Nolan O’Brien
Environmental impact of bottled
water
 Most bottled water is in
plastic bottles
 When burned, these
bottles release toxic
chemicals
 When buried (put in
landfills) it can take
them over 1000 years to
decompose
http://blogs.citypages.com/food/bottled-water.jpg
There are a lot of bottles…
 200 billion liters sold
worldwide in 2007
 33 billion sold in the USA
 86 percent of bottles in the
USA become garbage or
litter
 If the average bottle is
estimated to hold .5 liters,
that means 56.76 billion
bottles become garbage or
litter
http://www.vcuinsight.vcu.edu/stories/fall07_archive_.htm
Energy used for bottled water
 Energy is required for:
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Treatment
Bottle manufacturing
Transport
Cooling prior to consumption
 A 2009 study by the Pacific Institute concluded
bottled water consumes 1000-2000 times as much
energy as tap water
 The bottled water industry consumes the equivalent of
about 50 million barrels of oil per year,
 This could instead be used to fuel 3 million cars
http://www.treehugger.com/coal-plants-waste.jpg
Why drink bottled water?
 Bottled water can cost up to 1000-1900 times the cost
of tap water
 What are the benefits that offset this cost?
 The International Bottled Water Association (IBWA)
claims that “Bottled water is a great beverage choice for
hydration and refreshment because of its consistent
safety, quality, good taste and convenience.”
 In a survey conducted by the University of
Birmingham most people believed that bottled water
was healthier than tap water
Why drink bottled water?
vs.
http://maryt.wordpress.com/2007/07/27/tap-waters-best/
http://www.sodabuzz.com/osc/10valve-fountain-soda-dispenser-icebeveragepostmix-p-559.html
Differences in water treatment
 Bottled water is regulated by the FDA
 Tap water is regulated by the EPA
 Bottled water is required to meet the same standards
that the EPA sets for tap water
EPA water testing
 The Safe Drinking Water act provides standards for
over 90 contaminants
 Every state except Wyoming has been given
enforcement authority
 In Maryland, water standards are enforced by the
Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE)
 Every community water system is required to send
letters annually to its users detailing “information on
the source water, the levels of any detected
contaminants, and compliance with drinking water
regulations”
Water report for the DC Area
 http://www.wssc.dst.md.us/info/wssc_Final2008.pdf
FDA Water Testing
 The FDA is responsible for testing bottled water plants
 According to the FDA’s website, “bottled water plants
generally are assigned low priority for inspection”.
 Bottled water companies are not required to disclose
information about their water such as:
 The source of the water
 How the water was treated
 Quality reports detailing levels of pollutants
Independent bottled water testing
 The Environmental Working Group surveyed 155
brands and 38 states.
 Only 18% disclosed contaminant testing results.
 33% did not provide treatment information on labels
or their website
 30% of did not provide any information on the source
of the water
Independent bottled water testing
 The Environmental
 The National Resources
Working Group (EWG)
had 10 brands tested
 Sam’s Choice water and
Giant’s Acadia water had
levels of trihalomethanes
(carcinogenic chemicals)
higher than the legal
limit in the strictest state
(California)
Defense council tested
103 bottled water brands
 23 of these brands had
contaminant levels that
violated California law
(where they were
purchased)
It’s a thermos!
 Provides the convenience
of bottled water
 Also insulates your
beverage and prevents it
from temperature
change
 Reusable indefinitely
http://www.thermos.com/product_catalog.aspx?CatCode=BEVG
Summary
 The bottled water industry has a negative
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environmental impact
Bottled water is not safer than tap water
The convenience of having water in a bottle can be
achieved through buying reusable bottles
Bottled water is much more expensive than tap water
There is no valid reason whatsoever to justify the
consumption of bottled water
Eliminating bottled water
 Ultimately a supply/demand issue; demand must be
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reduced
Increase public awareness about the illogicality of
spending money on bottled water
Local governments can not spend money on bottled
water
Businesses and other organizations can refuse to spend
money on or sell bottled water
San Francisco, St. Louis, Salt Lake City, and Los
Angeles have banned using government funds for
bottled water
Action Plan for UMD
 Don’t sell any bottled water
 Vending machines
 Athletic events
 Dining service operated convenience stores
• Do not allow use of UMD funds to buy bottled water
• Raise awareness about the issues with bottled water
• Provide clean filtered tap water to replace bottled
water
• Promote the use of reusable water containers
Anti-bottled water marketing to
use at UMD
http://duke.raycomsports.com/blog/2009/12/16/a-look-at-duke/
http://elizabethcarroll.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/bottledwater.jpg
Literature Cited
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1. Cooley, H, and Gleick, P. “Energy implications of bottled water”. 2009. IOP science. Accessed 26 February 2010.
http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-9326/4/1/014009/fulltext?ejredirect=.iopscience
2. Arnold, Emily. “Bottled water: Pourinng resourses down the drain.” 2006. Earth policy institute. Accessed 26 February 2010.
http://www.bvsde.paho.org/bvsacd/cd47/bottled.pdf
3. Wilk, Richard. “Bottled water: The pure commodity in the age of branding.” 2006. Journal of Consumer Culture. Accessed 26 February 2010.
http://joc.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/6/3/303
4. Ward, L, Cain, O, Mullally, R, Holliday, K, Wernham, A, Baillie, P, and Greenfield, S. “Health beliefs about bottled water: a qualitative study. 2009. University of Birmingham. Accessed 26 February
2010.
http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/9/196/
5. Posnick, L and Kim, H. “Bottled water regulation and the FDA”. 2002. Food and Drug administration. Accessed 26 February 2010.
http://www.fda.gov/Food/FoodSafety/Product-SpecificInformation/BottledWaterCarbonatedSoftDrinks/ucm077079.htm#authors
6. Environmental Working Group. “Is your bottled water worth it?” Accessed 26 February 2010. Accessed 26 February 2010.
http://www.ewg.org/health/report/bottledwater-scorecard
7. Office of water. “Drinking water monitoring, compliance, and enforcement.” 2004. Environmental Protection Agency. Accessed 26 February 2010.
http://www.epa.gov/safewater/sdwa/pdfs/fs_30ann_monitoring_web.pdf
8. Naidenko, O, Leiba, N, Sharp, R, and Houlihan, J. “Bottled water contains disinfection byproducts, fertilizer residue, and pain medication.” 2008. Environmental working group. Accessed 26 February
2010.
http://www.ewg.org/reports/bottledwater
9. Maryland Department of the Environment. “Safe drinking act annual compliance report for calander year 2008.” 2009. MDE. Accessed 26 February 2010.
http://www.mde.state.md.us/assets/document/WSP-ACR2009for2008.pdf
10. Olsen, Erik. “Bottled water: Pure drink or pure hype?” 1999. National Resources Defense Council. Accessed 26 February 2010.
http://www.nrdc.org/water/drinking/bw/bwinx.asp
11. Gleick, Peter.”The myth and reality of bottled water”. 2004. The Pacific institute. Accessed 26 February 2010.
http://www.pacinst.org/topics/water_and_sustainability/bottled_water/myth_and_reality.pdf
12. Brown, Lester. “Plan B 4.0: Mobilizing to save civilization.” 2009. Earth policy institute. Accessed 26 February 2010.
http://www.earth-policy.org/index.php?/books/pb4/pb4_table_of_contents
13. International bottled water association. “What is bottled water?” Accessed 26 February 2010.
http://www.bottledwater.org/content/what-bottled-water