Bottled Water – No Thanks! [Infographic]

The impact of humans on the environment is a subject that has been talked about for decades now and therefore it is very difficult to make this topic sound like new. We all know about it, realize there is a need for change but still the majority does not make the necessary changes in order to improve the situation. The road leading to greater environmental awareness and to a more sustainable consumption seems to be still uphill. An example: the use of plastic.

Countless articles have already expressed the impact PET has on the ecosystem, many initiatives have been taken in order to emphasize the severity of the issue. Nonetheless, little is known about the size of the bottled water industry, one of the biggest PET producer and the impact it has on our ecosystem. The idea that bottled water is a necessity and that it’s irreplaceable has become a generally accepted concept since 1973 when an American engineer patented PET production for the preservation of soda. Since then, the way we consume water has changed radically: the water market has become global and we now even import bottled water from abroad (which was much previously more difficult given the fragility of glass bottles).

How big has the bottled water market become? By today it is a $170 billion business. Only in the UK, we drank 3.2 billion liters of bottled water last year. While the per capita consumption was “only”  26.9 liters in 2001, in 2016 it exceeded 50 litres.

This raises the question: Is there really no alternative for bottled water? Is there really no way to reduce the plastic waste we generate by using PET bottles?

The answer is as obvious but yet surprising: there is and it is tap water. The main reason we don’t drink tap water is that it is considered to be less healthy. Well, actually, tap water is more regulated than bottled water and we can’t complain about its taste either since in blind tests it was preferred over bottled water. Want to know more? To find out how switching to bottled water can only help you and the environment, take a look at the following infographic!