Even in Penang where I live, it is a well known fact that waste management is a serious problem. Landfills have grown to monstrous sizes while recycling remains a rare habit. If you were to look at any rubbish dump, you can see the number of plastic bottles discarded by consumers!
According to Wikipedia:
The global bottled water market valuation grew by 7% in 2006 to reach a value of $60,938.1 million. The volume of bottled water grew by 8.1% in 2006 to 115,393.5 million liters. In 2011, the market is forecast to have a value of $86,421.2 million, an increase of 41.8% since 2006. In 2011, the market is forecast to have a volume of 174,286.6 million liters, an increase of 51% since 2006.Allaboutwater.Org has this to say:
The global rate of consumption more than doubled between 1997 and 2005.
The major criticism of bottled water concerns the bottles themselves. Individual use bottled water is generally packaged in Polyethylene terephthalate (PET). According to a NAPCOR study, PET water bottles account for 50% of all the PET bottles and containers collected by curbside recycling, and the recycling rate for water bottles is 23.4%, an increase over the 2006 rate of 20.1%. PET bottled water containers make up one-third of 1 percent of the waste stream in the United States.
The International Bottled Water Association also reports that the average weight of a plastic bottle water was 13.83 grams in 2007, compared to 18.90 grams in 2000, representing a 26.7% decline. Pepsi-Co has since introduced a bottle weighing 10.9 grams and using 20 percent less plastic, which it says is the lightest bottle of its kind that is nationally distributed.
An estimated 50 billion bottles of water are consumed per annum in the US and around 200 billion bottles globally.
Bottled water processed with distillation or reverse osmosis lacks fluoride ions which are sometimes naturally present in ground water. The drinking of distilled water may conceivably increase the risk of tooth decay due to a lack of this element.
According to a 1999 NRDC study, in which roughly 22 percent of brands were tested, at least one sample contained chemical contaminants at levels above strict state health limits. Some of the contaminants found in the study could pose health risks if consumed over a long period of time. However, the NRDC report conceded that "[m]ost waters contained no detectable bacteria, and the levels of synthetic organic chemicals and inorganic chemicals of concern for which were tested were either below detection limits or well below all applicable standards." Meanwhile, a report by the Drinking Water Research Foundation found that of all samples tested by NRDC, "federal FDA or EPA limits were allegedly exceeded only four times, twice for total coliforms and twice for fluorides." CLICK HERE to read more.
Besides the sheer number of plastic bottles produced each year, the energy required to manufacture and transport these bottles to market severely drains limited fossil fuels. Bottled water companies, due to their unregulated use of valuable resources and their production of billions of plastic bottles have presented a significant strain on the environment.
The authors of the WWF report suggested that water bottles be washed and reused in order to lessen their negative impact on the environment. Unfortunately, reusing plastic bottles further compromises the quality of the water, due to the fact that more and more phthalate leaches its way into the water as the bottle gets older. In another suggestion, the authors recommended that bottled water companies use local bottling facilities in order to lessen fuel expenditures for transportation needs. Regrettably, local bottling further compromises water quality due to the reduced health standards for in-state bottled water production and consumption. It seems there is no feasible solution to this problem. The bottled water industry causes a severe strain on the environment, but solutions to this environmental damage significantly lessen the quality of water in the bottles. CLICK HERE to read more.
Incidentally, Bundanoon in New South Wales has voted overwhelmingly to ban the sale of bottled water over concerns about its environmental impact. Click here to read more.
So the next time you want to buy bottled water, think again carefully. Try to bring along your own water bottle from home and love the environment by not buying bottled water unless it is absolutely necessary.
Here's a video clip to make your day. Enjoy! I really love it and wonder if I grooved like that as a baby haha! I bumped into it while visiting one of my reader's blog. Take care and have a nice day.
QQ OMG, how can one possibly control or handle such hyperactive babies???