Friends of Gualala River Protecting the Gualala River watershed and the species living within it
Quick facts about bottled water versus
cleaning up the drinking water supply
- Members of the United Nations estimate that if the world took half of what it currently spends on bottled water ($100 billion annually) and invested it in water infrastructure and treatment, everyone in the world could have access to clean drinking water.
- But bottled water is cleaner, right? Actually, the U.S. EPA sets more stringent quality standards for tap water than the FDA does for bottled beverages, and roughly 40% of bottled water is actually just tap water.
- 1.5 billion barrels of oil are consumed each year to produce the plastic for water bottles, enough to fuel 100,000 cars.
- According to the Container Recycling Institute, only 14 percent of plastic water bottles are recycled.
- A water bottle in a landfill or lying around as litter will take over 1,000 years to biodegrade.
More info:
organicconsumers.org/foodsafety/Bottled020606.cfm
