Bottled_Water

Analyzing Effect of Bottled Water About 70% of the Earth’s surface is covered in water. Despite the abundance of this resource, people spend 35 billion dollars a year buying purified water that has been pre-bottled in a factory, and an additional 70 billion to dispose of the plastic bottles (NRDC). It is estimated that two gallons of water is wasted to “purify” one gallon of bottled water and for the price of one disposable bottle of water, a person can use 1,000 gallons of tap water (Howard). The bottled water industry is booming, but in terms of sustainability, bottled water is wasteful, costly, and no better for the consumer then American tap water (Ferrier, 2001). Bottled water produces up to 1.5 million tons of plastic waste per year. The plastic used to bottle water is high quality and requires up to 47 million gallons of oil per year to produce (Ferrier, 2001). The quality of the plastic makes the old bottles a high-demand recycling item, but 80% of them are put into landfills where they can take up to 1,000 years to biodegrade. Some suggest reusing the disposable plastic bottles is the best way to handle the waste. In reality, reused bottles may be contaminated with bacteria and other disease-causing organisms. Reusing the bottles may expose people to unhealthy microorganisms, especially if the bottles are not washed appropriately after each use (FDA, 2002). In addition to the tolls on the environment from production and destruction of the plastic bottles, the transportation of 22 million tons of the bottled water uses fossil fuels and results in the release of large amount of harmful emissions (Howard). The use of these fuels litters the atmosphere with carbon which, debatably, traps heat in our atmosphere contributing to global warming. The Natural Resource Defense Council estimated that 25 percent or more of bottled water is nothing more than tap water. So why is it that Americans are spending four cents more, per ounce, on water then on gasoline' The International Bottled Water Association has convinced consumers that bottled water is healthier and less contaminated then tap water. No independent investigation has shown that bottled water passes more safety and health checks than tap water (Howard). Bottled water is also stated to have a “cleaner” taste then tap water in some communities. This is because chemicals are added to the water to make the taste crisper, which actually makes the water less pure, or “clean”. The only logical arguments to use bottled water in this country are the convenience and a cleaner taste then tap water in some areas. There are many environmentally friendly containers for drinking water that are sometimes more convenient to carry around then disposable water bottles. And, as stated before, most bottled water is actually less pure then tap water. This makes the use of bottled water obsolete. There is no sense in risking the future of our world to use bottled water when use could be easily replaced with a reusable aluminum bottle. Drinking water bottled in a factory can be useful. In areas where the local water available to a population is potentially unsanitary it is important to have an alternative drinking water available. In the United States, however, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulates all public water supplies and there have never been major threats to the quality of our drinking water. While the Food and Drug Administration has rules and regulations over the purified water that goes into bottles, the EPA reportedly has stricter regulations on the nations tap water systems (Howard). Because bottled water has negative effects on many aspects of our lives, several small town across the world have banned bottled water use altogether. This is a complex solution to a difficult problem. While banning the use in the U.S. would solve the environmental and health issues associated with bottled water, it would create an economic deficit, as the bottled water industry is the second largest commercial beverage category in the country.