Undaunted, WaterWired Tackles Another Infographic: '10 Reasons To Drink Tap Water'

Given my recent history with infographics (see here and here), you're probably wondering about the wisdom of this post, but I figured, 'Why not?'

However, I will take a look at some of the numbers after you view the infographic (click to enlarge).

Here is a PDF of the infographic: Download Ten_Reasons_to_Drink_Tap 

At the very beginning there was a slight mystery. The copy I received had a URL from the City of Santa Monica and that is the infographic shown below, identical to the one on  the TapIt site.

When I went to Eric Harvey's site (URL on the bottom of the poster) the infographic there says that 60% of bottled water is repackaged tap water. 

Hmmm...Time to check things out.

This site says that in 1999, the percentage was 25%. Elizabeth Royte, in her excellent book Bottlemania, says (p. 38) that in 2006 the percentage was 44%. I found the same 44% figure in a paper by Gleick and Cooley. So I believe that 50% is certainly a reasonable number and 60% does not seem outside the realm of possibility.

Royte makes a a very good point about bottled water that is derived from tap water: it's not 'just tap', as it is often filtered to the nth degree (p. 38). So to call such bottled water simply 'repackaged tap water' is somewhat disingenuous. It's generally more that just 'repackaged'. 

The 17 million barrels of oil figure (Item 5) is disputed by the IBWA,which claims that the source of that figure is unclear. I examined a few PPTs in my collection; one had that same figure without any citation. But Gleick and Cooley's numbers (page 3) suggest that 17 million barrels of oil for US bottles is on target: 50 million barrels globally, and the US is one-third of that (2007 figures). If you wish to consider the total energy footprint of bottled water in the US then the amount of oil required (bottle production, shipping, etc.) increases to between 32 and 54 million barrels of oil.

Whew....okay, I'm done for now.

Next!

Stay tuned!

"I have been instrumental in banning bottled waer on the set. It hasn't gone well with the crew...so I replaced it with tequila." - Hugh Laurie

Comments

[Bill Zachmann]

Hello 'Aqua Doc',

I have nothing quantitative to add to the various metrics you post about the absolutely ludicrous practice of bottling way more water than our societies need to. My note is simple,'keep up the informative good work' since even if the numbers are off by 10% or 20% or even up to 50%, 1/2 of any of the numbers above is still at least 1/2 too much of our resources for this for the most part unnessary industry and consumer practice. I do feel that in some circumstances there are legitimate needs and reasons to have bottled water, but maybe in larger vessels than 8 or 12 oz containers (hurricane relief, for example), unless on-site large scale, package purification plants can quicly come on line). Otherwise, we need to keep getting the message out there, and rest assured that some enlightened folk get it, like those at a very large and extravagant wedding party I went to last weekend: We all did fine by holding up our drinking glasses and/or plastic cups (darn) up to big, chilled, gravity flow urns of water, no plastic bottles were on site. Nice!