3 Reasons Bottled Water Contributes to Global Warming and Should Be Banned From Sale

Americans are consuming more bottled water than ever – drinking some 9.67 billion gallons in 2012 alone according to an International Bottled Water Association – and this comes at a time when there is growing evidence that the recyclable plastic bottles the water is packaged in is contributing directly to global warming. This evidence is leading local governments in the U.S. and Canada to consider banning bottled water from sale.

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Here are three reasons how bottle water contributes to global warming:

1. Production of Plastic Bottles is Oil and Water Dependent

According to the Pacific Institute, the production of the recyclable plastic bottles the water comes in requires 17 million barrels of oil to make. That's enough oil to fuel more than 1 million U.S. cars per year. It also takes water to bottle water, requiring manufacturers to use about 3 liters of water for every liter of bottled water produced.

"Among the most significant concerns are the resources required to produce the plastic bottles and to deliver filled bottles to consumers, including both energy and water," the Pacific Institute stated on its website.

2. Transportation Costs in Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Once the bottles are manufactured they need to be distributed, and doing so contributes to burning more fossil fuels and greenhouse gas emission cost.

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"Bottled water companies are wasting resources and exacerbating climate change. Transport is the fastest growing source of greenhouse gas emissions, and transporting water adds to that. We could help reduce these damaging effects if we all simply drank water straight from the tap," Michael Warhurst, a senior waste campaigner for Friends of the Earth, told the UK's Independent Newspaper.

3. Bottles are Also Source of Pollution

After you drink from a plastic bottle and throw it away what happens? According to The Water Project, "it takes over 1,000 years to bio-degrade and if incinerated, they produce toxic fumes. It is estimated that over 80 percent of all single-use water bottles used in the U.S. simply become litter."

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