No more bottled water!

Recently I was in one of the local high schools and I noticed a display case promoting Bottled Water Free Day. Apparently this year marks the second annual Bottled Water Free day. Bottled water has been a pet peeve of mine ever since it came into existence. Although I have on the rare occasion found myself buying a bottle of water when no tap water was available, I generally take a reusable bottle with me when I am away from home. Moreover it is the purchase and consumption of cases of bottled water (wrapped in plastic) for home use that really baffles me.

Clean water

We live in a country that has access to safe drinking water that comes straight from the tap. While there are chemicals such as fluoride and chlorine added to tap water, they can be easily filtered out either by installing a filter on the tap or by adding tap water to a jug with a filter attached. Drinking fountains are also safe and reliable sources of water. The fact is, the bottled water industry is less regulated than public tap water.

Environment

Apart and aside from the redundancy of bottling a resource that runs freely from the tap, is the environmental impact of bottling water. The lifecycle of a bottle of water creates greenhouse gases and produces waste that ends up in landfills, rivers, and oceans.

Plastic’s raw materials are toxic chemicals that are derived from crude oil, a resource that is already in limited supply. These chemicals can leech into the water while it is in the bottle.

Consider this irony: It takes 3 litres of water to produce one liter of bottled water! Bottled water is a non-essential use of an essential resource.

Transport

Bottled water needs to be shipped, flown and trucked to its final destination - your local convenience store. If we take into consideration the energy required to manufacture, transport and dispose of plastic water bottles, between 15-17 million barrels of oil are used each year in order to meet consumer demands. To put that into perspective, a study performed by the Pacific Institute in California suggests that producing bottled water takes approximately 2000 times the energy required to produce tap water.

Recycling

While the bottled water companies hide behind recycling programs, too many plastic water bottles never end up being recycled.  Just because something is ‘recyclable’ doesn’t mean it gets recycled. More than 4 billion pounds of plastic water bottles go into landfills each year. Our American neighbours throw away 18 billion plastic water bottles every year! Half of all plastic bottles end up in the garbage. Of those that are recycled, let’s not forget that recycling consumes resources as well. How about if we didn’t buy that bottled water in the first place.

Clearly, there is no good reason to buy bottled water. Having a No-bottled-water day is a step in the right direction. Let’s join the Canadian Federation of Students’ in their Canada-wide and international day of action to challenge the bottled water industry and encourage clean and strong public water systems. Plastic manufacturing, heavy use of fossil fuels and transportation costs make bottled water unsustainable. Let's work toward making every day free of bottled water.