UPEI Student Sustainability Challenges: Let the bottled water go

Let the bottled water go

Canadians are drinking more bottled water than in the past. The International Council of Bottled Water Associations estimates that in 2000, 820 million liters of bottled water were produced for Canadian consumption. By 2003 that figure had risen to almost 1.5 billion litres.

Statistics Canada

Sales and consumption of bottled water have skyrocketed in recent years. From 1988 to 2002, the sales of bottled water globally have more than quadrupled to over 131 million cubic meters annually. Bottled water sales worldwide are continuing to increase annually far faster than almost any other category of commercial beverage.

Bottled water

Understanding more about it:

The plastic used in water bottles is not only made from fossil fuels, but fossil fuels are burned to create the energy needed to manufacture the plastic, form the bottles, and then fill them with water. And, as you know, burning fossil fuels releases carbon dioxide. Bottling all that water in 2006 released an estimated 2.5 million tons of CO2 into the atmosphere.

Also, bottled water needs to be transported by truck, train, plane, or ship from where it was bottled to where we buy it and drink it. This part consumes fossil fuels and releases CO2 too. Even refrigerating bottles of water in the convenience store has a carbon impact since the electricity used by the store’s refrigerator is most likely produced by burning fossil fuels.

· Energy Required to Make PET Plastic

According to the plastics manufacturing industry, it takes around 3.4 megajoules of energy to make a typical one-liter plastic bottle, cap, and packaging. Making enough plastic to bottle 31.2 billion liters of water required more than 106 billion megajoules of energy. Because a barrel of oil contains around 6 thousand megajoules, the Pacific Institute estimates that the equivalent of more than 17 million barrels of oil were needed to produce these plastic bottles.

· The Pacific Institute estimates that in 2006:

Bottling water produced more than 2.5 million tons of carbon dioxide.

It took 3 liters of water to produce 1 liter of bottled water.

· Carbon Dioxide Emissions from Consumption of Bottled Water

The manufacture of every ton of PET produces around 3 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2). Bottling water thus created more than 2.5 million tons of CO2 in 2006.

· Transporting and Recycling Bottled Water

More energy is needed to fill the bottles with water at the factory, move it by truck, train, ship, or air freight to the user, cool it in grocery stores or home refrigerators, and recover, recycle, or throw away the empty bottles. The Pacific Institute estimates that the total amount of energy embedded in our use of bottled water can be as high as the equivalent of filling a plastic bottle one quarter full with oil.

Many people prefer bottled water because they think that the quality of the water is better and safety than their tap water. “Ironically, despite its cost, users should not assume that the quality of bottled water is adequately protected, regulated, or monitored. Even where regulations exist, bottled water plants typically receive far less scrutiny from inspectors than other food plants or municipal water systems. In many places, such as the United States, bottlers themselves do most sampling and testing, which opens the door to fraud, misreporting, and inadequate protection. Ultimately, the provision of clean water to all will not come from sales of bottled water but from effective actions of communities, governments, and municipal providers to provide a safe and reliable domestic water supply.” (Bottled water)

The Challenge and CO2 emissions

So those are the rules: we challenge you to exchange bottles of water by the water of quality of your tap. This challenge lasts only 1 week, but do not be fooled, because it can makes a big difference.

With this little change you will reduce your CO2 emission by 3 pounds. And if you want you can take this challenge as many times as you prefer!

To accept the challenge click here