World renowned water expert Peter Gleick has a new book – released in May 2010 – outlining the scientific evidence that bottled water use in the U.S. has become unsustainable. The book is called Bottled and Sold: The Story Behind our Obsession with Bottled Water.
Peter Gleick: Twenty five years ago in the United States, each American probably drank a gallon of bottled water a year, on average. Today it’s up to 30.
Gleick told EarthSky that – every second in the U.S. – we consume about 1,000 bottles of water. He spoke of the tremendous amount of fuel burned in order to make and transport these bottles, most of which ultimately end up in a landfill.
Peter Gleick: We did an estimate at the Pacific Institute that if you calculate the energy requirement of making all of the bottles that are consumed the United States in a year, it’s on the order of 17 or 18 million barrels of oil equivalent.
He said there are lesser known environmental impacts of bottled water – such as groundwater depletion. He talked about visiting a bottled water facility in California.
Peter Gleick: It turns out that the source of that water is a desert spring up in a remote canyon in the deserts near Palm Springs. The more water you take out, the less water you have for flow in the springs, the less the rare desert ecosystems have to survive. And that sort of problem is being repeated around the country.
And around the world. He said the global consumption of bottled water is about 40 billion gallons a year. But that’s not his biggest concern.
Peter Gleick: Probably my biggest concern is that I believe very strongly that water is a human right. There are a billion people worldwide today that don’t have access to safe tap water. The solution is not bottled water. The solution is developing high quality public water systems that can provide inexpensive water for everyone.
He spoke of public versus private control of water systems.
Peter Gleick:And it does raise this question about public versus private control. I believe that water ought to be available to the public. We have an incredible tap water system that’s been built and operated and owned by the public. I think that’s a good model for the rest of the world, but we don’t see it yet.
His scientific opinion is that tap water in the United States is, generally, excellent. In fact, he added, about 45% of bottled water is filtered municipal water.
Peter Gleick: American tap water is carefully monitored. It’s carefully regulated. But I’d be the first to argue that it ought to be better. There are places in the United States where people don’t have safe drinking water, mostly in rural areas where wells aren’t monitored by municipal agencies or federal agencies.
He said our Safe Drinking Water Act is outdated, and that our water-treatment technology needs to be upgraded. But all of those things can be done at a far lower cost than providing bottled water, which often isn’t monitored as carefully as our tap water. The first step, he believes, is to maintain and expand a state-of-the-art tap water system.
Peter Gleick: It’s the cheapest, most equitable, most environmentally sound solution. I think if we did that – if we restored confidence in our tap water – bottled water sales would drop.
the way to restore confidence is to take out sodium flouride and all the other toxins that are in most of the country’s tap water. no i don’t agree with using plastics that leak estrogen mimicking chemicals into the liquids we drink and fill up our landfills, but i think it’s asinine to attempt to take away some peoples only escape from the chemicals in drinking water in the name of saving our planet from global warming, which is a scam to tax and control every aspect of our lives. the people who will benefit from climate legislation are the oil companies, and all the mega-corporations and central banks that control the governments of the world. it’s all about power. if the big environmentalist groups cared about the earth they would be screaming about genetically modified organisms.
Great point about the fluoride!
I asked Dr. Gleick about it — that, and chlorine. For the most part, you can boil chlorine out of water. And, you can filter fluoride out (and also risk rotting teeth, Gleick mentioned).
PK, his general thought was this: better for people to get filters and demand high quality municipal water across the globe than have everyone clamor for the bottled stuff, 50% of which is filtered municipal water with some minerals added back in!
Consider listening to the 8 minute piece — hope you enjoy.
Best,
Beth
Whenever I go hiking or bicycling, or engage in out-of-home activity, I take along my stainless steel water bottle. Of course, if we really want to become more resourceful and to develope a more sustainable lifestyle, we can always choose to make better use of those old-fasioned inventions called drinking fountains and canteens. Or we can even choose to REUSE a modern-day plastic bottle. Obviously, not enough people are interested, even though reducing the mountains upon mountains upon mountains of toxic waste would greatly benefit the health and well being of the planet Earth and the human community.
Yet another neo-Marxist environmental mothering article that claims government to be the answer to something else. *sigh*
bruce…totally. dr. gleick made the point also that there are fewer and fewer drinking fountains around.
small g, i appreciated your comment, but water drinkers — and i have a feeling you are one of them — are, for the most part, stuck. either they’re drinking government regulated water from the tap, or drinking government regulated water from the bottle.
So the answer is less government regulation!
Look, I realize that plastic bottles are a waste, but I will not drink flouride, heavy metal
infested water from the tap. And those additives are mandated by our benevolent governments.
How about using a water filter?
I was told by a friend who has worked for the EPA that municipal water is tested daily and bottled water may not be tested at all.
Jon, your friend is partially right. Bottled water is regulated by the FDA, not the EPA. So it’s tested, but not as stringently. That’s not necessarily good news, because contaminants can show up in bottled water that would not be permitted to show up in municipal water.
As an aside: I am so impressed by the points everyone is raising in response to this piece!!!
Municipal water is definitly more regulated than bottled water. For a better water bottle option you can try BOBBLE! It is a filtered water bottle that can be used over and over again. You can check it out at http://www.waterbobble.com
I love mine!
Beautiful web site!
[...] drehen einfach den Hahn auf und erwarten, dass es da ist. Diese Zeiten sind vorbei.” – Peter H. Gleick, Pacific [...]
I’m late to this discussion, but after having had multiple lab tests that show high levels of phthalates, antimony, and styrenes and other toxins in my blood, it became clear that I had to get rid of the plastic water bottles for starters.
I purchased 4 one-gallon glass water bottles, a few larger five-gallon glass water bottles, and found a source nearby for cheap purified water. I go fill up the bottles when I get low, and pour out of those.
[...] Gleick has been an invaluable resource, and here is a link to a concise summary of his argument against bottled water. LD_AddCustomAttr("AdOpt", "1"); LD_AddCustomAttr("Origin", "other"); [...]