Sixty million plastic water bottles are thrown away by Americans every day and about 86% of empty plastic water bottles end up in US landfills instead of being recycled. It’s estimated that plastic water bottles take around 450 years to decompose.
According to Food & Water Watch (www.foodandwaterwatch.org), bottled water production uses up to 2,000 times more energy than tap water production. Companies must source the water (often depleting groundwater sources while paying next to nothing), manufacture the bottles (from petroleum-based chemicals), and then ship their brands far and wide in trucks, trains, and boats (running on fossil fuels).
If that’s not bad enough, bottled water, regulated by the FDA, is subject to weaker regulations than tap water, which is regulated by the EPA. Bottled water is more likely to contain contaminants, including microplastics, which have been linked to cancers and hormone disruption.
From an environmental justice perspective, water is a vital resource that should remain safe and accessible to all. Bottled water moves this resource into corporate hands for profit. And profit they do: Bottled water can be anywhere between 240 and 10,000 times more expensive than tap water depending on the type of bottled water purchased
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