As consumer products go, plastic has become ubiquitous, and for good reason: it is an extremely useful material that has made life more convenient and in some cases, safer, but plastic has a huge environmental footprint with high costs to its creation. Plastic water bottles also contain plastic softeners known as phthalates which can also be toxic to the health of the consumer. Plastic Trash is a Serious Problem. This, the bottled water industry says, is evidence that its product isn't so bad. There is also plastic’s large carbon footprint. A study found that in 2010 — only a single year — 8 million MT of plastic waste was swept off the land into the ocean due to poor waste management practices and another 150 million MT was moving through marine ecosystems. Choose tap water over bottled – it takes about 1.5 gallons of water to manufacture a single plastic bottle (how crazy is that?) One of the biggest is the dawning realization that plastic waste is now truly found everywhere — from the guts of birds and the flesh of fish to the noses of turtles. A truck load of plastic drink bottles. That means by using a reusable water bottle, you could save an average of 156 plastic bottles annually. To really understand the big question of whether plastic water bottles are truly recyclable, let’s look at a more in-depth explanation behind the process and statistics about PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate) plastic #1 recycling rates. But they’re also better for your health, according to a new study.It revealed that Americans are ingesting between 74,000 and 121,000 tiny pieces of plastic, known as microplastics, each year from the food we eat, the air we breathe, and the water we drink. 15 offers from $23.46. FACT #3 : Americans purchase about 50 billion water bottles per year, averaging about 13 bottles per month for every person in the U.S.! "Bottled water products are extremely efficient in terms of water use compared to some other packaged beverages," says Chris Hogan, spokesman for the International Bottled Water Association. Based on these numbers, it takes about 1.4 gallons (5.3 liters) of water to produce a typical single-use water or soda bottle. The bottled water industry has led the way in realizing the cost savings of self-manufacturing bottles. It’s no secret that reusable water bottles are better for the environment. When people in Los Angeles, Paris and Singapore sip on genuine Fijian water imported thousands of miles from the tropical island, they are also consuming the virtual water it took to produce resin from water-stressed China and bottles from Fiji. They can release potentially harmful chemicals into your water. The three simple reasons below are how you can ignore the however many reasons online and continue to drink out of plastic water bottles as much as you want. Usually, they point to the roughly 50 billion (mostly plastic) bottles we throw away every year. Only about 23% of plastic bottles are recycled within the U.S. A study was performed on 250 bottles of water purchased in 9 different countries at the State University of New York in Fredonia. Kai Olson-Sawyer This becomes even more contentious during times of drought for these already water-scarce areas of India. To calculate the total water footprint of PET plastic, both the “blue” and “grey” footprints have to be assessed, which means taking into account not just the water consumed during creation of the raw material, but also the water required to reduce the thermal pollution from cooling water heated during processing. But water activists say the IBWA study highlights a problem throughout the beverage industry: Few companies take the whole water-use picture into account when calculating their water use. The majority of the time, a disposable plastic water bottle ends up in landfills where it takes up to 1,000 years to break them down, if not more. Drilling for oil to make plastic, Ercin says, uses a substantial amount of groundwater. A paper by Vorosmarty et al., published in the journal Science explains that, while water impacts are most sharply felt and managed at a local level, in an era of international supply chains, local water problems may be impacted by global systems and processes. Similarly, water is consumed in manufacturing most other products. China faces serious water scarcity and water pollution problems throughout the country, both of which are caused or exacerbated by manufacturing. Bottled water companies (along with many other beverage companies) should include the water in their supply chain, says Ertug Ercin with the Water Footprint Network. ; 7.7 billion plastic water bottles are used in the UK every 12 months. The blue and grey water footprint for all that PET works out to about 91.8 billion m3 (which is like filling 693 billion bathtubs full of water). Provoked by the ExxonMobil cracker development next door, concerned citizens and environmental groups in Portland banded together to protect their local water and air. If you fill a plastic water bottle so it is about 25% full, that’s about how much oil it took to make the bottle. In the case of plastic production, if it occurs within a stressed watershed, and if water management within that watershed is suboptimal, then consumers who reach for those plastic products are unwittingly contributing to unsustainable water use. ; 50 billion water bottles were sold in the US every 12 months. 2. 38 million plastic bottles go to landfill each year in America alone. Hogan says some companies say they don't think they can get any more efficient, but they're trying. Bottled water, once considered a niche product, now accounts for 17.8% of the packaged beverage market. Polyethylene terephthalate (PET or PETE) plastic – the source material of water bottles, soda bottles and more — makes up 10.2 percent of global plastic production. Each step in the life cycle of plastic, from the extraction of oil or natural gas at the well pad, through the many steps that result in the resins that become various types of plastic, consumes water. ; By 2050, there will be more plastic in the oceans than there are fish according to environmental scientists. In India, for instance, soft drink giants. Plastic water bottles contain a sizable amount of Bisphenol A (BPA), a substance that has been classified as an endocrine disruptor, meaning it bears a toxic effect on a human’s ability to reproduce. The final step includes molding these pellets into plastic packaging. ; 1 million plastic bottles are purchased in the US every minute according to Earth Day organizers. Based on these numbers, it takes about 1.4 gallons (5.3 liters) of water to produce a typical single-use water or soda bottle. Reusable water bottles have gone mainstream, largely thanks to David Attenborough shining a light on the shocking issue of plastic pollution. The truth behind plastic water bottle recyclability He Says Recycle. Usually, they point to the roughly 50 billion (mostly plastic) bottles we throw away every year. Water footprints account for water use along entire supply (or production) chains, which can be messy just to map, let alone assess. On average, the median UK household purchases 480 plastic bottles in one year, but only 270 of those gets recycled. , Robin Madel. Environmental activists have long claimed that bottled water is wasteful. Guest Blog by British Solomon. Get a reusable container , fill it with your own beverage or water from a fountain and reduce the need for more packaging-intensive, single serving sizes. For example, it takes 22 gallons of water to make one pound of plastic. In India, for instance, soft drink giants PepsiCo and Coca-Cola have bottling operations with a long history of using and polluting residents’ scarce water supplies. Because PET is a petroleum product, its water footprint includes the water consumed in the processes of extracting, refining and manufacturing of oil and natural gas, which produces the raw material that becomes PET resin pellets. Because so much water use and pollution occurs from trade that moves water “virtually” around regions, countries and continents, local water mismanagement can lead to clashes over water resources. Now there is a way for you, as an individual to make a positive impact on the environment and not contribute plastic waste into landfills. Hard alcohol, it turns out, is the greediest, guzzling 34.55 liters of water for every liter. The Water Footprint Network says the bottle itself could require 3 liters of water for production. The True Price of Plastic. There are lots of reasons for the growing backlash against plastic food and beverage packaging, including bottled water. Hogan says that one reason why the IBWA didnt look at these issues is that it's hard to know where to stop. The average person uses 156 plastic bottles per year. So why should we reach for a reusable bottle instead of plastic? FACT #4 1 plastic. S.Pellegrino Sparkling Natural Mineral Water, 8.45 fl oz. The International Bottled Water Association, ever sensitive to criticism that it's wasting precious resources, has commissioned its first ever study to figure out how much water goes into producing one liter. Accounting for all the water involved in production underscores how plastic — especially the single-use plastic created for beverage bottles and the rest of the food packaging industry — encourages consumers to pour good water down the drain. "Water," Hogan says," is the lifeblood of the industry and they want to be as efficient as possible. With plastic production ever increasing as plastic and oil companies ramp up, polluted waterways might be its most conspicuous and ubiquitous symbol. In other words, the amount of water going into making the bottle could be up to six or seven times what's inside the bottle. Image Credit: David Silverman/Getty Images News/Getty … While the companies slurp up loads of water during the soft drink-making process, the finished beverages are sent outside the community and around the region. She Says Downcycle. The results, released this month, show that for North American companies, it takes 1.39 liters to make one liter of water. How much does it cost to produce plastic bottles? In a 2011 study, researchers affiliated with the Water Footprint Network estimated the blue and grey water footprints of PET by analyzing the steps by which raw material becomes PET plastic resin. Kurt @ Money Counselor says. When you expose plastic bottles to … Just 1 of our filters replaces up to 1,600 plastic water bottles. This means that three litres of water is needed to make a water bottle that only holds one litre. For your perspective, there are communities in the world that don’t have access to this much fresh water for their entire lives. Not only do they require a lot of energy to manufacture, but they pollute the environment as well. One consumer report reveals U.S. residents buy over a half a billion plastic water bottles weekly. That’s nearly 25 billion plastic water bottles used annually with only 12% of them recycled. Notorious for being a luxury good with a troubling profile, FIJI Water’s plastic bottle life cycle exposes a predicament for consumers who think they are buying a product that is healthy but in fact, could be quite damaging to the environment. Plastic water bottle consumption People in the U.S. open 1,000 bottles of water every second and put 60 million plastic water bottles in the trash each year. Still, Ercin notes, bottled water packaging uses far less water than soda, which needs extra water to grow sugar and make dyes. Anticipated to be among the world’s largest plastic plants, these facilities operate in an area that regularly suffers from drought and deluge, both extremes expected to intensify with climate change. Because so much water use and pollution occurs from trade that moves water “virtually” around regions, countries and continents, local water mismanagement can lead to clashes over water resources. According to the plastic waste study referenced above, from 2002 to 2014 approximately 3.83 billion MT of PET plastic resin was produced worldwide — this is equivalent to 29,000,000,000,000,000 plastic water bottles. 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