50 things you should know

1. Bottled water manufacturing is the world’s fastest growing industry. (WW)
2. 40 billion litres of water are packaged yearly by the bottled water industry. 1.9 million litres are used in Canada alone. (MW)
3. In the United States, bottled water sales have nearly overtaken all other categories of the commercial beverage industry. (NYT)
4. The plastic most commonly used to make the bottles is polyethylene terepthalate (PET), which is derived from crude oil. (CUPE)
5. A study conducted by the Berkeley Ecology Center found that manufacturing PET “generates more than 100 times the toxic emissions —in the form of nickel, ethylbenzene, ethylene oxide and benzene —compared to making the same amount of glass.” (MW)
6. Making bottles to meet the demand for bottled water in the United States requires more than 1.5 million barrels of oil annually. That’s enough to fuel 100,000 U.S. cars for a year. (CUPE)
7. The energy used to make bottled water in Canada is enough to power 190,000 homes. (CUPE)
8. If you fill a water bottle ¼ of the way with oil, that’s how much oil was used to bring that bottle to you. (TAP)
9. 12 million barrels of oil are used every year in worldwide bottled water manufacturing. (CUPE)



10. The recylcing rate for PET bottles in the United States, including pop bottles, is only 23.1%. (TAP)
11. Global consumption of bottled water more than doubled between 1997 and 2005. (WW)
12. Global consumption equals 164.5 billion liters annually or 25.5 litres for everyone on earth. (WW)
13. 30% of Canadian households consumed bottled water in 2006. (CBC)
14. Canadians drank an average of 24.4 litres each in 1999. That number rose to 60 litres in 2005. (CBC)
15. The bottled water industry is one of the most polluting and one of the least regulated industries on earth. (COM)
16. In Canada, local water supplies are inspected daily. Bottled-water plants are inspected every three-years. (CBC)
17. Regulation of bottled water producers done on a volunteer basis is overseen by the industry. (MW)
18. Considered safe only when used once, re-used plastic water bottles can leach chemicals such as DEHA, a possible human carcinogen, and benzyl butyl phthalate (BBP), a potential hormone disrupter. Leaching is exacerbated when the plastic is stored at room temperature or warmer. (CUPE)
19. 90% of bottled waters contain the suspected carcinogen antimony trioxide, a product listed as a priority pollutant by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the European Union, and the German Research Foundation. (MW)
20. A study by a Washington-based environmental working group, featured in the Los Angeles Times, found that 10 brands of commercially available bottled water were contaminated with unacceptable levels of bacteria and 38 chemicals including caffeine, the pain reliever acetaminophen, fertilizer, solvents, plastic ingredients, and the radioactive element strontium. (LAT)



21. The U.S. FDA has exempted bottled water manufacturers from regulating these and many other potential contaminants, including for cross border sale. (MW)
22. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has issued 29 separate recalls of 49 bottled water products since 2000. These products contained unacceptable levels of mold and coliform bacteria, chemical contaminants such as arsenic, and “extraneous material,” including glass. (POL)
23. Researchers in Frankfurt, Germany have found evidence that commercially available mineral waters often contain estrogenic compounds, which are leaching out of the plastic packaging into the water. Low-dose exposure to these chemicals may interact with hormone receptors and interfere with reproduction and other hormonally mediated processes. (Estro)
24. Ozonation is the chemical process used by bottled water manufacturers to kill bacteria and biofilm in new or recycled bottles. It generally works under optimal conditions, however, the process can fail if the bottle is opened or stored in a warm location, such as a vehicle. (MW)
25. One University of Winnipeg study found traces of lead in several brands of commercially available bottled water in Canada. Lead is a neurotoxin responsible for the most common form of human toxicosis. Even low levels of lead contamination can hinder the mental development of children. (MW)



26. Current regulations in Canada do not set any chemical or radiological standards for bottled water. (MW)
27. Studies show that people associate bottled water with healthy living. (EPI)
28. 2.7 million tons of plastic are used to bottle water every year. (EPI)
29. About 25% of all bottled water is consumed outside its country of origin. Transporting bottled water creates greenhouse gases and contributes to global climate change. Between 90 and 1,000 times more carbon dioxide is used to bottle and transport water than to deliver an equal volume of tap water to homes. (TOL)
30. The bottles themselves are also a major cause of pollution. Sixty million are disposed of every year in the U.S. alone. Only one in six bottles make it to the recycling bin. (CUPE)
31. More than 90% of the environmental impacts from a plastic bottle happen before the bottle is opened. (CUPE)
32. About 86% of all disposable water bottles become garbage or litter. (CUPE)
33. Toronto consumes an estimated 100 million plastic bottles a year, of which 35% are not recycled. (ICLEI)
34. The rest of Ontario recycled only 35% of disposable plastic water bottle, one of the lowest rates in the country. (MW)



35. In 2004, almost 40% of plastic bottles deposited for recycling in the United States were exported, sometimes as far away as China. (EPI)
36. Incinerating used bottles produces toxic byproducts such as chlorine and toxic ash containing heavy metals. (EPI)
37. It takes three times as much water to make a bottle than it does to fill one. (CUPE).
38. It takes anywhere from 400 to 1,000 years for one plastic bottle to biodegrade. (TAP)
39. While plastic bottles are breaking down they often release toxic chemicals such as phthalates, which can leak into groundwater. (MW)
40. The American bottled water industry produces 2.5 million tons of carbon emissions every year. (TAP)
41. For every tonne of PET manufactured, 3 tonnes of carbon dioxide are produced. One ton of carbon dioxide is equivalent in volume to six double-decker buses, meaning that for every ton of PET produced, the volume of CO2 byproduct would fill 18 double-decker buses. (On Tap)
42. It is estimated that the cost of producing bottled water is as much as 2,000 times higher than tap water. (MW)
43. The average Canadian family spends $15 per month on bottled water and $180 annually. (MW)
44. If you drink the recommended eight glasses of water per day you will spend roughly $1,400 per year on bottled water. (NYT)
45. Bottled water costs more than gasoline. (CUPE)
46. As much as 40% of all bottle water comes from city water systems, just like tap water. (TAP)
47. Locally purchased Dasani bottled water comes from the tap in Brampton, Ontario, a city that draws its water from Lake Ontario. (CBC)
48. Locally purchased Aquafina brand bottled water comes from a tap in Mississauga, Ontario, which also draws its water from Lake Ontario. (CBC2)
49. Nestlé’s Aberfoyle Springs is taken from the Wellington County public water supply, the same aquifer than Guelph tap water is drawn from. (WWW)
50. The UN Millennium Development goals for environmental sustainability call for halving the proportion of people lacking sustainable access to safe drinking water by 2015. This would cost an estimated $15 billion. $100 billion is spent each year on bottled water. (EPI)

(WW) World Watch Institute – http://www.worldwatch.org/node/5475

(MW) Murky Waters – A polaris institute publication available on their website.

(NYT) New York Times Website – Topics: Bottled Water: http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/subjects/w/water/bottled_water/index.html

(CUPE) Canadian Union of Public Employees, New Brunswick. They have a website section called ” Facts about bottled Water:”
http://nb.cupe.ca/privatization/the-facts-about-bottled-water

(TAP) Tappening, an anti-bottled water media group. The information is from their website: www.tappening.com

*** (LAT) Los Angeles Times Article which has since been removed. Another, which provides virtually the same information can be found here: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2008/10/bottled-water-n.html in light of this, I would recommend changing the text of # 20 from ” 38 chemicals including caffeine, the pain reliever acetaminophen,fertilizer, solvents, plastic ingredients, and the radioactive element strontium” to “38 low-level contaminants turned up in the water, with each brand containing an average of eight chemicals. Disinfection products, caffeine, Tylenol, nitrate, industrial chemicals, arsenic and bacteria were detected, ” a direct quote, in line with their updated story. It’s actually even more damning.

(TOL) Council of Canadians Website. Not sure why I called it “TOL.”

(COM) Council of Canadians Publication – “The Commons,” available on their site.

(POL) The Polaris Institute website.

(CBC+ CBC2) Various Canadian Broadcasting Center web articles, all archived on their site.

(ESTRO) I could not locate the original document. However, it is a widely cited study and another example put out by the Discovery channel can be found at: http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/04/28/water-bottles-health.html

(EPI) Earth Policy Institute: http://www.earth-policy.org/

(On Tap) London on Tap: www.lodonontap.org

(ICLEI) CBC article. Admittedly, I am not sure why I named it ICLEI but here it is : http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/consumers/bottled-water.html

(WWW) Interview with Wellington Water Watchers Board Members James Gordon and Mike Nagy.