Bottled Water: A Growing Trend with a Growing Cost
With skyrocketing sales and extensive marketing, bottled water is big business in the United States and around the world. Bottled water sales have quadrupled in the past 20 years, and continue to grow by about 10% each year. Global sales of bottled water amount to more than $50 billion a year, according to a recent report by the Pacific Institute.
More than half of all Americans drink bottled water occasionally, and about one-third say they drink it regularly. Depending on the brand, bottled water can cost 1,000 times more per gallon than the high-quality tap water available in most communities. Some imported brands cost more than 10,000 times more per gallon than tap water; much of that cost goes for bottling, packaging, shipping, marketing, retailing and profit.
So what’s driving the growing demand for bottled water? Experts say some people choose bottled water because they perceive it to be safer than tap water. For some, the choice is based on taste or convenience.
But several studies have shown bottled water is not necessarily purer or safer than water from the faucet. Federal standards for bottled water safety are generally less stringent than those governing tap water, and it can be difficult to find out exactly what is in bottled water.
The environmental costs of bottled water also are emerging, with billions of plastic bottles showing up in landfills every year. In 2005, 2 million tons of plastic water bottles ended up in landfills instead of getting recycled, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council.
This article provides a look at bottled water and some important facts to consider in deciding whether bottled water or tap water is your drink of choice.
Is Bottled Water Safer?
The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) conducted a four-year study of bottled water that included a comparison of safety standards for bottled water and tap water and independent testing of over 1,000 bottles of water. The conclusion? There is no assurance that water from a bottle is any cleaner or safer than water from the tap.
In fact, the study found, an estimated 25% to 40% of bottled water is actually tap water in a bottle. Though sometimes it is filtered or further treated before bottling, often it is not. One brand of “spring” water cited in the study was in fact from a well near an industrial facility. The brand’s label pictured a pristine mountain lake.
The NRDC study found that while most bottled water appears to be safe, the quality can be inconsistent. Some samples were found to contain contaminants (chemical or bacterial) at levels above those recommended by the Food and Drug Administration, which regulates bottled water.
Bottled Water vs. Tap Water: Different Rules Apply
Bottled water is regulated by the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In California, the state Department of Public Health’s Food and Drug Branch is responsible for licensing and regulating bottled water manufacturers.
Tap water is regulated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The California Department of Public Health’s Drinking Water Program regulates public drinking water systems throughout the state.
The NRDC study noted several areas in which the FDA’s bottled water rules were less stringent than EPA’s regulations for tap water. Key areas included requirements that tap water from surface water sources must be filtered and disinfected (no such requirement applies to bottled water at the federal level), more frequent testing for coliform bacteria (which indicates the possible presence of germs) and other contaminants is required for tap water than for bottled water, and stronger enforcement provisions apply to tap water than to bottled.
Another key area is reporting of water quality sampling and testing results. Public water suppliers are required to publish annual consumer confidence reports that describe any contaminants found in drinking water and their detection amounts. There is no mandatory reporting for water bottlers.
Energy Use: A Growing Concern
With climate change and sustainability a growing focus, numerous experts see many environmental downsides to bottled water use.
Most bottled water is sold in polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles, which used nearly 900,000 tons of plastic in 2006. PET is produced from fossil fuels, typically natural gas and petroleum.
According to the Pacific Institute, producing the plastic bottles used by Americans in 2006 required the equivalent of more than 17 million barrels of oil. Bottling the water produced more than 2.5 million tons of global-warming carbon dioxide.
Filling the bottles with water and shipping them to market requires additional energy. The Pacific Institute estimates the total amount of energy “embedded” in bottled water may be equivalent to filling a plastic bottle one-quarter full of oil.
The NRDC and other groups recently reported that in 2006, the equivalent of 2 billion half-liter bottles of water were shipped to U.S. ports, adding thousands of tons of global warming emissions to the environment.
Environmental groups estimate that just 13% of the plastic water bottles used are recycled, leaving millions of bottles destined for landfills or ending up as litter.
SSWD recommends reusing water bottles and filling at your home, where a gallon costs less than a nickel at your tap.
