Bottled Water Leaves A Bad Taste

By Adam Valvasori - Values Manager

Photo: Heath Missen The Age

As of today we've stopped selling bottled water in our Head Office's Restaurant.

The raw materials consumed to manufacture plastic bottles; the energy consumed to put water in the bottles; the energy consumed to store and transport water bottles to customers and the fact that the majority of water bottles end up in landfill is unacceptable.

The numbers quoted in this article in The Age include:

• 300 million litres of bottled water will be consumed in Australia in 2008 and it is expected to grow next year
  
• Each 1 litre bottle requires 200ml of oil to produce and transport from manufacturer to customer
  
• 544,000 barrels of oil will be consumed in producing and transporting bottled water in Australia this year creating 72,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions
  
• The cost to manufacture and transport 1 tonne of bottled water is $3,000
  
• The average cost to purify and pump 1 tonne of tap water in Sydney is $1.20 65% of water bottles end up in landfill
  

We are also encouraging all The Body Shop staff to likewise, ban bottled water from their stores and replace it with filtered tap water. If you've got 12 minutes spare, and you're passionate about this issue, check out this satirical but very revealing investigation into the bottled water industry by US comedians Penn & Teller - The Truth About Bottled Water.




~ Adam