Besides the sheer insanity of transporting bottled water across the globe and apart from the trail of fossil fuels burned and greenhouse gases emitted, it takes 1.5 million barrels of oil (some of which, of course, comes from the Middle East and therefore helps props up autocratic regimes) a year just to make the plastic water bottles Americans use, according to the Earth Policy Institute in Washington, plus countless barrels to transport it from as far as Fiji and refrigerate it.
Did you ever wonder where all those millions water bottles go once we discard them? Many end up in the largest landfill on earth: the Pacific Ocean. Consequently, we've created the planet's largest known floating garbage dump, affectionately called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Well, actually there's two. The Eastern Garbage Patch floats between Hawaii and California; scientists estimate its size as two times bigger than Texas! The Western Garbage Patch forms east of Japan and west of Hawaii.
Of course, this has a serious impact on the environment. Photographer Chris Jordan recently took a trip to one of the garbage patches and documented dozens of dead albatrosses which had their bellies full of plastic garbage.
More pics here.
I think many people simply assume that bottled water is purer than tap water. Not necessarily. 20/20 did an interesting experiment:
To sum up, bottled water is not only bad for the environment, but most people can't tell the difference between bottled and tap water. As for me, I've been using a Brita pitcher for years and years and I have a glass at work that I fill with tap from the fountain or a water purifying machine. Will I be eliminating all bottled water? Well, not completely (I'll buy a bottle if I'm away from home, for example), but I will certainly limit it quite a bit.
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