Waste Free Lunches: Water

Think Global, Drink Local

Bottled water.

Sold, consumed and tossed by the millions daily.

What's the problem?

Why are so many places Banning Bottled Water?

27 Canadian munipalities, 21 Universities and colleges are bottled water free.

Why?

Click here
Shocking?

How did bottled water take over? Why is recycling not the answer?

Check out Annie Leonard’s
Story of Bottled Water…

Five Reasons to Ban Bottled Water, Canada Council for Canadians

The bottles for bottled water create a lot of pollution. The plastic is made from oil. Finding the oil, extracting the oil, upgrading the oil, manufacturing the plastic and bottles and transporting it all, creates a large amount of pollution. A big carbon footprint.
80% of the bottles end up in landfill, where they never rot. 1,000 years from now they will look the same.
The bottles that are recycled create yet more pollution. To be picked up by trucks, driven to factories, manufactured into something new creates a lot of energy waste and yet more pollution. Recycling is not the answer.
There's an irony that we are creating pollution - including polluted water - while trying to drink clean water.
Clean water should be accessible to everyone on the planet. Yet billions of people do not have access to it globally.
We should be supporting local clean water initiatives.
Water shouldn't cost huge amounts of money.
Bottled water is a marketing scheme. We've bought into it.

Students bring resuable water bottles to school.
Photo by Greg Halinda Photography

Did you know?

Bottled water costs about 500-5,000 times more than tap water
The recommended eight glasses of water a day, at U.S. tap rates equals about $.49 per year; that same amount of bottled water is about $1,400.
40% of bottled water is tap water
Bottled water is not cleaner or healthier than tap water, and its quality is regulated less
In 2007, Americans consumed over 50 billion single serve bottles of water; between 30 and 40 million single serve bottles went into landfills each year.
over 80% of plastic water bottles used in the U.S. are not recycled and end up in landfills
The total estimated energy needed to make, transport, and dispose of one bottle of water is equivalent to filling the same bottle one-quarter full of oil
It takes 17 million barrels of oil per year to make all the plastic water bottles used in the U.S. alone. That's enough oil to fuel 1.3 million cars for a year.