In a bid to increase awareness of the health, environmental and monetary benefits of tap water, Yarra Valley Water launched Be Smart. Choose Tap. To continue in its efforts, the Australian-based utility released a satirical video last October showing why tap is the logical solution over bottled water.
The video went viral this week after it was posted on Upworthy, so we thought it worthy of sharing too.
“Sometimes in Australia we take our quality tap water for granted, we forget that more than a billion people worldwide do not have access to safe drinking water,” said Goulburn Valley Water Managing Director Peter Quinn, whose company recently joined the water initiative.
According to Hydrate Life, here are some of the most significant ways bottled water impacts the U.S.:
- Bottled Water Uses a lot of Oil: Seventeen million barrels of oil are used in the production of plastic water bottles annually in the U.S., which is equivalent to fueling 1 million cars for a year. When considering all that goes into getting bottled water to stores and markets, this number can jump as high as 54 million barrels.
- Bottled Water Creates Tons of Waste: Only one out of five plastic water bottles are recycled, contributing to the 3 billion pounds (or about 1.5 million tons) of plastic bottle waste each year. As a comparison, the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, CA weighs 887,000 tons. Further, PET 1 bottles cannot be cleaned properly and over time can leech plastic components into the water, so it is not recommended that they be reused. PET bottles are highly resistant to biodegradation, and if they’re incinerated, they release toxic fumes.
Visit EcoWatch’s FOOD and GMO pages for more related news on this topic.
