than 100,000 cars. Once the plastic bottle is manufactured and filled with water, it has to be transported, using diesel trucks, ships or airfreight to reach our thirsty lips…”
Shawn Dell Joyce is a sustainable artist and activist from Montgomery. She is the founder of the Wallkill River School, combining plein-air painting with environmental activism. Visit http://www.recordonline.com/earth for more of her articles.
What a waste of precious resources…We have only one home; Earth. Let’s leave our children an earth that is beautiful and well-cared for.
More next time-Take care, & Live Green-Donna
P.S.Let’s become eco-friendly. Visit www.be-alkaline.com and www.be-alkaline.net -request your free e-book and newsletter to find out how you can have the best water on the planet and you make it in your own home. No more plastic bottles. For more information and research, write to Donna@be-alkaline.com and ask for further information.
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