Motives for Decreasing Consumption of Bottled Water in our Workplace

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Waste Associated with Bottled Water Consumption.

 Plastic Bottles, Landfill Deposits, Fossil Fuels 

Exposure to Plastics associated with Bottled Water Consumption.

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Reduced Quality of Bottled Water compared to Local Tap Water.

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Inferior Regulation of Bottled Water compared to Tap Water.

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Expense of Bottled Water compared to Tap Water.

These Items will be discussed in detail throughout this presentation.

Plastic Bottle Production Issues

Americans purchased 8.8 Billion Gallons of Bottled Water in 2007 (Responsible Purchasing Network, 2009).

   “Nearly 50 billion new PET (polyethylene terephthalate) plastic bottles were produced in 2005 from virgin rather than recycled materials” (Responsible Purchasing Network, 2009).

Making plastic bottles for bottled water uses 2.7 million tons of plastic each year (Arnold & Larsen, 2006).

The production of bottles for U.S. bottled water consumption, “requires more than 17 million barrels of oil annually , enough to fuel more than 1 million U.S. cars for a year” (Arnold & Larsen, 2006).

Plastic Bottle Disposal Issues

   According to Arnold and Larsen (2006), post disposal incineration of used water bottles “produces toxic byproducts such as chlorine gas and ash containing heavy metals”. A study by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (2009) found that “three-quarters of the water bottles produced in the United States in 2006 were discarded into landfills and not recycled ”.

When water bottles end up buried in landfills, they can take up to 1,000 years to biodegrade (Arnold & Larsen, 2006).

Environmental Impact of the Transportation of Bottled Water

  Unlike tap water, “which is distributed through an energy-efficient infrastructure”, the distribution of bottled water requires the consumption of fossil fuels during transportation by boat, train and truck (Arnold & Larsen, 2006).

These transportation costs increase when bottled water is transported internationally . According to Arnold and Larsen (2009), “nearly a quarter of all bottled water crosses national borders to reach consumers”.

DEHP and Plastic Bottles

    DEHP is an organic compound that is commonly used to make plastic water bottles (U.S. Government Accountability Office , 2007).

According to the Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry (2007), human exposure to DEHP can occur through DEHP leaching from manufacturing companies, DEHP presence and leaching from landfills and handling DEHP containing products.

DEHP is an expected human carcinogen (Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry, 2007).

According to the Government Accountability Office (2007), the “ FDA deferred action on DEHP in a final rule published in 1996, and has yet to either adopt a standard or publish a reason for not doing so, even though FDA's statutory deadline for acting on DEHP was more than 15 years ago”.

Xenoestrogens and Plastic Bottles

   A study performed by Wagner and Oehlmann (2009), showed that 60% of their tested bottled water samples were contaminated with xenoestrogens .

The authors determined that the xenoestrogen contamination “partly originated from compounds leaching from the plastic packaging material” (Wagner & Oehlmann, 2009). According to an article by Wozniak and Murias (2008), xenoestrogens disrupt normal endocrine activities because they “can mimic the activity of endogenous estrogens, antagonize their interaction with estrogen receptors or disrupt the synthesis, metabolism and functions of endogenous female hormones”.

Water Quality Differences

Tap Water

 Under EPA regulations , municipal water companies must “annually provide consumer confidence reports that summarize local drinking water quality information about the water's sources, detected contaminants, and compliance with national primary drinking water regulations” (U.S. Government Accountability Office, 2009).

Bottled Water

  Under FDA regulations , as opposed to the EPA regulations, bottled water companies do not have to provide information on water quality (U.S. Government Accountability Office, 2009).

Additionally, the FDA does not have the “authority to require bottlers to use certified laboratories for water quality tests or to report test results, even if violations of the standards are found” (U.S. Government Accountability Office, 2009).

Different Regulations in Regards to Water Testing

Source Bottled Water Regulation

Regulated by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration).

Confirmed E. Coli & Fecal Coliform Banned?

NO

Must Report Violations to the State and Federal Government?

NO

Must Test for Cryptosporidium , Giardia, Viruses?

Must Use Certified Labs for Testing?

NO NO

Tap Water

Regulated by the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) and State and Local Governments.

YES YES YES YES This table was produced using data from the Earth Policy Institute (2009).

Expense

Bottled water is much more expensive than Tap water.

   For example, “in California average tap water costs about $1.60 per thousand gallons (about one tenth of a cent per gallon), while it has been reported that average bottled water costs about $0.90 per gallon -- a 560 fold difference ” (Natural Resource Defense Counsel, 1999) .

In our company of 5,000 people, if we consume on average 0.2 gallons of bottled water per day per person at 0.90 per gallon, this equates to $900 a day or $234 thousand a year (assuming 260 workdays per year).

However, if everyone at corporate center switched to drinking tap water the yearly cost would be reduced to $418 (assuming at 560 fold cost savings).

Path Forward

   Currently our company has a program that supplies bottled water to all employees working at the Corporate Center. In order to reduce bottled water consumption, this program will be terminated.

Additionally, the company requests that employees that currently consume bottled water switch to tap water based on all the bottled water concerns sited throughout this presentation.

To assist with the transition to tap water the company will be upgrading the Corporate Center water fountains and supplying one reusable water container to all employees.

References

Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (2007). Public Health Statement for DEHP. Retrieved from: http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxprofiles/phs9.html

Arnold, E, Larsen, J (2006). Bottled Water: Pouring Resources Down the Drain. Earth Policy Institute. Retrieved from: http://www.earth-policy.org/index.php?/plan_b_updates/2006/update51 Earth Policy Institute (2009). Food and Agriculture: Data Center. Retrieved from: http://www.earth policy.org/index.php?/data_center/C24/ Natural Resource Defense Counsel (1999). Bottled Water: Pure Drink or Pure Hype? Retrieved January 27, 2010 from: http://www.nrdc.org/water/drinking/bw/bwinx.asp

Responsible Purchasing Network (2009). Think Outside the Bottle Campaign. Bottled Water Overview. Retrieved January 27, 2010 from: http://www.responsiblepurchasing.org/purchasing_guides/bottled_water/ U.S. Government Accountability Office (2009). Bottled Water: FDA Safety and Consumer Protections are Often Less Stringent Than Comparable EPA Protections for Tap Water. GAO-09-86IT. Retrieved from: http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-09-861T Wagner, M, Oehlmann, J (2008). Endocrine disruptors in bottled mineral water: total estrogenic burden and migration from plastic bottles. Environmental Science and Pollution Research. Volume 16:3, p276-286. Retrieved from: http://www.springerlink.com/content/515wg76276q18115/ Wozniak, M, Murias, M (2008). Xenoestrogens: endocrine disrupting compounds. Ginekol Pol. Vol 79(11):785 790. Retrieved from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19140503