The plastic one-time use water bottle is cause for concern.
Studies show that only one in five single-use water bottles is recycled every year. In 2005, for the 30 billion water bottles used in the United States, only 12 percent were recycled. Another way of thinking about this number is that for every second, 100 water bottles are recycled but 877 are put into the landfill.1 Astonishing numbers, but consider that from 2001 to 2007, bottled water sales increased by 70 percent—far surpassing sales of beer and milk— and the use only continues to grow.2
In 1997, Charles Moore, a competitive sailor, was returning home to southern California after finishing the Los Angeles to Hawaii Transpac sailing race and discovered trash floating in the North Pacific Gyre, a remote area of the ocean.
“As I gazed from the deck at the surface of what ought to have been a pristine ocean,” Moore later wrote in an essay for Natural History, “I was confronted, as far as the eye could see, with the sight of plastic. It seemed unbelievable, but I never found a clear spot. In the week it took to cross the subtropical high, no matter what time of day I looked, plastic debris was floating everywhere: bottles, bottle caps, wrappers, fragments.”3 An oceanographic colleague of Moore's dubbed this floating junkyard “the Great Pacific Garbage Patch,” and despite Moore's efforts to suggest different metaphors—”a swirling sewer,” “a superhighway of trash” connecting two “trash cemeteries”—”garbage patch” appears to have stuck.
This discovery led to his 1999 study, which found that there were “six times more plastic in this part of the ocean than the zooplankton that feeds ocean life. This number was increased in a 2002 study which showed that off the coast of California, “plastic outweighed zooplankton by a factor of 5:2, numbers that were much higher than most scientists expected.”4
It takes over 1,000 years for plastic bottles to biodegrade.
A great deal of embodied energy is used during the life cycle of a bottle of water that you purchase at the store. Research shows that the entire chain from the manufacturing of the bottle, processing the water, filling and labeling the bottle, transporting the filled bottles to your store, and chilling it so that you have cold water to drink uses an estimated 32 to 54 million barrels of oil per year, and these are only US statistics. To meet the worlds bottled water demands, 96 to 162 million barrels of oil are required yearly!5
So, we have a bottle that is contributing to the world's oil use and is difficult to get rid of. What about the water: It's healthier than tap water, right?
Well, actually, no.
Tests conducted by the National Research Defense Council of more than 1000 bottles of 103 brands of bottled water found that 25 percent contained some levels of contamination, including synthetic chemicals, bacteria, and arsenic. In at least one sample, contaminants exceeding limits allowed by industry guidelines or standards were found.6
Although the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates bottled water safety, its rules do not apply to the 60 to 70 percent of all water that is bottled and sold within the same state. Approximately one in five states has no regulation for bottled water. To date, there is no regulation for carbonated water and seltzer.
But the water is tested, right?—Well again, no, at least not on a regular basis. Bottled water is not required to be tested as often as city tap water for bacteria and chemical contaminants. Whereas E. coli or fecal coliform is prohibited in tap water, bottled water regulation allows for some of these contaminants. In addition, bottled water has no requirements for the testing and decontamination of parasites such as Cryptosporidium or Giardia.
Table B.1 presents key differences between Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rules for tap water and FDA rules for bottled water.
Table B.1 Some Key Differences between EPA Tap Water and FDA Bottled Water Rules
| Water Type | Disinfection Required? | Confirmed E. coli and Fecal Coliform Banned? | Testing Frequency for Bacteria | Must Filter to Remove Pathogens or Have Strictly Protected Source? | Must Test for Cryptosporidium, Giardia, Viruses? | Testing Frequency for Most Synthetic Organic Chemicals |
| Bottled water | No | No | 1/week | No | No | 1/year |
| Carbonated or seltzer water | No | No | None | No | No | None |
| Big-city tap water (using surface water) | Yes | Yes | Hundreds/month | Yes | Yes | 1/quarter (limited waivers available if clean source) |
Used with permission from the Natural Resources Defense Council, www.NRDC.org
Finances are a huge factor in consumers' buying decisions. Complaints ensue when gas goes over $4.00 a gallon, but no one complains when buying a 16-ounce bottle of water that they can get for free. Why? If you do the math and multiply it out, that comes to almost $8.00 a gallon. Just consider the expense.
As a designer, you have the opportunity to make a change in this pattern. Suggest to clients that they add a water filter to their kitchen project. Explain the health benefits and cost savings and the fact that, as an added bonus, they will be helping the environment.