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Better-Than-Bottled™
The Better-Than-Bottled Campaign was started by GNS/Mermaid in the Summer of 2009 in order to raise awareness on the impacts of bottled water on the environment and your health.
Below is a list of facts about bottled water you should know. Rollover an icon to learn!
Every day 60 MILLION plastic water bottles are tossed in the trash and sent to the landfill (NOT recycled).
The PET plastic used to make plastic water bottles takes 400 to 1000 YEARS to degrade.
Bottling water takes more than 2.5 MILLION TONS of carbon dioxide per year (2006).
1000 times more energy is used to make bottled water than is used to produce the same amount of R.O. water
Millions of gallons of fuel are wasted daily transporting filtered tap water (i.e. bottled water) around the world.
A REVERSE OSMOSIS drinking water system pays for itself in less than 2 years (based on the average family's bottled water expenses).
17 million barrels of oil are used in the production of PET water bottles ever year (University of Louisville study).
86% of the 30 billion PET water bottles sold annually are tossed in the trash (therefore ONLY 14% are actually recycled! - the rest are sent to the landfill).
The U.S. makes up for about 25% of the world's bottled water consumption.
It takes 3 liters of water to produce 1 liter of bottled water (2006).
Total consumer expenditures for bottled water are approximately $100 billion per year.
Bottled water usage increases by 9 to 10 percent annually.
If you drink water from plastic bottles, you have a high probability of drinking estrogenic compounds (Dr. Martin Wagner, Ecotoxicologist, Goethe University in Frankfurt).
Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) is the most common measure of water purity. The average TDS level of bottled spring water is around 100ppm while RO water is usually between 0ppm and 10ppm. (Completely pure water has a TDS of 0ppm.)
The B-T-B Blog
Welcome to the Better-Than-Bottled™ Blog! Here you will find information on the environmental impacts of bottled water in the form of articles, fun facts, photos, etc. Send us your input and findings to BTB@gnsmermaid.com or follow us on facebook!