Bottles, Bottles, Bottles, Everywhere

Did you know that American consumers use 50 billion plastic water bottles each year, and yet recycle less than 20% of those bottles? 38 billion bottles are tossed annually, which is approximately $1 billion worth of plastic. They end up in the oceans, by the sides of roads, in our national parks, and in landfills where it takes between 400 and 1,000 years to decompose! Yes, 400 to 1,000 years.

It takes over 17 million barrels of oil each year to make these one-time use bottles – that’s enough fuel for 1.3 million cars annually or to power 190,000 homes annually. And it takes 3 times the amount of water to produce a plastic bottle than it does to fill it. And be used one time. And been thrown out.

If one were to drink the recommended 8 glasses of water a day, at typical U.S. tap rates, the cost would be less than $100 per year. In bottled water costs, that would run you around $1,400!!! That would pay for a nice vacation instead!

Many people drink bottled water because they believe it to be of higher quality, cleaner, or better tasting. But that’s not necessarily true. Aquafina and Dasani (which combine to hold almost 25% of the bottled water market) both bottle purified municipal water. Municipal water is highly regulated and results are available to the public. Bottled water results are not made public. You can purify your own municipal tap water with a filtered water pitcher and save thousands of dollars each year for you and your family and feel safer about the quality of your drinking water.