GreenLocals

America’s continued habit of consuming drinking water from a bottle rather than from the tap is contributing to global warming. The amount of bottle water consumed by Americans is now over 28 gallons per capita, up from 5.7 gallons in 1987. In fact, sales of bottled water have surpassed the numbers for milk and beer; and now those sales numbers are not far behind soft drinks, the number one seller.

If you’re looking to reduce your carbon footprint, one of the simplest things you can do is drink tap water rather than bottled water. If you don’t like the taste, buy a filter. And if helping the environment is not enough to get you to change your water drinking habits, consider this: bottled water costs about 1,000 times more than tap water. Even after spending the nominal costs incurred buying a filter.

Here are some of the facts and figures:

• Bottled water is a $60 billion a year business worldwide.
• Per-capita consumption is 28 gallons, up from 5.7 gallons in 1987.
• Americans discard 30 to 40 billion water bottles a year.
• Producing the plastic bottles used burns 1.5 million gallons of oil per year – enough to run 100,000 cars per year.
• Less than 15% of the bottles are recycled.
• Transportation of bottled water takes over 500,000 gallons of oil per year – enough to heat 80,000 homes per year.
• Making the plastic bottle requires twice as much water as is in the bottle.
• Manufacturing that much plastic releases more than 800,000 metric tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, contributing to global climate change.
• 30 million single-serve non-returnable containers end up in landfills lls or as litter every day.
• The United States spends millions annually to clean up plastic bottles that litter our highways, parks and open spaces.

 And here are a few things you can do:

•  Recycle or return all of your beverage containers.
• Pick up bottles along the road or sidewalk and recycle them.
• Drink tap water—it’s better for the environment, even using a filter is cheaper than buying bottles.
• Get involved—help start a recycling program at school, work and sporting events.
• If you still feel the need to purchase bottled water, buy and refill reusable bottles.

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