Facts on Plastic Bottles
We hope you are sitting down!
- 29 billion plastic water bottles are consumed in the United States alone annually.
- This requires 900,000 tons of plastic, which uses more than 17 million barrels of crude oil, a fossil fuel, annually. For every ton of plastic produced, there are 3 tons of carbon dioxide released into our atmosphere. The bottled water industry released 2.7 million tons of CO2 in 2006 and the numbers are growing rapidly.
- The energy used for pumping, processing, transportation, and refrigeration brings the annual fossil fuel footprint of bottled water in the U.S. to more than 500 million barrels of oil, enough to run 3 million cars for one year!
- Every liter sold actually uses 3 liters of water because manufacturing PET plastic uses two times the amount each water bottle will hold. In an Earth running dry, this is something we should all be thinking about.
That’s only the production of bottled water. Hold onto your seats!
- There isn’t any guarantee the bottled water you are buying is any safer than your tap water. The Natural Resource Defense Council conducted a four year review comparing tap and bottled water and concluded there is no assurance that bottled water is any safer or cleaner than tap water. 25% or more is just plain old tap water.
- Bottled water creates tons of trash every year. Less than 15% are recycled resulting in more than 26 billion bottles being thrown into landfills and also making their way into our waterways and oceans each year!
- The plastic bottle does not degrade, it becomes a permanent part of our Mother Earth! A steep price to pay for the “convenience” of bottled water.
