The cost to the environment of the massive consumption of bottled water has led some local governments in Canada and the United States to consider banning its sale altogether. While this seems an extreme response, the concerns are well founded in science. The costs of bottle water, over and above the retail price, are enormous.

These facts are alarming to anyone who has any concern for our environment.

1.) Bottles used to package water take over 1,000 years to bio-degrade. Re-cycling is only feasible in limited circumstance.

2.) The plastic used to package just the United States' annual bottle water "needs" consumes over 1.5 million barrels of oil. That's enough to power 100,000 cars for the same year. That figure does not include the cost is fossil fuel and emissions of green house gases needed to transport the final product to market.

Dr. Michael Warhurst, Friends of the Earth's senior waste campaigner, said:

"It is another product we do not need. Bottled water companies are wasting resources and exacerbating climate change. Transport is the fastest growing source of greenhouse gas emissions, and transporting water adds to that. We could help reduce these damaging effects if we all simply drank water straight from the tap."

Source: http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article344959.ece

Here's another staggering find:

"In summary, the manufacture and transport of that
one kilogram bottle of Fiji [brand] water consumed..."

• 26.88 kilograms of water (7.1 gallons)
• .849 Kilograms of fossil fuel (one litre or .26 gal) and
• Emitted 562 grams of Greenhouse Gases (1.2 pounds).

Source: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/02/pablo_calculate.php

See also...

Environmental criticisms of bottled water at Wiki

"Buying bottled water is wrong, says Suzuki" - CBC Report

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