Stephanie Moram

How Many Disposable Water Bottles do you Use a Week?

Eco Living

Did you know that 60,000 plastic water bottles are disposed of in landfills daily in the United States alone?

To me that is a frightening number. That is a lot of plastic just sitting in a pile somewhere.

Plastic water bottles negatively impact our planet to a greater extent than just sitting in a landfill for  thousands of years.

17 billions barrels of crude oil is used per year to manufacture the 29 billon polyethylene terephthalate (PET) water bottles, creating 2.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide.

Producing water bottles annually, requires 900, 000 tons of plastic.

The Pacific Institute approximates that “the energy used for pumping and processing, transportation, and refrigeration, brings the annual fossil fuel footprint of bottled water consumption in the United States to more than 50 million barrels of oil, equivalent-enough to run 3 million cars for one year.”  YIKES!

It takes two times the amount of water to produce the bottle than to actually fill it. And don’t get me started on the air pollution created and fuel needed by the trucks when transporting the plastic water bottles to the stores.

Further more, there is the refrigeration at the store and at home and the recycling or discarding of the empty bottle which uses even more energy.

Every ton of PET plastic produced releases around three tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Seeing as plastic does not fully biodegrade, waste patches are contaminating our oceans with debris and sludge that is held in place by underwater currents. Furthermore, sea creatures are ingesting plastic particles which in turn can kill them.

So, the next time you decide to open up a bottle of water or soda, please remember the carbon foot print that one single water bottle will create or has actually already begun creating.

Using a reusable glass or stainless steel water bottle is a great alternative to the plastic  bottles, providing a solution to the “disposable” and “non-sustainable” culture we have created over the years.

Source: Pacific Institute

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Comments

  1. Karen @ Time Crafted says

    Yikes! I don’t really think abou the waste because on the occasion we use one, we always recycle it (even if we have to carry an empty one with us, until we get home). But, it’s easy to forget the amount of toxins that go into the making of that bottle before we even get a chance to recycle it!

    At home, we drink filtered water, not bottled. And the kidlets take their water in a thermos for their lunches at school. And we have an assortment of stainless steel containers to bring water that we use most of the time. But, you’ve given good reason to work on eliminating the occasional water bottle, even if it will be recycled.

    • Good Girl Gone Green says

      It’s a lot of waste! I too bring recycling home with me when I am out. Most places do not recycle, so I make sure to recycle it at home. Reusable water bottles are the way to go. We just have to convince every one of that! 🙂

  3. Rhonda@Laugh-Quotes says

    We use re-usable bottles. Interesting information. Especially “two times the amount of water to produce the bottle than to actually fill it.” Thanks for stopping by my blog.

  4. Marta says

    Fortunately, our water is too good out of the tap to mess with “dead water” in a bottle. Thanks for raising awareness!

  9. Good Girl Gone Green says

    Going green is ongoing for every one. It’s the degree of greenest that is different. Just maybe try and reduce the amount of bottled water you use a week and switch to reusable bottles. Before you know it, you will be saving money on bottled water and saving the planet, too! 🙂

    • Good Girl Gone Green says

      Using cloths diapers is going very green. You know how many disposable diapers you are diverting from a landfill? I don’t know the exact number, but a lot! 🙂 Good for you! I wasn’t always a big greenie, it took time and many years to get where I am now! Baby steps!