Why would we drink water from a plastic bottle when it can cost around 2,000 times the cost of tap water? Yet numerous studies have found bottled water samples to be no healthier to drink than tap water. On top of that bottled water 
pollutes our earth’s environment through the manufacture, distribution and disposal of billions of plastic bottles each year. If that’s not enough, there is increasing evidence showing that leaching may be occurring into water from a widely used type of plastic bottle.
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In recent years it seems many have become obsessed with consuming water from a bottle. Is it because those drinking it regard water from a bottle to be safer than water from a tap?
Bottled water advertising drives bottled water consumption often using pure and natural images linked to notions of green and sustainable consumption.
Yet what are the facts and why are we doing it?
There appears to be little hard data about New Zealand consumption and processes around bottled water, but it seems we may well consume more than 40 million litres per year. However consumption patterns in the US are not dissimilar to those in New Zealand.
Here is some startling data from the USA using figures from 2004:
26 billion litres consumed or 28 billion plastic bottles.
That’s equal to 1,500 consumed every second.
40 percent of bottled water comes straight from municipal supplies (estimated by the US Natural Resources Defense Council)
86% of the plastic bottles end up as disposable rubbish, taking hundreds of years to biodegrade.
28 billion plastic bottles requires 17 million barrels of oil to produce.
The production of 28 billion plastic bottles generates 2.5 million tons of carbon dioxide.
One hundred billion dollars per year are spent by consumers on bottled water.
It is estimated that a fraction of this amount could create safe drinking water and proper sanitation for the world.
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