Bottled water is much more than just water in a bottle; it comes with multifarious environmental impacts and the worst being water pollution. The process of bottling water involves, extraction of water, processing to meet water quality, bottling, labeling, packing, and transportation. Each of these steps impinges the environment adversely.
Majority of bottled water is sourced from groundwater reserves of the planet. Groundwater, although a renewable resource, takes a long time to replenish naturally. Moreover, there are no known human interventions, which can hasten the replenishment of groundwater resources. Bottled water manufacturers typically use around 2 to 3 liters of water per liter of bottled water, resulting in increased wastage and indiscriminate abuse of sensitive water reserves of the planet.
The water treatment plants are an essential features of every bottled water manufacturer, needed to conform to the regulatory norms of water quality. However, these processing plants make use of chemical purifiers, which are later, disposed in landfills or large water bodies, leading to widespread chemical contamination of soil and water.
Used plastic bottles are a major by product of bottling industry. Unlike the popular belief, not all bottles can be reused and 90% of the bottles end up in landfills. The other byproducts of bottling, such as tags, caps, threading, etc. several times find their way into the oceans, travelling thousands of miles along the oceanic current and affecting the aquatic flora along the way.
This along with the fossil fuel wastage during transportation results in manifold impact on the water reserves of the planet. According to the Water Policy Report (2008) the indiscriminate use of bottled water can result in acute potable water shortage in near future.
Majority of bottled water is sourced from groundwater reserves of the planet. Groundwater, although a renewable resource, takes a long time to replenish naturally. Moreover, there are no known human interventions, which can hasten the replenishment of groundwater resources. Bottled water manufacturers typically use around 2 to 3 liters of water per liter of bottled water, resulting in increased wastage and indiscriminate abuse of sensitive water reserves of the planet.
The water treatment plants are an essential features of every bottled water manufacturer, needed to conform to the regulatory norms of water quality. However, these processing plants make use of chemical purifiers, which are later, disposed in landfills or large water bodies, leading to widespread chemical contamination of soil and water.
Used plastic bottles are a major by product of bottling industry. Unlike the popular belief, not all bottles can be reused and 90% of the bottles end up in landfills. The other byproducts of bottling, such as tags, caps, threading, etc. several times find their way into the oceans, travelling thousands of miles along the oceanic current and affecting the aquatic flora along the way.
This along with the fossil fuel wastage during transportation results in manifold impact on the water reserves of the planet. According to the Water Policy Report (2008) the indiscriminate use of bottled water can result in acute potable water shortage in near future.
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