Out of all plastic beverage containers that are purchased every year, only about a third will ever be recycled. The rest will end up in ponds, along highways & in landfills. For an everyday product, drink bottles take up an immense amount of space, since few take the time to compress the container before it goes in the bin. It is estimated that almost forty per cent of all litter in Australia is plastic drink containers.

It is often considered a myth that bottled water tastes better, and it is just as much a myth that bottled water is healthier. Research shows that more often than not, bottled water is merely purified spring water sourced and bottled not far from where it is sold.

For those who need the obligatory shocking stats—the process of making one liter of bottled water, from source to customer, requires about 0.2 liters of oil and over three liters of water. Yes, water. The greenhouse gas emissions from the water bottle consumption in Australia can be compared to those from 13,000 cars for a full year. You will pay $1.50 for a liter of gasoline, which is pumped out of the ground somewhere else on the planet, sent to a refinery, sent through any number of processes, before it can be purchased at your service station. The same service station would charge more than that for a liter of water, which can be had for free from any tap in any house.

The interesting thing is how bottled water has become this massive thing in a relatively short period of time. This whole madhouse of a carefully crafted and marketed industry will have to be the greatest display of human lack of rational and critical judgment in a long time. In the developed world, we had power, refrigeration, efficient means of transportation & we had—by nature’s standards, anyway—clean water on tap. And even if you are out of luck and live a place where the tap water makes you cringe, home purifying filters are low cost and effective. When did tap water stop being good enough? When did we begin to need bottled water?

Industries can grow when demand is greater than supply—but when it comes to water, the demand has always been generously supplied. The bottled water industry is a machine that has rolled in and shoved a cheaper and easier supplier out. Is it because bottled water in fact is a convenient luxury that covers a real need we have developed, or is it because we are naively responding to an aggressive multi-million dollar marketing effort? Has the latter spawned the first?

We’re on the crazy train.

Get a canteen.

(Photos courtesy of Chris Jordan.)

http://www.thedieline.com/blog/2008/11/360-paper-bottl.html