Bottled Water - You Do The Math!

The free market economic powerhouse known as the United States has maintained a reliance on imported oil for many years now to sustain our economy and lifestyle. 

The recent gas pump crunch of nearly $4.00 dollars a gallon for gas has renewed efforts to curb our dependence on imported oil.  The debate over global warning and its impact on planet earth focuses on reducing our green house gas emissions and reliance on oil by creating and utilizing alternative fuels. 

With the focus on energy consumption, alternative fuels and global warming,  the world’s water crisis has gone relatively unnoticed.  The drought conditions of in the South East and the critical water levels of Lake Mead and Lake Lanier in Georgia are just a few examples of the water crisis facing the United States.         

To reduce our dependence on oil and Greenhouse Gas emissions, the focus has been on renewable sources of energy.  State of Science Technology now exists that creates water from a renewable resource known as air.  At any given time there are over 3.1 quadrillion gallons of water in the atmosphere.      

To understand the importance of a renewable water source that compliments the earth’s existing fresh water supply by creating water from air, let’s review current conditions of the earth’s water and its implications.

Currently of all water on earth;

97.5% is salt water, and of the remaining 2.5% fresh water. 

Some 70% is frozen in the polar icecaps. The other 30% is mostly present as soil moisture or lies in underground aquifers.

Less than 1% of the world's fresh water (or about 0.007% of all water on earth) is readily accessible for direct human uses. It is found in lakes, rivers, reservoirs and in underground sources shallow enough to be tapped at affordable cost.

According to Water Partners International;

1.1 billion people lack access to an improved water supply - approximately one in six people on earth. 

2.6 billion people in the world lack access to improved sanitation. 

Less than 1% of the world's fresh water (or about 0.007% of all water on earth) is readily accessible for direct human use. 

A person can live weeks without food, but only days without water.

A person needs 4 to 5 gallons of water per day to survive.

The average American individual uses 100 to 176 gallons of water at home each day.

The average African family uses about 5 gallons of water each day. 

As a free market society, The United States has become a country of convenience that relies heavily on industries such as fast food and convenience stores.  The debate over water quality has created a major industry that compliments our country of convenience.  Known simply as bottled water, this industry is one that economically and ecologically does not make sense. 

Charles Fishman in his article titled Message in a Bottle states;

Bottled water is the food phenomenon of our times. We--a generation raised on tap water and water fountains--drink a billion bottles of water a week, and we're raising a generation that views tap water with disdain and water fountains with suspicion.

A chilled plastic bottle of water in the convenience-store cooler is the perfect symbol of this moment in American commerce and culture. It acknowledges our demand for instant gratification, our vanity, our token concern for health. Its packaging and transport depend entirely on cheap fossil fuel. Yes, it's just a bottle of water--modest compared with the indulgence of driving a Hummer. But when a whole industry grows up around supplying us with something we don't need--when a whole industry is built on the packaging and the presentation

Here are some more facts about plastic bottles.

Americans buy an estimated 28 billion plastic water bottles every year. Nearly eight out of every 10 bottles will end up in a landfill. 

It is estimated that the production of plastics accounts for four percent of the U.S.’s energy consumption.

In 2006, it took more than 17 million barrels of oil (excluding the oil used in transporting the plastic) to produce plastic bottles.

The manufacturing process of creating bottled water created more than 2.5 million tons of carbon dioxide. It also takes more than three liters of water to create one liter of bottled water.

There is a large amount of energy needed to fill plastic bottles with water, transport them to the store, keep them cool and dispose of them. It is estimated that the total amount of energy used to bottle water is equivalent of filling a bottle a quarter full of oil.

The amount of oil used to produce plastic water bottles in America is enough to fuel about 100,000 cars for a year.

Only 13 percent of water bottles are recycled.

About 80 percent of all municipal solid waste ends up in a landfill, while 10 percent is incinerated and only 10 percent is recycled. Because about less than one percent of all plastics is recycled, almost all plastics are incinerated or end up in a landfill.

Recycling a single plastic bottle can conserve enough energy to light a 60 watt light bulb for up to six hours.

A research study at Oregon State University Corvallis, states that every year “Around the world, factories are using more than 18 million barrels of oil and up to 130 billion gallons of fresh water” just to produce the bottles.  Another 41 billion gallons of water is then used to fill them.

The growth in bottled water production has increased water extraction in areas near bottling plants, leading to water shortages that affect nearby consumers and farmers.