Glug and Toss Water Bottles Clog Landfills

WASHINGTON, DC, May 14, 2007 (ENS) –

Environment News Service

Glug and Toss Water Bottles Clog Landfills

May 14, 2007

Bottled water is not only costly at the cash register, it is environmentally costly, according to a new report from the Worldwatch Institute.

Millions of tons of oil-derived plastics, mostly polyethylene terephthalate, PET, are used to make the water bottles, most of which are not recycled.

Each year, about two million tons of PET bottles end up in landfills in the United States, Worldwatch estimates. In 2005, the national recycling rate for PET was only 23.1 percent, far below the 39.7 percent rate achieved a decade earlier.

To add to the environmental bad news, excessive withdrawal of natural mineral or spring water to produce bottled water has threatened local streams and groundwater, and the product consumes significant amounts of energy in production and shipping.

“Bottled water may be an industry winner, but it’s an environmental loser,” says Ling Li, a fellow with the Institute’s China Program who authored the update to the annual Worldwatch Vital Signs report.

“The beverage industry benefits the most from our bottled water obsession,” said Li. “But this does nothing for the staggering number of the world’s poor who see safe drinking water as at best a luxury, and at worst, an unattainable goal.”

An estimated 35–50 percent of urban dwellers in Africa and Asia lack adequate access to safe potable water, according to Worldwatch’s State of the World 2007 report.

Bottled water can be between 240 and 10,000 times more expensive than tap water, Worldwatch says. In 2005, bottled water sales in the United States alone generated more than $10 billion in revenue.

Global consumption of bottled water more than doubled between 1997 and 2005, making it the world’s fastest growing commercial beverage.

The United States remains the largest consumer of bottled water, but among the top 10 countries, India has nearly tripled its consumption, while China more than doubled its consumption between 2000 and 2005.

In the United States, regulations concerning bottled water are generally the same as for tap water, but are weaker for some microbial contaminants.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration permits bottled water to contain certain levels of fecal matter, whereas the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency does not allow any human waste in city tap water, the Worldwatch report points out.