Bottled Water-Facts and Figures

Understanding the differences
Bottled water costs 500 times more than tap water (CC Water), the equivalent of paying £1,500 for a pint of beer or glass of wine.

70% of people say the price of mineral water in restaurants is ‘too expensive’ and want to see free tap water readily available. (NCC 07)

One in five people are ‘slightly nervous’ or ‘too scared to ask’ for tap water (NCC 07)

92% of people say they should have the right to free tap water (NCC 07)

The average Briton drinks 37.6 litres of bottled water each year (Bottled Water Information Office)

2.7million tonnes of plastic are used to bottle water each year worldwide (EPI, 2006)

A quarter of all bottled water is produced for export markets (EPI,2006)
22million tonnes of bottled water are transferred each year from country to country (CIWEM)

Three out of four plastic bottles are still not recycled (WRAP 2007)
In 2006, 1.5million barrels of oil were used to make the 26billion litres of bottled water sold in the US. Enough to fuel 100,000 cars for a year. (EPI, 2006)
Globally, nearly a quarter of bottled water crosses national borders to meet consumers (EPI, 2006)

Bottled water has a higher carbon footprint per litre than tap water - more than 300 times the CO2 emissions per litre in the case of some imported brands.
One tonne of CO2 is equivalent in volume to 6 double decker buses.

According to the Container Recycling Institute, 90 percent of PET bottles end up in landfills, at a rate of 30 million a day, where they take 450 years to break down.
In 2006, the UK consumed 2275million litres of bottled water (Bottled Water Information)

According to Dr. Gina Solomon, senior scientist at the NRDC (National Resources Defense Council), about 4,000 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) - a major greenhouse gas -are emitted during the transportation of bottled water from France, Italy, and Fiji to the U.S. (Quoted on www.greenerchoices.org)

Notes:
EPI (Earth Policy Institute)
CIWEM (Charted Institute of Water)
WRAP (Waste and Resources Action Programme)

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