Tapped and Bottled

  • Tapped (the documentary)
  • Americans bought more than 29 billion bottles of water in 2007. (International Bottled Water Association)
  • There was a total of 11.7 billion dollars in sales in the year 2007 from bottled water. (The New York Times)
  • 75% of the earth’s surface is covered with water and less than 3% of that is drinkable. (Water and Waste Water International)
  • Every day, Nestle, Coke and Pepsi pump hundreds and thousands of water from earth, bottle it and sell it back to us for 1900 times the cost we pay to get it from our faucet. (Environmental Working Group)
  • 40% of bottled water is just filtered tap water. (The Metro West Daily News)
  • 60 – 70% of all bottled water is purchased within state lines (NRDC)
  • In 2007, the US consumed 8.823 million gallons of water. (Beverage Marketing Corporation)
  • From 1995 – 2005, the number of PET bottles in landfills skyrocketed from 1,175 million to 3,900 million pounds. (CRI)
  • If bottled water were covered under just 11 state bottle bills currently granting 5-10 cent refunds on returned soda bottles, the PET plastic waste could drop three fold or more nationally. (CRI)
  • By the year 2030, two thirds of the world will lack access to clean water. (Foresight Institute)
  • The Natural Resources Defense Council tested more than 1000 bottles of 103 brands of water and found about one-third of the waters tested contained levels of contamination — including synthetic organic chemicals, bacteria, and arsenic — in at least one sample that exceeded allowable limits under either state or bottled water industry standards or guidelines. (NRDC)
  • People spend from 240 to over 10,000 times more per gallon for bottled water than they typically do for tap water. (NRDC)
  • In 2006, the equivalent of 2 billion half-liter bottles of water were shipped to U.S. ports, creating thousands of tons of global warming pollution and other air pollution. (Lighter Footstep)
  • Estimates variously place worldwide bottled water sales at between $50 and $100 billion each year, with the market expanding at the startling annual rate of 7 percent. (Lighter Footstep)
  • Making bottles to meet Americans’ demand for bottled water requires more than 1.5 million barrels of oil annually, enough to fuel some 100,000 U.S. cars for year. (Frankly Green)
  • Buried water bottles can take up to 1,000 years to biodegrade. (Water Industry News)
  • If everyone in New York City were to use a reusable water bottle for one week, for one month, or for one year it would make a significant difference in reducing waste.
    • One week = 24 million bottles saved
    • One month = 112 million bottles saved
    • One year = 1.328 billion bottles saved (Frankly Green)