How many bottles of water consumed worldwide
Consumers around the world each year collectively spent over 100 billion dollars on bottled water in the belief-often mistaken-that it is much better. Global consumption of bottled water grew to 155 billion liters in 2004, 57 percent more than in 1999. .
The United Nations member countries agreed to reduce by half the proportion of people who lack reliable and lasting access to safe drinking water by 2015. To achieve this goal, we should double the 15 billion dollars each year for the water supply and sanitation. While this amount may seem huge, pales in comparison to the estimated 100 billion and annual spending on bottled water.
Drinking water comes through an infrastructure that consumes energy in an economical, while bottled water is often transported long distances across the country, by boat, train, plane and truck. This involves burning massive quantities of fossil fuels.
For example, in 2004 alone a Helsinki company shipped 1.4 million bottles of Finnish tap water 4345 miles to Saudi Arabia. And although 94 percent of bottled water sold in the U.S. is produced domestically, many Americans consume imported water up to 9,000 miles, like Fiji and other faraway places to satisfy demand for what Arnold calls “elegant and exotic bottled water ‘.
The packaging of water uses more fossil fuels. Most water bottles are made from polyethylene terephthalate, a plastic derived from crude oil. ‘But making bottles to meet the demand of Americans annually requires more than 1.5 million barrels of oil, enough to fuel some 100,000 U.S. cars for a year, “noted Arnold.
Throughout the world, are used each year about 2.7 million tons of plastic to bottle water. Bottles collected for recycling in 2004, the U.S. exported roughly 40 percent to destinations as far away as China, requiring yet more fossil fuel.
If Americans have the highest consumption of bottled water per capita, the fastest collective growth of consumption lies in the giant populations of Mexico, India and China. As a whole, consumption of bottled water in India increased threefold from 1999 to 2004, while China has more than doubled.
While increasing the profits of private companies selling more than 100 billion dollars a year on bottled water of questionable quality, a free and more efficient regulation of municipal systems would implement a distribution of safe drinking water for all people the world for a small fraction of the price.
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