In the first three years of this decade, the planet’s thirsty consumers drank over 500 million litres of bottled water, according to the International Council of Bottled Water Associations. That’s a whole lot of plastic bottles. In fact, the World Wildlife Fund says the industry generates 1.5 million tons of plastic a year.
Even the best recycling programs won’t be able to make that disappear and those of us who are currently watching a winter’s worth of snow melt are surrounded by appalling reminders that most of those bottles don’t even make it to a garbage can.
If you’re concerned about the quality of the water in your taps and, granted, it’s a fair concern consider instead the many alternatives. You can have clean water without the disposable plastic. A filter system for your tap, or a filter jug in your fridge, is cheaper than buying bottled water and much, much greener.