A Campaign for Moderated Bottled Water Use.

This blog is regularly updated, reflecting what my followers have received to date throughout winter 2011.

Summer season is now 5 months away. Let's image:
It will be hot, we will play outside more, we will have picnics, day trips, day camps for the kids, walks in our favorite spots, boat rides, and more. Nice thoughts on the coldest day of the year so far, eh?

We'll also kick up our bottled water usage.

There are times when buying and drinking bottled water is a great choice. Maybe we're out and about spontaneously. Maybe we're traveling on jets. Maybe we're in Mexico and are trying to protect our guts. Whatever the reason, sometimes bottled water is the best choice we have.

Let's talk about the time we do have a choice. We can choose ultra convenience, toss a bottle in our bag then pop open a bottle when we get there. Or, we can take a minute, fill a water bottle with fresh filtered water right at home or at our office and bring that to the gym, to the playground, to the concert.

If we hope to use bottled water less often in summer, it's time to start the resolution to change (or at least truly consider a resolution to change?) now. Six months before. We can be ready then, if we adjust our habits now, right?

Take a moment and comment on your thoughts about bottled water.

If you'd like more facts about the impact of bottled water, baker's dozen facts of my Bottled Water Reduction Campaign are updated below as it progresses throughout winter, 2011.

If you are ready to reduce your bottled water usage, but want better then tap water, click here for
Filtration Pitchers
High Volume Broad-Spectrum Countertop Filtration System
High Volume Broad-Spectrum Undercounter Filtration System

Fact: We drink a lot of bottled water.

33 billion liters of bottled water sold in the United States in 2007 according to the Beverage Marketing Corporation. That averages out to about 110 liters (almost 30 gallons) of water per person, not including soda or juices.

Fact: Bottled water is better then soda or juice if you don't have a choice.

"Since 2001, bottled water sales have increased by 70 percent in the United States. far surpassing those of milk and beer. Only sodas have larger sales." 90 millions liters of water and soda are being shipped around the country. Environ. Res. Lett. 4 (2009) 014009 (6pp)

Fact: Bottling water takes energy.
“It took an estimated 32-54 million barrels of oil to generate the energy to produce the amount of bottled water consumed in the United States in 2007.”

As a nation, we’re looking to reduce energy use. Lots of folks would like to reduce petroleum dependency, one of the precepts of BFLI’s Pollution Reduction Initiative.

Peter Gleick, president of the Pacific Institute, and colleague Heather Cooley .

 http://www.pacinst.org/reports/bottled_water/index.htm)  Published in the Journal Environmental Research Letters. 

Fact: How does a little bottle rack up so much oil?

Making the bottle is a big start.

Gleick and Cooley estimated that about 1 million tons of PET* was used to make plastic bottles in the United States in 2007 requiring about 13 billion barrels of oil for the total production.

http://www.pacinst.org/reports/bottled_water/index.htm)

*PET is recycling #1 plastic, also abbreviated as PETE.

FACT:  Oil: bottled water vs tap water.
The amount (of oil to make bottled water) is 2,000 times more than is required to make tap water. 
Peter Gleick, Pacific Institute.

Fact: Water is heavy and costly to ship.

Whether as the primary ingredient in a juice, a soda, or pure spring water, a liter of water weighs about a kilogram, approximately 2.2 pounds. In the US in 2007, 1.3 billion gallons of oil were used to ship water.  David Coale, Acterra

Fact: Plastic bottles are poorly recycled.

Only about 23 percent of bottles, including soda, are recycled.

Life of a Water Bottle, Lindsay Mangum, NPR, June 11, 2007

Fact:  Bottled water is better then tap water?

Two quotes:

“We live in a country where we have very good tap water," Peter Glick, The Pacific Institute.

I totally agree. The federal standards for clean tap water are the same as for clean bottled water.

“No, I wouldn’t argue it’s safer or not safer.”

Yale University School of Medicine’s Dr Stephen Edberg, recommended by the International Bottled Water Association to “ “20/20: Bottled Water: Better Than the Tap?”

I know Dr. Edberg from my Yale University research days. I did the “hands on” research for one of his water quality projects. 

Fact: Bottle water is pure?

Maybe or maybe not. Environmental Health and Safety took a look. Sometimes the results for a particular brand were better then the standard. Sometimes worse. Often times, not tested so who knows? 

If you want to be sure the contaminants are out of your water, start with your tap water then filter it with a good filtration system. We offer pitcher filters, countertop units and under - counter units.

Pitchers filter 80 gallons per filter and fit Brita, Pur and most pitcher systems. The larger units filter 1000 gallons and one filter change per year.