International Bottled Water Association Wants Us to Think that Bottled Water Isn’t SO Bad (Even Though It Is!)

In an attempt to counter attacks that bottled water is wasteful, the International Bottled Water Association recently came out with their very own study to see how much water actually goes into making one liter of bottled water.

The result? It takes approximately 1.39 liters of water to make one liter of bottled water at North American bottled water companies.

According to NPR, this is less than the average for a liter of soda that requires 2.02 liters of water, a liter of beer, which requires 4 liters, wine that needs 4.74 liters, and hard alcohol that uses up to 34.55 liters of water.

“Bottled water products are extremely efficient in terms of water use compared to some other packaged beverages,” said Chris Hogan, spokesman for the International Bottled Water Association, to NPR.

So bottled water isn’t SO bad, right?

Um, not quite.

The association’s study doesn’t factor other water usage into the equation including what it uses for the supply chain and packaging.

Plus, bottled water is generally less sustainable than tap sources – environmentally and economically. Here’s why:

• Tap is much cheaper than bottled water at about a penny a gallon versus up to $10 per gallon for bottled water, and about 40 percent of bottled water is taken from tap anyways so you’re just paying a ridiculous price for something that comes from your kitchen sink.
• Plastic water bottles are not biodegradable and about 86 percent of them end up in our landfills.
• Over 1.5 million barrels of oil are used to manufacture plastic bottles every year, many of which are obviously used by the bottled water industry.

Sorry bottled water companies, you’re not fooling us.

Interested in finding out more about the true price of bottled water? Check out our article examining this issue right here.

Image source: Keoni Cabral/ Flickr